"What's to prevent someone from opening a temple of their own and doing the exact same thing?" - Who'd want to? Who is insane enough to want to?
The CULT must know that it is all over the internet. The secret handshakes are known by so many people that infidels can dneak into the CK now cause they know the handshakes and what to say etc. Do you think they will get new handshakes?
Someone should put an ad in the Trib offering secret handshake lessons so whoever wants to learn them can get into the CK without paying all of that tithing forever.
I can just imagine someone setting up an exhibition at say a state fair doing it (some serious anti-Mormon) . Can you imagine a carnival barker at the Utah State Fair shouting "Step right up, step right up. Eternal marriage $25. Get your own planet in the afterlife $50. Step right up!"
Yes, but they have never actually copyrighted the temple ceremony. To do so they (Intellectual Reserve Inc.) would have to send a copy of the original work to the US Patent Office for filing.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2014 12:38PM by Susan I/S.
The ritual itself is not copyrighted. They probably have a printed script of the ritual in some publication that is copyrighted, but that would only mean that someone else couldn't publish it and claim it as their own work.
Copyright law would not give the church any right to prevent other people from performing the ritual, especially if they were doing it in private.
"In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work."
In the temples that still have the 'actors', the script is on cards that are handed out each shift and then inventoried at the end of the shift and placed under lock and key. If cards are missing, temple presidents are not pleased and will go to great lengths to locate and secure the missing cards.