Volume 0, Issue 22 vom 17. 09. 1995
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review
Volume 0, Issue 22
09/17/95
by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com]
copyright 1995
Contents
- Court Victory in Colorado
- Court Victory in Virginia
- The Poodle
- Helena's Replacement
- Protest Stories
- Netherlands Update
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review summarizes the most significant
postings from the Usenet group Alt.religion.scientology for the preceding
week for the benefit of those who can't follow the group as closely as
they'd like. Out of thousands of postings, I attempt to include news of
significant events, new affidavits, court rulings, new contributors,
whatever. I hope you find it useful. Like many readers of a.r.s, I have a
kill file. So please take into consideration that I may not have seen some
of the most significant postings.
The articles in A.r.s Week in Review are brief summaries of the articles.
Many include an excerpt, and all include message IDs for the articles I
cover. This may or may not be useful to you, depending on how long your
site stores articles in the newsgroup before expiring them.
Free A.r.s Week in Review subscriptions are available, just email me at
rkeller@netaxs.com
It is archived at:
http://remarkable.amazing.com/scientology
http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver
http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html
#####
Court Victory in Colorado
A victory this week in the suit against Larry Wollersheim and Bob Penny.
A summary of Judge Kane's ruling from Kim Baker:
"In RTC vs. FACTNet, Judge Kane said that RTC did not prove probability of
success of their case. Equally, RTC did not show the probability of their
claim. FACTNet was entitled to its use of the documents under the fair use
provisions under section 107 of the copyright rules. FACTNet's criticism,
comment and debate qualifies it to fair use of the documents. RTC did not
show infringement, and did not show that their claim of "trade secrets"
was valid. The documents were in the public domain, and were proved to
have been on the Internet long before the August raids. It was not proved
that the "trade secrets" were the kind that are protected under the law.
RTC did not show irreparable injury; any injury they may have does not
outweigh the harm done to Lawrence Wollersheim, Bob Penny and FACTNet. The
actions of the defendants would not restrain individuals from joining
$cientology - if they are interested in participating in $cientology they
would anyway. The question of infringement is answered by the fair use
principles. The public interest is more served in the continuation of
FACTNet. The balance of the danger of harm is in the favor of the
defendants, rather than $cientology.
"All computers and peripherals, along with seized documents, are to be
returned immediately, in precisely the same condition as when seized, and
in precisely the same location when seized."
Message-ID: <m0sslmr-0008n5C@uctmail.uct.ac.za>
#####
Court Victory in Virginia
A victory in Judge Brinkema's court in the case between the cos and Arnie
Lerma. In Patrick Jost's description of the event, JB is Judge Brinkema
and WC is William Cook, a Scientology lawyer.
"JB asked what other words were searched for.
"WC talked about the '3 word' search as done by I-NET and McShane, but
that additional searches were done, but not after they were told not to do
any more.
"JB says she only remembers authorizing a search for the three words.
"JB said a 'search for evidence' was not authorized.
"WC said they tried to comply.
"JB said it was her understanding in ex parte discussions of how the
search was to be done that I-NET was to be the reviewing authority.
"JB said that the search that had been done was not clean.
"JB is concerned about how the seizure was conducted. She talked about 4th
amendment rights. She says ex parte arrangements must be done in good
faith, that the search should have been narrow. She says it was not
conduced in the spirit intended.
"JB said things got out of control, she is concerned about the Church of
Scientology's 'lack of clean hands' in the matter.
"JB does not give the preliminary injunction, vacates the seizure, says
that Arnie Lerma may only quote for 'fair use'.
Message-Id: <199509161449.HAA11800@netcom4.netcom.com>
#####
The Poodle
The CancelPoodle sent out more forged cancel messages this week. Here's an
example of one of them.
"Control: cancel <432tgk$1ehh@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Path: light!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!
netcom.com!aggy
From: clamboy@unc.edu (Clam Boy)
Subject: Re: clamboy sez: Here's Fishman with OT levels!
Message-ID: <aggyDEt1zG.5ux@netcom.com>
Sender: aggy@netcom.netcom.com
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login:
guest)
References: <432tgk$1ehh@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 18:28:27 GMT
Lines: 2
"This posting has been cancelled due to copyright infringement. This
document has been sealed by Federal Court order."
Ron Newman reported that this account has been "handled".
"Margaret at Netcom has informed me that Netcom suspended the account of
aggy@netcom.com (James Parker) as of 9:30 PDT this morning.
