Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 1, Issue 32 12/01/96 by Rod Keller [rkeller@voicenet.com] copyright 1996
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@voicenet.com
It is archived at:
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html
http://user1.i1.net/~mallen/scn/arswr/ars-summary.html
http://www.amazing.com/scientology/ars-summary.html
http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver/scieno.htm
http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
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"Many are scared when they get mile long letters from American lawyers who claim copyright and threaten to prosecute, says lawyer Knut Vigeland. Vigeland has just won a case in High Court (Lagmannsretten) where a client who had been swindled now has been awarded compensation from the Church of Scientology in Oslo. Vigeland has because of this case become well-known with the methods used by the Church of Scientology.
"First of all you should demand that any accusations are in Norwegian. Threats of prosecution is meaningless if there is no documentation of copyright according to Norwegian law and they refer to the actual Norwegian laws that have been violated. In USA there are 50 states and none of them have the same laws. In Norway we follow Norwegian laws, says lawyer Vigeland. He emphasizes that the Church of Scientology is not a church, but a business enterprise.
"Several Norwegian Internet providers have closed down Heldal-Lund's home pages when the Church of Scientology have contacted them and threatened with American laws of copyright. Nettguiden in Ostfold has however had the secret Scientology documents available since the 15th of November.
"'I will let the documents be available here until I get a Norwegian court order that says what we do is illegal. I have received a big number of calls from USA. Recently I got a mail from a Norwegian lawyer who represents the church.'
"'She claims that the church has been given approval in similar cases both in Sweden and Denmark. This I have asked the lawyer to substantiate', says Oivind Robbestad who is editor of Nettguiden."
Copies of Andreas' NOTS site are appearing on other web sites.
"I have been asked to tell that there is now yet another mirror of Andreas' operation clambake: http://130.236.236.30/CoS/index.html"
Per Lundquist maintained a mirror of the site in Sweden.
"Yesterday afternoon I've got a phone call from the Chief of Security at Linkopings University. He had got a fax from a law firm in Sweden representing the Co$. They had noticed my mirror of Andreas Heldal-Lund's Operation Clambake.
"They demanded that the files CoSdocs.zip and all the other Co$-files would be removed. Today I had a very long and interesting talk with the Chief of Security. He told me that even though he sympathized with me the university wouldn't at any cost get involved in this case.
"I was asked to remove my pages and there would be no action taken against me. At 15.00 today (Swedish time) I removed my pages. At 19.00 a new improved and 'legal' page is up and running."
Andreas posted other news about NOTS web site maintainers.
"Jesper Toftegaard in Denmark is accused by the Danish CoS lawyer to be an accessory to a crime when he links from his home page to mine!"
David Bromage created an Australian mirror of the NOTS site. He received this message from his system administrator.
"I have removed access to your public_html directory, due to complaints from the Church of Scientology. After we have verified their claims, and who they are we may wish to meet with you and discuss the matter."
The administrator was reacting to this message from Vicki Hanna, who describes herself as Legal Officer, Church of Scientology.
"[T]he specific materials concerned are in fact owned by the Religious Technology Centre (RTC), the owner of the confidential Advanced Technology of the Scientology Religion and holder of the exclusive rights under the copyrights applicable to the Advanced Technology materials. The Advanced Technology materials are confidential, unpublished, copyrighted works. RTC works include, among others, the individual works comprising levels known as 'NOTS'.
"As these postings violate copyright laws of the USA and Denmark and as they are on your computers I therefore request your assistance and ask that immediate action is taken to remove these materials and that Mr, Bromage (who is a student of the University) is informed that he is not authorized to post these materials.
"We are currently involved in litigation in the United States, Holland and Sweden over the same and similar materials in several lawsuits. Injunctions have been granted in each case recognizing RTC's rights to these materials."
The conclusion this week:
"ITS examined numerous Web sites around the world and read court findings provided by many ars readers. On the basis of these findings they decided that there is uncertainty whether any Australian copyright laws have been broken as the items in question are freely available from public records. However they have neither the time nor the resources (i.e. money) to pursue the matter with Co$.
"The CoS has been informed that the files will be removed on the University's rules regarding the use of computing facilities and _not_ as a result of their claim to ownership of trade secrets and copyright."
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Arnie Lerma
A filing on behalf of Arnie Lerma by attornies David Masselli and William
Lane was posted this week. It argues against awarding attornies fees to
Scientology, or issuing a permanent injunction against Arnie.
