Scientology --- I won !!! <p>

I won !!!

Subject: I won !!!

Message-ID: <3f573e17$0$49107$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>

Major win, on almost all points:

While the court of appeals considers OY2 and OT3 to have not been legally puvblished, the fredom of expression previals and my website containing quotes form OT2 and OT3 is _completely_ ok with them:

http://www.spaink.net/fishman/ot2.html http://www.spaink.net/fishman/ot3.html

Scientology needs to pay all costs.

The courts damnify Scientology for the secrecy surrounding OT2 and OT3 and says that Scientology - which they call an 'organisation', not a 'church' - uses that secrecy to wield power over its memebers, and furthermore states that Scientology is attempting to overthrow democratic values.

There.

Heh. Xenu always prevails :)

- K -

-- I write, therefore I am:

http://www.spaink.net/

From: "Jeff Jacobsen" <cultxpt@ev1.net>
Subject: So Many Wins!

Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 03:10:40 -0000
Message-ID: <vlfvlghq851q7d@corp.supernews.com>
X-User-Info: 64.48.203.20 64.48.203.20 cultxpt

Good Lord, when it rains it pours. Let's see...

Dandar essentially wins "breach" suit
Karin Spaink wins "copyright infringement" suit
Touretsky's new Co$ form page gets media attention
an OT 8 tells his story
an expose on Hubbard on TV
Reed Slatkin gets 14 years
Mike Krotz exposes Florida politicians

Wow, heady times! Can we have a Big Event and all cheer and yell and announce all our Big Wins and wave flags and stuff!??

I have a Win too; in the last 2 days, about 1000 more visitors than normal visited lisamcpherson.org. I attribute this mostly to the foxnews article.

Just before that, some blogger linked to my site and I got about 400 more visitors than usual out of that :)

From: "Quaoar" <Quaoar@tenthplanet.net>
Subject: Press Release of Scientology v Spaink, XS4ALL , et al
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 12:54:36 -0600
Message-ID: <UfmcnUr5rLeEQcWiXTWJgA@comcast.com>

http://www.xs4all.nl/uk/news/overview/scientology3.html

From: ptsc <ptsc@nowhere.com>
Subject: SLASHDOT: Dutch Court rules that linking is legal in Scientology case
Organization: The Buttersquash Conspiracy
Message-ID: <l4lolv412jkacef2gfsb2eb8h0ijnmba9c@4ax.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 10:07:15 GMT

Dutch Court Rules That Linking Is Legal In Scientology Case http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/09/08/0230218.shtml?tid=123&tid=99

Posted by timothy on Monday September 08, @12:39AM from the very-kind-of-them dept.

touretzky writes "The Court of Appeal in The Hague today rejected all of Scientology's claims in appeal in Scientology's action against XS4ALL, Karin Spaink and ten other internet providers. As a result, Karin Spaink's website, which Scientology sought to remove from the Internet based on copyright claims, is entirely legal in the Netherlands. The court also overturned two lower court rulings, one of which said that linking to material that infringed a copyright was itself actionable. The other ruling said that ISPs that failed to act on credible notification of a copyright violation could be held liable for that.

The Appeals Court felt that this was too vague a standard, and thus posed a threat to free speech. More info at ScientologyWatch.org."

-- Home of the Buttersquash Conspiracy http://buttersquash.net

From: ptsc <ptsc@nowhere.com>
Subject: Spaink makes the Register!

Organization: The Buttersquash Conspiracy
Message-ID: <lc2plvgah259e2o80el26u9f47d3lbjucs@4ax.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 13:52:50 GMT

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32701.html

Scientologists loses copyright case By Jan Libbenga Posted: 08/09/2003 at 12:20 GMT

The Court of Appeal in The Hague last week rejected all of the Church of Scientology's claims its action against the Dutch ISP Xs4all, writer Karin Spaink and ten other internet providers for publishing copyrighted material on the web.

As a result, Spaink's website which Scientologists had sought to remove, is entirely legal.

The court also overturned two lower court rulings, one of which stated that linking to material that infringed a copyright was itself actionable. The victory for Xs4all represents a significant narrowing in the ability of copyright claimants to harass ISPs, observers believe.

The case started about nine years ago, when former Scientologist Steven Fishman was brought to court because he had committed several crimes in order to get the money to pay for his courses. When Fishman in Time magazine blamed the Church of Scientology for his crimes, the sect sued him for slander.

Fishman used several secret Scientology documents to support claims that he had been brainwashed by the Church. As a result, these documents became public material. The Fishman Affidavit has been travelling on the Net ever since. Karin Spaink was one of many to publish these secret scriptures as early as 1995.

In September 1995 a bailiff raided the Amsterdam premises of provider Xs4all to seize materials of subscribers the Church of Scientology claimed to be in violation of its copyright. The sect also initiated exhaustive judicial proceedings, but each time the court decided in favor of Spaink.

However, the decision of the Amsterdam District Court of June 1999 included a separate declaratory judgment stating that providers must take action if they are made aware of material on their servers that infringes upon a copyright if "the correctness of the notification of this fact cannot be reasonably doubted".

This judgment was reason for Xs4all to initiate appeal proceedings of its own.

In a press release Xs4all says that "Unless the criteria for removing information from a site are clearly delineated, commercial interests of providers may all too readily prevail over the protection of freedom of opinion".