"Netcom kills bunnies dead. Don't even think of starting another one
there."
Message-ID: <43749u$ga9@kalypso.cybercom.net>
#####
Helena's Replacement
Helena Kobrin has apparently been replaced as chief legal threat officer
for the cos. J.C.A. Wevers reported this week an email from the address of
a well-known cos lawyer, signed by another.
"From: Kendrick Moxom <moxbart@netcom.com>
"I have been informed that you uploaded a file containing some of these
copyrighted, unpublished materials, in your homepage
http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/fishman.html without the authorization of my
client, who, of course, would not have given such authorization had it
been requested. This action violates my client's legal rights in that it
is the unauthorized making of an electronic copy of the copyrighted
material and the unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets materials.
"We request an immediate confirmation that the materials have been
removed. We would much prefer to resolve this matter with you amicably if
you are willing to do so.
"Very truly yours,
Laurie J. Bartilson
Message-ID: <3055f38c.56554c43414e@vulcan.xs4all.nl>
#####
Protest Stories
In the aftermath of the protests last week, individual accounts and
stories were shared on a.r.s this week. Here are some excerpts. Dean
O'Donnell described the protest in Boston.
"So some scieno got a Great Idea and brought out a bunch of signs for the
scienos milling about. These said: Scientology is the Road to Total
Freedom! The Internet is a Haven for Criminals! and a couple of others
that I don't remember.
"At this point some enterprising person unveiled a great sign that said:
They're not with Us! (with arrows pointing to either side)
- From Ron Newman, Boston:
- From Robert S. Minton, Boston:
- From Keith Cochran, Boulder:
- From Michael Reuss, Boulder:
- From Mark Allen, Chicago:
- From Damon Chetson, DC:
- From Ted Mayett, lone Las Vegas protester:
- From Martin Poulter, London:
- From Keith Spurgeon, New York:
- From "Jack Hoff", San Francisco:
From Ron Newman, Boston:
"The Boston protest ended around 16:00 EDT, but I returned to the scene
around 21:30 to have a look around. I had some leaflets left over, so I
began leaving them on cars along Back Street, Hereford Street, and Beacon
Street.
"As I was doing this, someone came out of the org and told me that I
shouldn't leaflet cars on private property (apparently Back Street is a
'private way' rather than a public street); I basically ignored him.
"A few minutes later, two people from the Boston org approached me a half
block away on Beacon Street and yelled at me about invading their private
property. They grabbed all the leaflets from my hand (about 150 I'd guess)
and started asking me if I put pornography on the Internet, or some such
thing. They then demanded that I 'leave' and 'depart now'.
From Robert S. Minton, Boston:
"When I first walked by this 46 yr old South African lady now living in
the woods of the state of New Hampshire, she said that both sides of my
sign were lies. About six steps later she approached from behind and asked
'what organization do you represent here? Psychiatry?' I was a bit rude in
explaining that I had learned from reading the truth about Co$ to expect
such an attack from a clam.
From Keith Cochran, Boulder:
"Deb Danos made a comment along the lines of 'Somebody else wrote up the
fair game policy; Hubbard rescinded it'. I wanted to ask her why the
Copyright Office listed Hubbard as the author, but didn't have the
copyright numbers, etc handy.
"Is Boulder/Boston the only sites that had implants? Our implant had a
sign that read something like 'We support lawlessness and terrorism on the
Internet'. Now this is a gentleman (He introduced himself as 'Bob') I
pity. I walked up to him and asked 'Do you really think you're fooling
anybody?' I figured he would smile, laugh, make a small joke, or
something. He just said 'No, I'm playing the cynical picket.'"
From Michael Reuss, Boulder:
"Deb [Danos] admitted that the church was behind the Cancelpoodle, much to
my surprise! She said that this fact had come out in District Court the
day before (CoS vs. Wollersheim & Penny). She and other Scientologists
said that the OT materials posted on the net were not accurate, and had
been altered by critics.
"When I told her that I had been threatened by Kobrin for posting the Dr.
Doolittle text, she replied with the standard 'copyright criminals' party
line. I began to tell the reporter what the six lines were and Jan reacted
very suddenly by throwing her open hand up in front of my face, as if she
were going to clamp her hand over my mouth, then just as suddenly pulled
it away. She said to the reporter 'See, he's breaking the law right now!'"