"RTC Did Not Comply With the Statutory Requirements for an Attorneys' Fee Award.
"As explained in its Motion for Summary Judgment, RTC registered the Works with the Copyright Office by the deposit of 'masked' copies, unavailable to public inspection. The legality of that registration is highly questionable. Even if this form of registration is lawful and suffices for bringing suit under the law, it does not suffice for obtaining an award of attorneys' fees. Under 17 U.S.C. 412, public registration prior to the date of the alleged infringement is a prerequisite to certain remedies under the copyright act:
"RTC Is Not the Prevailing Party.
"A 'prevailing party' is one 'who succeeds on a significant issue in the litigation that achieves some of the benefits the party sought in bringing suit'. Success on a claim that is 'purely technical or de minimis does not qualify him as a prevailing party'.
"RTC began by seeking $100,000 per violation. Its summary judgment motion claimed 33 infringements. Thus it was seeking millions from Mr. Lerma. The legal resources mobilized by the plaintiff were consistent with this view of the case, and with its history of attempting to steamroll opponents with extensive litigation. More importantly, RTC, itself, defined the aim of litigation as stopping the 'publication and exposure of these material.' By that measure, they lost.
"The mere fact that, after claiming numerous violations of both copyright and trade secret laws, RTC was able to prevail against Mr. Lerma on five non-willful copyright violations does not mean that it is the prevailing party. A party found guilty of copyright infringement can be the prevailing party, if it successfully defends against significant claims litigated in the action. Taking only the copyright claims in this case into consideration, in which the Court found five violations but the defendant defeated the claim of willfulness, the Court should find that RTC was not the prevailing party.
"An Analysis of the Bills Submitted by RTC Shows That They Are Not Reasonable
"Although copyright issues were generally a footnote in this case, RTC asks for approximately $483,059.24 in attorneys' fees for the services of thirteen attorneys from six law firms. These lawyers have been characterized in RTC's Exhibit C as 'Local Trial Counsel,' 'Local Intellectual Property Counsel,' 'Summary Judgment Copyright Counsel,' 'Constitutional and Summary Judgment Copyright Counsel,' and 'Co-ordinating Attorney and Litigator.' This is clearly excessive.
"Crowded Benches: There were ten hearings in this case. At each hearing except the last, a minimum of three lawyers, at least two from out-of-town appeared. Now RTC seeks to bill for this overlawyering, including the travel time. Even Ms. Kobrin, whose rates are otherwise quite reasonable, has managed to log a number of twenty hour days due to travel.
"RTC proposes a permanent injunction, relief appropriate only when a continuing violation otherwise threatens. Lerma uploaded OT II and III in the mistaken belief that they were proper to do so; his downloads were innocent infringements. Unlike infringers in cases cited by plaintiff, Mr. Lerma does not compete with RTC or produce the same product. While Mr. Lerma does not object to impoundment of any remaining copies of the five subject works in his possession, he presents no danger of continuing violation and no reason for a permanent injunction."
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Clam Web
Tilman Hausherr continues to seek out Scientologists on the web.
"Len Williams design, in Glendale of course. http://www.lwdesign.com/
"http://www.lwdesign.com/about_lwd.html Look at 'Our purpose' for the most blatant example
"http://www.lwdesign.com/basic_infosheet.html Look at 'your publics'"
"http://www.onelook.com/ http://www.studytech.com/
"Isadore Chait http://www.inna.net/imc/cbio.html http://www.inna.net/imc/ $250,000 donation to the IAS."
The operator of the techsell.com website, Peter Letterese, wrote a bizarre and threatening letter to Tilman objecting to the listing as a Scientologist.
"You have published a defamation of the Galileo(R) Registered Trademark. It is registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office. You have suggested it belongs to someone else or that it purports to be something it is not. Since you have no firsthand knowledge of our company nor any knowledge of what may have gone into its materials, you seem to have chosen to ascribe our use of any number of common words of the English language to someone else's specialized vocabulary, which vocabulary you apparently purport to be expert on. Clearly, you have little knowledge of the lexicon of selling or sales. It goes back to the year 1610. I don't think the religion Scientology, which you seem to dislike, was around back then! You have no expertise in OUR materials. Who knows what you may or may not know about those belonging to the religion Scientology.
