Recently, two church handbooks were published via the popular site Wikileaks. In what was no doubt a knee-jerk reaction from the lawyers that the church employs and probably not the church leadership, a cease and desist was immediately sent, asking for the material to be taken down.

It seems obvious for anyone who spends time on the Internet that trying to get documents removed from the net is like trying to take the pee out of the pool. You'd have to drain the whole thing - and since you can't drain the Internet you pretty much have to roll with the punches on this one. Sorry guys, that's just the way it is.

For reference, this is how things work in Internet land:

Church: Hmm... We want to keep this document somewhat private
Wikileaks: Hey everyone! Look at this document that Church wants to keep private!
A few geeks: Hey, cool. I'm going to read that.
Church: Woah there! They don't have a right to publish our copyrighted material!
Media: Hey everyone, check out this developing situation!
Everyone: Hey. cool. I'm going to read that.

So as you can see, reacting to the situation is only going to make it worse. It's called the Streisand Effect.

Furthermore, Wikileaks is run by the same guys who run The Pirate Bay. It's hosted in Sweden. Do a little searching on recent attempts to get them to take down material.

Here's an idea. While the handbooks in question didn't contain anything really that bad, why not get people reading a book that you'd actually want them to read? Here's how:

1. Hire someone to publish inspiring talks, scriptures, etc. on Wikileaks. It's not hard - "wiki" means anyone can publish stuff on there.

2. Make a big fuss about them publishing your content. Be sure to invoke the DMCA in your legal demands. This will make your claim even more ridiculous as the DMCA doesn't even apply in Sweden - thus ensuring wider media coverage.

3. Everyone will suddenly want to read your "secret" ;) documents.

Sunday school is so much more exciting when you think you're reading "forbidden" documents!