LifeWise, Inc. is a Christian nonprofit organization that provides released-time religious education to public school students where state law permits. It uses a copyrighted curriculum which it has developed. Last week it filed a copyright infringement suit in an Indiana federal district court against Fort Wayne parent Zachary Parrish who was a creator of a Facebook group and a website opposing use of the LifeWise curriculum. Parrish's website contends that "Lifewise Academy is spreading Evangelical Christianity, Purity Culture, Christian Nationalism, homophobic beliefs, transphobia, and hateful rhetoric to the youngest of our children." The complaint (full text) in LifeWise, Inc. v. Parish, (ND IN, filed 7/2/2024), alleges in part:
30. ... Mr. Parrish signed up online to volunteer for LifeWise.
31. ... Mr. Parrish does not support LifeWise’s mission. Instead, his goal was to gather information and internal documents with the hope of publishing information online which might harm LifeWise’s reputation and galvanize parents to oppose local LifeWise Academy chapters in their communities.
32. ... [A]fter submitting his fraudulent volunteer application, Mr. Parrish improperly gained access to LifeWise’s information storage systems, downloaded internal LifeWise documents, and posted them to his Website. He also improperly obtained and posted a digital copy of the entire LifeWise Curriculum.
33. On April 9, 2024, LifeWise’s attorney sent Mr. Parrish a cease and desist letter informing him of his infringement and requesting he remove LifeWise’s internal documents, which are currently unregistered works, from the Website.
34. Mr. Parrish responded by emailing a meme stating: “it’s called fair use bitch.”
WOSU Public Media and Cleveland.com report on the lawsuit.