"I have very high-priced Trademark attorneys. They stand ready to defend our trademarks against any libelous attack such as yours. If you continue to defame our organization or its trademarks, I will commission my attorneys to find you, sue you and take every one of the few pennies you may have accumulated, should any of your drivel harm my organization in any monetary way.
"You seem to make fun of people and their ideas as your stock in trade. We stand ready to act should you foolishly decide to make us a target."
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Dennis Erlich
Scientology defendant Dennis Erlich posted some developments in his life
as he continues to fight his court cases.
"I am working now for (Chicago) Tribune, Inc., owner of KTLA Channel 5 in LA as Assistant to the Producer of the Hollywood Christmas and Rose Parade telecasts.
"Tribune has thrown up a web site (their first?) to promote the parade. The URL is - http://www.ktla.com/christmas
"You will note that our favorite internet spammer/cancellers are parading their wares before the public using the name 'Concerned Businessmen's Association', and pumping the Way to Happiness booklet. Their 'float' is well back, toward the end of the parade, for anyone who will be able to tune in.
"Monday I will have to be in front of yet another new San Diego County Family Law Court judge and answer to the motion to revoke my 40 days in jail suspended sentence for paying my child support later than the due date.
"The house I am living in has been sold and I will need to move before Christmas. I do not know where."
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French Criminals
A list of recently convicted Scientologists in France was posted this week
from Le Progres.
"Jean-Jacques MAZIER: Three years in prison, of which 18 months suspended. 500,000FF in fines. Five years suspension of civic, civil, and family rights, including exclusion from public markets.
"Corinne MEDELIN: Two years suspended sentence, 50,000FF in fines. Louis-Michel BROLLES: 16 months suspended sentence, 20,000FF in fines. Pierre and Sylvie TEDESCHI: 15 months suspended sentence, 20,000FF fine, three year ban from commercial management.
"Alain BAROU: One year suspended sentence, 15,000FF in fines. Ghislaine HUET (nee PEYRONNEL): 18 months suspended sentence. Damien CALVIN: 9 months suspended sentence, 10,000FF fine. Henri CAILLAUD and Denise POMPIDOR (nee ROBERTY): 18 months suspended sentence, 25,000FF fine.
"Pascale DULLIN, Laurent QUOISSE, Marie-Annick ROBERT (nee BAUDRY), Yves VEAU, Evelyne CHABERT (nee TIRABOSCHI): 8 months suspended, 10,000FF fine."
German television show Kennzeichen D broadcast a show about the trial, including the news that Scientology appears to have stolen documents from the French parliament.
"The main prosecutor on the case was interviewed, stating that 'the courts have now done their duty, and now it is time for the politicians to act'. The off-voice then stated, that the French parliament has now a parliamential commission (?? German: Untersuchungsausschuss), that will investigate Scientology further.
"The report went on to say, that the politicians on this commission already got a first impression of the difficult task, that lies ahead of them: Recently, some documents regarding Scientology have suddenly disappeared from the rooms of this parliamential commission."
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Grady Ward
Grady Ward posted a series of filings to the court in the Scamizdat trial.
He is appealing several decisions of Judge Infante.
"[T]he defendant objects and appeals to the District Judge the order of the Magistrate Judge of November 15, 1996 denying the defendant's motion for certain necessary costs of discovery to be prepaid by the court or by the adverse party.
"The defendant asks the District Judge to remand this Order back to the Magistrate Judge to decide, what, if any cost-shifting is appropriate in this litigation."
"[T]he defendant objects and appeals to the District Judge the order of the Magistrate Judge of November 15, 1996 compelling the deposition under Rule 45 of the defendant's wife, Felicity Wasser. The defendant's Motion and Reply contain the vital arguments and precedent for adequately protecting a person whose only relationship to the instant litigation is that she is privy to privileged communications between her and her husband, the defendant.
"My wife is fearful of the scientologists, with good reason, but will cooperate willingly with a deposition limited to one or two hours or to discovery by other methods."
"[T]he defendant objects and appeals to the District Judge the order of the Magistrate Judge of November 15, 1996 denying the defendant's motion to compel answers to certain interrogatories. The defendant believes the order denying further answers by plaintiff to Interrogatories numbers 2 and 3 is mistaken in law because by depriving me the means of verifying each element of whether the plaintiff has taken reasonable precautions to maintain the confidentiality of its Advanced Technology is the nexus of this litigation and would prevent me from demonstrating that the plaintiff has failed in its extraordinary burden of keeping reasonably confidential 'trade secrets' that it admits sells to 'thousands' of 'parishioners.'"