The decision of June 1999 also made reference to hyperlinks to copyrighted material. If a provider is aware of this, it must also take action against these hyperlinks. But Xs4all believed that the court went too far with this. After all, a hyperlink is merely a road marker on the Internet, and can never be unlawful. The Appellate Court has now set aside this judgment of the District Court in Amsterdam. ® -- Home of the Buttersquash Conspiracy http://buttersquash.net

From: Mike O'Connor <mike@leptonicsystems.com>
Subject: NEWS.COM: Scientology loss keeps hyperlinks legal (Karin Spanik case)
Organization: Leptonic Systems Inc
Message-ID: <mike-55C7BC.15440508092003@news4-ge1.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 19:44:02 GMT

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5072581.html

Scientology loss keeps hyperlinks legal

By Matt Hines
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 8, 2003, 11:09 AM PT

The Church of Scientology has lost a courtroom battle to compel a Dutch writer and her Internet service provider to remove postings from a Web site, in a ruling that keeps hyperlinks to copyrighted material legal.

On Friday, the Court of Appeal in The Hague, Netherlands, denied the Scientologists' latest appeal in an online copyright dispute that dates back to 1995. The Church of Scientology has repeatedly pursued legal action in the Netherlands against the writer, Karin Spaink, and her local ISP , Xs4all, over documents first posted in 1995 on the Web site of another customer of the company.

In denying the appeal, the court also overturned two previous rulings that lower courts had handed down. One of these decided that ISPs should be held accountable for any illegal or copyrighted materials posted by their subscribers and that ISPs should take down hyperlinks to such materials. An Xs4all representative cited the overruling of that decision as the larger of the two victories.

"I think this establishes an important freedom of speech precedence for the Internet and ISPs in particular," said Edith Mastenbroek, an Xs4all spokeswoman. "Any laws set to control how ISPs interact with copyright laws must be made crystal clear."

Neither Spaink nor Church of Scientology representatives could immediately be reached for comment.

The disagreement began in 1995, when, according to Xs4all, a representative for the Church of Scientology showed up at its office with a legal official and attempted to take possession of the company's servers. The religious group took issue with the publication of some of its church documents on a Web site hosted by the ISP.

Spaink subsequently became involved, when she heard of the dispute and posted the same documents to her own site hosted by Xs4all.

The Church of Scientology then filed a copyright lawsuit, demanding that the published materials be removed from the sites in question. The church also contended that the ISP should be held accountable for its subscribers' activities in regards to copyrights.

But a District Court of Amsterdam judge ruled in favor of Xs4all and its 1996 subscribers, saying the posted documents were legal, based on individuals' rights to quote from copyrighted material.

In a second lawsuit decided in 1999, the Amsterdam courts again ruled in favor of the ISP, citing the right to freedom of speech. However, in that ruling, the judge said that ISPs should be held accountable for posted materials that might violate existing laws and copyrights.

That 1999 decision also made reference to hyperlinks to materials that might infringe on copyrights. The ruling said that if a provider was made aware of illegal publishing of copyrighted materials, or hyperlinks to copyrighted information, it should take action and remove the Web site or links.

Friday's appellate ruling quashed that decision as well.

Xs4all representatives said they were particularly happy with the ruling, as it relates to hyperlinks.

"After all, a hyperlink is merely a road marker on the Internet, and it can therefore never be unlawful," the company said in a statement.

Scientologists have taken a vigorous approach to squelching critical Web sites, pressuring site operators, ISPs and even Internet heavyweights such as Google into removing links to Web pages. In 1999, Amazon.com removed but later restored links to a book critical of Scientology.

The issue was originally spurred by a lawsuit the religious group filed against a former member regarding unpaid fees for classes he took related to Scientology. In his defense, the individual, Steven Fishman, produced several documents the group reportedly created. The documents became public record as a result of the legal proceedings and have since been protected by freedom of speech laws.

Since becoming involved in the legal battle, Spaink has become an advisor to several organizations on the topic of freedom of the media and the Internet.

--
LYING IS A SCIENTOLOGY SACRAMENT
ASK THEM ABOUT XENU
Mike O'Connor <http://www.leptonicsystems.com/>

From: Zinj <zinjifar@yahoo.com>
Subject: Spaink, Scn and BusinessWeek
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 16:41:21 -0700
Message-ID: <MPG.19c6b37ae0b3a2f09896c4@news2.lightlink.com>
Organization: BadCo

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/5072581.htm

Zinj -- Scientology® - Deliberately killing no more than 0.5 percent of its members since 1953

Message-ID: <3F5DCD45.2C21F85D@macmail.com>
Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 13:53:26 +0100
From: Howard Edmunds <hedmundo@macmail.com>
Subject: The Register. 8 Sept: Scientologists lose copyright case

Seen at The Register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32701.html

Scientologists loses copyright case
By Jan Libbenga
Posted: 08/09/2003 at 12:20 GMT

As a result, Spaink's website which Scientologists had sought to remove, is entirely legal.

This judgment was reason for Xs4all to initiate appeal proceedings of its own. In a press release Xs4all says that "Unless the criteria for removing information from a site are clearly delineated, commercial interests of providers may all too readily prevail over the protection of freedom of opinion".

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