Four years ago, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) underwent a major upheaval and examination of its doctrine. It decided that the beliefs of its founder, Herbert W. Armstrong, were wrong. (The beliefs included rejecting the Trinity as a pagan doctrine, and enforced tithing and seventh-day Sabbath observance as conditions for salvation.) Since its rejection of those beliefs and its embrace of orthodoxy (it is now a member of the National Association of Evangelicals), the WCG leadership has been fighting splinter groups over Armstrong's last book, Mystery of the Ages. The church owns the copyright and (since the book is full of doctrine the church now considers heresy) doesn't want the book disseminated. But the Philadelphia Church of God, which still adheres to Armstrong's teachings, says it can copy and distribute Mystery of the Ages under fair use copyright law, the First Amendment, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. A federal district court agreed with the splinter group. But last week a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled 2-1 to overturn that decision and forbade the Philadelphia Church of God from copying the book. "Religious, educational and other public interest institutions would suffer if their publications invested with an institution's reputation and goodwill could be freely appropriated by anyone," the majority wrote. ""Having to ask for permission and presumably to pay for the right to use an owner's copyrighted work may be an inconvenience, and perhaps costly, but it cannot be assumed to be as a matter of law a substantial burden on the exercise of religion." The decision is available in both Adobe Acrobat ...