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Jon Atack
Martin Poulter posted an update on Jon Atack, the author of Scientology
expose A Piece of Blue Sky.
"He has been extensively sued and 'Fair Gamed' and has been driven bankrupt by the costs of his legal cases. Jon himself is unwilling to talk about the cases - he's taking a well-earned rest from cult related work to write a novel - but I did manage to find out that the cult's two actions against him are still in pre-discovery stages. The cult's lawyers were trying to find evidence of assets that they could claim, and subjected him to four days of examination in court. They found *no* evidence of assets, so the cult has gained nothing.
"Jon should be out of bankruptcy in May of next year."
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Julf
Peik Stromsholm posted that Johan Helsingius is still battling Scientology
over his intention to withhold the identity of the poster of Scamizdat 11,
which contained nearly all Scientology secrets posted in all the other
Scamizdat issues.
"The issue is: should Julf be forced to reveal the email addresses used by the person(s) that posted parts of Scamizdat #11 (selected Scientology scriptures) through the anon.penet.fi server? The lower court said yes, but Julf has appealed.
"Julf is represented by Markku Ropponen, esq, from the law firm Scandinavian Law Offices. Scientology through its litigation arms RTC, Bridge Publications Denmark and CST are represented by Jussi Savonen, esq, from one of the largest law firms in Finland, Peltonen, Orndahl, Ruokanen & Itäinen.
"Helsingius has filed declarations from professors such as Scheinin (constitutional law), Viljanen (criminal and procedural law) and Jyranki (constitutional law and international law). Savonen has filed declarations by professors Lappalainen (procedural law) and Saraviita (constitutional law). Savonen has also filed a translation of a declaration in English by Douwe Korff, who is 'a Dutch human rights lawyer living in Cambridge', regarding the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"The question about how the Internet is to be defined and understood has also been a subject of several declarations and quotes from different sources. The well known Finnish computer expert Petteri Jarvinen has been quoted, as well as emeritus professor Osmo A. Wiio.
"As you probably remember, the lower court decided that Julf should be forced to reveal the names to the police within 30 days. On appeal Julf asked that the execution of this order should be stayed until the Court of Appeals reaches a decision. The Court of Appeals granted this request.
"If the Court of Appeals decides against Helsingius, he may appeal to the Supreme Court of Finland and again ask for a temporary stay of the order of the Court of Appeals. If the Supreme Court chooses to consider the case (they only consider about 10% of the appeals) it's most likely they will stay the order of the lower courts until they have reached a decision."
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Clearwater Murder
Jeff Jacobsen this week discovered the City of Clearwater's web site,
which contains an appeal from the police department for information
regarding the murder of a Scientologist. Several Scientologists are sought
for questioning, and have apparently fled the country.
"Clearwater police have a web page at: http://public.lib.ci.clearwater.fl.us/police/
"http://public.lib.ci.clearwater.fl.us/police/homicide.html has case #3 that is apparently related to Scientology, regarding the homicide of Lisa McPherson."
"Case # 3 - Offense # 95-29158
"Victim Lisa McPherson, a white female, date of birth 2/10/59, died while being transported by several associates to a hospital in New Port Richey, Florida on December 6, 1995. Ms. McPherson's manner of death has been undetermined. The Clearwater Police Department has attempted to contact three of these associates for interviews. Thus far, all attempts to locate these individuals have been unsuccessful. The last known address of Ms. McPherson and these associates was 210 S. Fort Harrison Avenue in Clearwater. The three associates are:
"1. Suzanne Schnuremberger (possible married name of Green). Information indicates that Ms. Schnuremberger may now be living in Switzerland or Germany.
"2. Ildiko Cannovas. Information indicates that Ms. Cannovas may now be living in Hungary.
"3. Laura Arrunada. Information indicates that Ms. Arrunada may now be working in the medical field in Mexico.
"Please contact Detective Sergeant Wayne Andrews at at albright@cftnet.com or (813) 462-6085 (collect if necessary) if you have information regarding Suzanne Schnuremberger, Ildiko Cannovas, or Laura Arrunada."
