Volume 0, Issue vom 27. 08. 1995

Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review
Volume 0, Issue 19
08/27/95
by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com]
copyright 1995

Contents

  1. FACTNet Raided
  2. Washington Post Sued
  3. Arnie Lerma Update
  4. Helena Kobrin
  5. Sealing Fishman
  6. Cancelpoodle Unmasked
  7. Revolt in the Stars

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://amazing.cinenet.net/scientology.html
        http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver
        http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
        http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html

#####

FACTNet Raided

The cos raided the homes of Larry Wollersheim and Bob Bingham, founders of FACTNet, this week. An excerpt from a cos press release: "Armed with a federal court order, United States Marshals today raided residences in Boulder and Longmont seizing computer software, hardware and other equipment and documents to halt copyright infringements of Scientology religious scriptures. A poster summarized a report from The Rocky Mountain News: "'Denver U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock signed an order authorizing the raids'. According to Wollersheim, 'They took us off line'. A picture accompanying the article shows Warren McShane, 'president of the Religious Technology Center in Los Angeles, carr[ying] documents from the apartment of ... Wollersheim. At left is U.S. marshal Steve Bush.' According to the RMN, he 'charges that the church practices secret rituals in which officials claim they are aliens from outer space whose purpose is to take over the Earth'. "The raid started at 9a.m Tuesday morning and lasted for 8 hours, Scientology officials were present at the raid and took away material (see above). A 7 hour raid was made in Niwot. Karin Pouw of the Co$ 'questioned why Wollersheim's bulletin board should have non-profit, tax-exempt status'. Wollersheim hopes that he will be represented by the ACLU." News coverage also included local television, which reported: "Nine News covered the raid, and pointed out over and over again that letting a "church" raid and search/seizure critics poses tremendous implications for freedom of speech, freedom to criticize, etc etc etc. "Wollersheim apparently has a ACLU lawyer, David Layman." Message-ID: <41d15u$hap@crl10.crl.com> <41fc4n$gvh@CUBoulder.Colorado.EDU> <jandaDDqLKs.6Iv@netcom.com> #####

Washington Post Sued

In a second press release this week, the cos announced it is suing the Washington Post and its reporters Richard Leiby and Marc Fisher. "The Washington Post and two of its reporters were sued today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by the Religious Technology Center (RTC), holders of the intellectual property rights of the Scientology religion. According to the lawsuit, the Washington Post and its writers have engaged in 'extensive, intentional copyright infringement and trade secrets misappropriation, targeting confidential Scientology scriptures belonging to RTC.' Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, due to the urgent nature of the matter, scheduled an August 25 hearing on the temporary restraining order and impoundment application to get the Washington Post to turn over the misappropriated documents." The case is an addition to the Arnie Lerma suit. A preliminary hearing was held at which: "The Post introduced evidence documenting past abusive actions by the Church of Scientology. There were allegations made that private mail on Mr. Lerma's computer was the only available source of some claims made by the Church against the Post. "The judge did not like this, and stated that another occurrence would result in immediate sanctions against the Church of Scientology." Message-ID: <sthomsonDDwAJ3.Mzr@netcom.com> <41di1h$e6q@crl3.crl.com> #####

Arnie Lerma Update

An update on the situation of Arnie Lerma, raided last week by the RTC for alleged copyright violations. A preliminary hearing including was held on Friday. "The Judge agreed with Lerma's attorneys that the computer should be in the hands of a mutually agreed upon third party. The party currently holding the computer on behalf of the Church, I-Net of Gaithersburg, said that so far three word searches had been done in Lerma's computer data: for 'Hubbard,' 'OT Course' and 'Thetan.' "The judge asked Earle Cooley 'Isn't this too broad?' Cooley yammered. Judge: I understand you want to do another search? Cooley: yes. "The judge thereupon gave a direct order to I-Net: *no more searches.* I-Net was also ordered not to alter the hard disk." FACTNet had this to say about the raid on Arnie. "FACTNet alleges that Scientology's attorneys and executives deliberately swore out false and misleading affidavits and court motions against FACTNet's director Arnie Lerma to deceive a judge who was unfamiliar with Scientology's criminal history. Scientology's purpose was to trick the judge into granting an illegal search warrant and seizure order for Arnie Lerma's computer and records. "[In particular] That the materials were legally copyrighted and trademarked." The cos has not fulfilled its promise to return Arnie's computer equipment. "They raided him Saturday, the 12th of August, and promised to give his computer back with the 'copyrighted' materials removed on Monday (the writ of seizure said the copyrighted materials, not his work or personal files which were on the machine). "Arnie still has no computer or hard drive back. (He is borrowing a laptop, but it sucks). So we need to, I think, contribute a fund to get him something to help restore his presence on the net. He's got a 9600 modem, but a reasonable system with a reasonable monitor, 14.4 fax/modem for him to use in the legal stuff as well as net posting, etc. would help restore one of our best public figures to the Net." Message-ID: <RAOUL.95Aug20232103@marinara.mit.edu> <sthomsonDDwAJ3.Mzr@netcom.com> <m0sl91U-0008qfC@uctmail.uct.ac.za> #####

