• by Naomi Reiter , February 22, 2008

Are private moments fair game? In the wake of the now infamous media fiesta that is the Tom Cruise Scientology video clip, and the subsequent griping from the Church of Scientology, you might think so.

The Church is known to use copyright-infringement and invasion-of-privacy lawsuits to suppress negative press about the organization. Most lawsuits never see a courtroom, though. A financial behemoth like The Church can intimidate with the threat of extensive legal costs. Though they may not want to risk the public spectacle of opening their affairs to examination in a court.

The Church claims that the Cruise video was stolen and meant only for viewing at insane in-house events. It had its legal team issue a Cease and Desist letter to Gawker — as usual, a main offender. Gawker claims that the video is newsworthy, and that as a public news resource, it is within its legal rights in posting the video.

At press time, no lawsuit was filed, and Gawker maintains that it will not remove the video from its site. Unless Xenu, himself, asks personally and very nicely. Or makes crazy eyes until they are all very scared.