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Travolta
John Travolta appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show on Nov 26th, and
discussed Scientology with an uncritical Oprah and audience.
"OPRAH: ... really misunder... Every time you say the word people get... I know back there my producers are going OOHH my God Scientology...
"TRAVOLTA: You can be a Catholic Scientologist ...and a Protestant Scientologist and a Baptist Scientologist. We have every denomination.
"OPRAH: So what is the center... I never understand, what is it...
"TRAVOLTA: It's mainly to help you survive better on the planet. We're in trouble on this planet, you know, in a lot of ways...
"OPRAH: So is it... It's not a religion?
"TRAVOLTA: Well it is technically, because by law, and by the dictionary, you have to go... that term. Because it deals with the spiritually end... through spiritually and physically at times... Like Dianetics is the body... It deals with injuries, and emotional upsets, and things like that... That's very specific and it deals with the body, and the mind. And the Scientology deals with church... of the trade, to survive better, on the planet."
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Big Story
The UK television program The Big Story ran a second show exposing
Scientology this week. A.r.s posters provided a summary.
"'We lied to banks, people obtained loans under false pretenses. It was whatever we could do to raise money.' said Andrea Catt who was registrar at the Bournemouth mission 1988-95. 'People were persuaded to remortgage their homes, sell their homes, cash in the policies supposed to pay off their mortgages, borrow against pensions, sell family jewels, borrow from their families, sell their cars. Anything you can possibly imagine that a person could do to raise money, people were persuaded to pay into Scientology. If a person filled a loan form in saying the money was for Scientology, they'd get as very negative response so people were encouraged to say that the money was for a management training course, a computer, a car, a boat. Sometimes we'd fill it in for them. Then they'd sign it and it would be submitted to the bank on a completely false basis.' The 'Church' keeps supplies of loan application forms conveniently at hand for such occasions. The bank found out in one case, and Ms. Catt was made the scapegoat and dismissed, but soon reinstated where she went on to win an award 'The Gross Income Cup'.
"The events that drove a 24-year-old to jump off the Clifton Bridge after only half-a year in Scientology were described. The 'Purification Rundown', the borrowing to pay for courses, the endless letters and phone calls from Scientologists. Mike Rinder appeared giving the usual Scientology damage-limitation line about Scientology not being responsible just because someone 'had some involvement with Scientology in the past'. This was rather contradicted by the letters written to the victim by Scientologist Tony Clark even after the suicide. 10 British recruits have committed suicide in the last twelve years.
"Roger Tuffin, treasury secretary from 1991. 'Nobody knew where the money came from. So receipts were made up to account for that money... completely bogus receipts'. The Scientologists were evading Value Added Tax by describing money paid for courses as 'donations'. He was posted to the 'Freewinds' as director of communications and estimates their revenues as half-a-million dollars per week."
"There was additional information about the suicide of Richard Collins, who, it would seem, was subject not merely to lots of phone calls and letters prior to his death, but extremely threatening letters, containing references to his PC folder: letters sent to another ex-Scn (happily alive) contained similarly vile threats."
"The cult fucked up so badly with Richard Collins that they were still sending him aggressive hand-written notes even after his death."
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Swedish Parliament
Zenon Panoussis posted developments concerning distribution of the secret
NOTS levels by the Swedish Parliament.
"I have learned that the CoS lawyer Per Magnusson has written to people that ordered the NOTs from the Swedish parliament, demanding that they 'return' these to him. His letters appear to contain knowingly false statements and explicit threats.
"To those that have received such letters: please mail a copy to me at the following address
Hogbergsgatan 64 SE-118 54 Stockholm Sweden
and ignore Magnusson. Your parliament NOTs copies are perfectly legal to own, to possess, to lend to others, to copy as long as the copy is intended for your own use, and to give away or sell."
"I threatened him with a report to the bar association. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to report him. I learned from the TV 4 news on Thursday that some recipients of these letters had already reported him. The story of the threatening letters was also reported on national radio news.
"The TV 4 news interviewed Tom Thyblad, chief of the parliament's office of the chamber. Thyblad criticized Magnusson's letters in very strong terms and advised the public to make their NOTs requests anonymously.
"The people of the parliament have been subjected to a really great deal of shit from the CoS, ranging from fax bombs through daily visits through aggressive letters to delegations of 'international experts'. They have put up with it and they have not given one inch of way to the pressure."
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