Subject: Scientology critic fined for undeclared file

A prominent French critic of Scientology has been fined 901 euros for maintaining a Web site that contained the name of a Scientologist in quotations from two published articles. The Scientologist sued, claiming his religious rights had been violated.

A 1978 French law intended to protect privacy requires computer files containing names of people (even one name) to be declared with the National Commission of Computers and Liberties (CNIL). On 18 Feb 2003, Roger Gonnet became the first person disciplined under this law for his Web site, http://www.antisectes.net, which has been operating since March 1997.

The judgment against Gonnet was 450 euros for violating the law, 450 euros for plaintiff's legal costs, and 1 euro for damages to plaintiff.

(Plaintiff had been asking for 15,000 euros.)

Gonnet says, "At least 20 million French people are guilty of the same 'crime': they have individual names in their organizers, electronic agendas, computers, laptops, CD Roms, DVD roms, hard disks, memory cards, and even in their cell-phone memories, WAPs, texts, and Web sites, as well as the employers and commercial employees or sellers have lists of their employees, clients, associates, etc."

["What's In A Name?" Oui! "What Name is In?" Non!!! PGN]

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