From Mark Allen, Chicago:
"His sign read 'Scientology customer' [picture of Manson] 'Curious? Read
alt.religion.scientology'
"The OT-7 guy and the OT-5 guy both asked if I was working for CAN. The
OT-5 guy went into a spiel about pysch drugs and asked if I was a
psychiatrist or a psychologist."
From Damon Chetson, DC:
"Minutes after I got there, the police did too. Apparently someone in the
cult building had called them with a complaint of 'disturbing the peace'.
The cops came by, explained that it was a free speech issue, and we were
entitled to protest, and left.
"One thing that amused me was that if *we* gave someone a flyer they would
fall all over themselves to do as well. I got into the habit of giving out
flyers as far away as possible from the clams so I could watch them go
scurrying down the street to catch up and deliver their stuff."
From Ted Mayett, lone Las Vegas protester:
"I had one threat from some kid, about 20, that he knows detectives and in
one hour he can find what I'm guilty of and have me arrested. I told him
to go for it, they have my name in the building. The brat would not give
me his name.
"Then one of them comes out to talk to me. Wants to know if I'll be
mentioning the OT material. I assured her I would not and that I had no
copies of it. She said she did up to OT3. Xenu, I said, You did Xenu?
"Her face changed. I got through to one of them. A successful day."
From Martin Poulter, London:
"For the most part, the conversations between scientologists and
protesters were amicable: the scientologists seemed to know very little
about the tactics of the 'church' management. They seemed resolutely
confident that *we* had incomplete information: one even told me that I
had been 'brainwashed' by the Internet and that I had lost the ability to
listen to opposing views. We were all asked what organisation we were
working for
"Margaret Reese, the church PR rep who talked to all the demonstrators at
the last protest in July, was not in attendance this time. She has been
replaced for failing to 'handle' the hard-hitting 'Big Story' documentary
that went out on national TV. Her present activities are not known but if
I had to guess I would say that rice and beans figure prominently in her
life at the moment."
From Keith Spurgeon, New York:
"Scientologists publicly called picketers by many clever names and
phrases, such as: scumbag, asshole, full of shit, geeks, people who don't
read books, and people just on the Internet going 'type, type, type.' In
all likelihood, even more colorful phrases echoed inside the walls of the
org. OSA ops also ridiculed the dress of picketers, who were dressed
casually but respectably.
"Because scientologists had picket signs with metal handles (in violation
of NYC laws), and after the picketer had his feet stepped on by the OT8,
protesters called the police. One picketer videotaped the police officer
telling scientologists 'You are acting like babies.'"
From "Jack Hoff", San Francisco:
"Then started a very bizarre game. As soon as I passed out a circular to a
passer-by -- the majority of whom seemed sympathetic or even happy that I
was picketing the criminal cult -- an orger in his twenties would run
after the person and tell them "you don't want to read that, it's an
attack on our religion!" and pull the circular out from the confused
fingers of the recipient. In at least one case, the orders said "can I
have that back?" before pulling back the circular and throwing it away,
implying that he was affiliated with me and that he had made some kind of
mistake. This was not the last unethical act of the scientologists that
day.
"The first few circulars were put into a large manila folder marked
prominently 'EVIDENCE' that held by one of the bullet-heads."
Message-ID: <DEo8ts.9ML@world.std.com>
<42u0h1$hk@kalypso.cybercom.net>
<42u69e$1lv@sundog.tiac.net>
<jandaDEp4D0.65@netcom.com>
<432mt0$ofc@hplvec.lvld.hp.com>
<42vgji$4am@news.acns.nwu.edu>
<DEpqy9.D5p@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
<42tjk2$kt7@bighorn.accessnv.com>
<DEqz78.J7u@uns.bris.ac.uk>
<4307q9$bg9@cmcl2.NYU.EDU>
<42v6ka$kfm@utopia.hacktic.nl>
#####
Netherlands Update
The administrators of xs4all.nl posted an update on the reaction to the
cos raid on their system in the Netherlands.
"Internet users in the Netherlands have started to massively spread the
forbidden 'fishman affidavit'. This is a court document that the
scientology cult tries to censor, because it's damaging to their
organisation. Users spread this document through email, irc, mailing
lists, newsgroups, webpages, ftp and other internet protocols. It has
become impossible to stop them.
"Scientology seems to have touched a sensitive string in the Dutch
internet community. Many people that had never heard about scientology
have become militant activists against their behaviour. They have become
protesters against the intimidating legal terrorism this dangerous cult is
committing."
Message-ID: <4350cl$8pa@news.xs4all.nl>