Helena Kobrin

Helena Kobrin, Lawsuit Terrorist, has been at it again this week. Sameer reports Helena has been emailing his system administrator, complaining of the presence of the Fishman materials on his (her?) web site. A representative from c2.org wrote: "I received another complaint regarding the material on your site. I am not concerned with the legality of the materials on your web page. The fact that your account is anonymous means that it will be shut off unless you resolve the complaint yourself, by whatever means you feel necessary. Michael Robinson posted threatening email concerning the placement of Fishman on a server in China. "I do not speak Chinese, so I am writing in English and hope that you understand. "We have been informed that someone has downloaded to your FTP site two postings of copyrighted, unpublished materials. These actions constitute violations of the United States Copyright laws entitling my client to damages and injunction. I understand that this is also a violation of the China Copyright Act. It is essential that you take action to remove the material. Shelley Thomson reports receiving a threatening letter, despite never having posted any part of a copyrighted document. The letter was written by Elliot Abelson, apparently heir to the Kobrin legacy. "This letter will put you on notice that on August 15, 1995, the Honorable Harry L. Hupp, United States District Judge, of the Central District of California, issued an order sealing the copies and versions of the Scientology religion's copyrighted and trade secret protected documents pending final resolution of issues now pending in _Church of Scientology International v. Fishman, et. al._, No. CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx). "You are now on notice that you should cease and desist from any copying or distributing or publication of any document that purports to have come from the sealed file, and should immediately send all copies of such documents in your possession, custody or control to the undersigned." Gordon Campbell reports on a phone call to his system administrator [T]his afternoon, a male purporting to be a representative of the Co$, called the Sysadmin of my ISP and 'demanded' that he remove the offending file from my storage. "This person refused to provide a name or any other information about himself other than that he is a representative of the 'church'. "The Sysadmin told him that since Kingston Online is not a publisher of information and does not edit for content that they are not liable for what the users post. The caller, naturally, strenuously disagreed. Message-ID: <41h9u0$cp8@infinity.c2.org> <41mvik$rf5@info.bta.net.cn> <sthomsonDDwKBv.E86@netcom.com> <40ui4k$8vg@limestone.kosone.com> #####

Sealing Fishman

The text of the message sealing the Fishman exhibits was posted this week. It includes none of the legal threats made by Scientology Lawsuit Terrorists. Scientology's motion to seal specified documents was remanded to this Court by Order of the Ninth Circuit. This Court has taken the matter under submission. Pending a final order by this Court regarding Scientology's aforementioned motion to seal, all the files in this case are hereby ordered to be sealed. Message-ID: <413bbq$akf@miwok.nbn.com> #####

Cancelpoodle Unmasked

The identity of the Cancelpoodle was revealed this week. And he is ... well known a.r.s poster Brian Stone! <bstone@kaiwan.com> Ron Newman reports that Kaiwan has disabled the account after some coaxing. "% finger bstone@kaiwan.com [kaiwan.com] Login Name: bstone Known as: Brian Stone Directory: /u1/bstone Shell: /etc/.abuse "That shell sure looks like a disabled account to me. Let's hope it stays that way. It's amazing what a few Usenet mutterings about 'rogue sites' can accomplish." But all is not well. henry described the process that let up to the identification, and the ongoing problem. "[T]he users of alt.religion.scientology were finally able to track down the identity of the account which has been spamming the group with so many forged cancel messages that often the most prolific poster to the newsgroup is the program which announces cancellations. "When Ron Newman and others politely brought this to the attention of luke@kaiwan.com, who is listed at rs.internic.net as the contact, luke responded with lies, denials and insults, despite the fact that it was clearly proven that user bstone@kaiwan.com was the proven source of the cancels. "Almost immediately, account davisr, belonging to Rick Davis, a known Scientologist and associate of bstone, suddenly started logging in, and I am forced to wonder if we can expect more net abuse from this site. Since Tom has been vengefully kicked off by the arrogant and unresponsive luke@kaiwan.com in breach of Terms of Service, I expect that any future net abuse will be met with 'you don't have any evidence' and the typical insults and accusations of persecution luke has shown in the past." Message-ID: <41jstt$380@kalypso.cybercom.net> <henriDDyE8B.156@netcom.com> #####

Revolt in the Stars

A summary of the script for a movie Elron never got around to making was posted this week. Revolt in the Stars is the story of Xenu for the silver screen. Some telling excerpts: "Xenu is presiding over an assembly of the Loyal Officers of the Galactic Federation. As Xenu strikes the gong to begin the two thousand and fifty-fourth Congress of the Confederation, an Archbishop blesses the assembly with the invocation 'All blessings to Almighty God upon the Galactic Confederation, upon its 21 stars, upon its 76 green planets, upon its trillions of population, this Congress, and upon the Loyal Officers, loyal to the people, to the Confederation and to God. May peace and prosperity continue as it has for ages past.' "Rawl reiterates the need for the people to be free of government; he finally demands that the 'emergency powers of the executive be canceled and that all executive orders be declared null and void.' "Later, rather than capitulating, Xenu, Chu, and Chi plan their revenge. Xenu tells Chu to retain his computer files on every 'criminal, renegade and psychopath in this entire galaxy.' 'And you must have tre.'" Message-ID: <gradyDDL9oy.E3B@netcom.com>