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Our favourite cult has conspicuously failed to annoy me for some considerable time. In fact it is a year almost to the day since I responded to their last bogus legal threat to my ISP by threatening to sue *them* for making false allegations of copyright infringement against me. The ensuing silence was deafening. Imagine my surprise at work yesterday when I was called to the front desk to speak to what I thought was a customer, only to find a couple of representatives of our favourite cult eager to 'handle' me.

I was aware they knew where I worked because their resident Melbourne spook Brian "Clouseau" Johnston had called my boss last year and failed miserably to obtain any incriminating information about me. I waited in vain for Brian to make a personal appearance and creep out my co-workers as he had already done with a number of friends and acquaintances.

In his place came one Vicky Dunstan and some other female cultist whose name escapes me. Since she spent the whole time standing behind me so does her face. Vicky told me she was down from Sydney and wanted to take the opportunity to have a chat with me about my problems with $cientology. I told her the same thing I told previous $cientology 'handlers'. If they wanted to communicate with me they could do so by email, on the understanding that any email they sent me was for public consumption. No, I would not tell her my email address because her cult already knew it. She actually took the hint and left after a couple of minutes, pausing only to grab some business cards off the front desk.

About half an hour later a call came in from a 'Vicky' wanting to make an appointment to see me. The co-worker who took the call explained to her that she was wasting her time.

For your entertainment, here's the response I sent to their lawyers last October:

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- From fjc@thingy.apana.org.au Sun Oct 12 20:49:30 2003 Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003 20:49:30 +1000
From: Frank Copeland <fjc@thingy.apana.org.au>
To: Joan Ball <JBall@davies.com.au>, Kate Pickering <kpickering@davies.com.au> Subject: Re: RTC/Copeland
Message-ID: <20031012104930.GC24636@wossname.apana.org.au>
Status: RO X-Status: F Content-Length: 3711

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12 October 2003

By Email only

DAVIES COLLISON CAVE SOLICITORS Attention: Ms Kate Pickering

Your Ref: RMD:KEP:JLB:990368 Re: Religious Technology Centre Mr Frank Copeland and <thing.apana.org.au> (sic)

I refer to your letter of 29 September 2003, addressed to the Australian Public Access Network Association (APANA) through Donovan Baarda. In it you make, on behalf of Religious Technology Center (RTC), the usual allegations of copyright infringement against myself in relation to the Henson trial transcript posted on my web server, thingy.apana.org.au.

As you point out, RTC has been making these same allegations against myself for some considerable time, over three years by my reckoning. I absolutely deny the allegations, but it is clear that RTC and I agree on two major points.

The first point of agreement is that RTC's allegations of copyright infringement are completely without merit. This is evident from the fact that RTC, despite ample opportunity to do so, has declined to make it's allegations directly to me. RTC knows as well as I do that its repeated assertions that the Henson transcript contains NOTS 34 would be simple perjury if made in a court of law.

On the two occasions on which RTC sent letters of demand to me regarding the Henson trial transcript, it made no mention of copyright whatsoever. In both cases it chose instead to argue that my publishing the transcript constituted a civil contempt against the provincial American court in which the Henson trial took place. It is inconceivable that RTC would choose not to present its strongest case and it is therefore clear that it considers even this absurd civil contempt argument to be stronger than its copyright claims.

RTC's constant whining about the amount of time this matter has dragged on brings me to the second point of agreement between us, which is that this farce has gone on long enough. I now propose to end it.

Section 202 of the Copyright Act 1968 covers groundless threats of legal proceedings. RTC has has made numerous groundless legal threats against Telstra, Pacific Internet and APANA, and no doubt others, in an attempt to coerce those organisations into taking action that would deny me internet access and remove the Henson transcript from the internet. It's agents, most notably one Brian Johnston, have used the allegations of copyright infringement as cover to harass and intimidate members of my family, friends and acquaintances, not to mention myself.

As the aggrieved party I am entitled under Section 202 to seek declarations, injunctions, damages and costs. I therefore require RTC to immediately and permanently:

1. Cease and desist from making allegations of copyright infringement related to the Henson trial transcript, to myself or to any third party.

2. Cease and desist from threatening legal action for copyright infringement related to the Henson trial transcript against myself or any third party.

3. Cease and desist from contacting myself or any third party on the pretext of investigating allegations of copyright infringement related to the Henson trial transcript.

I will allow RTC 14 days from the date of this message to forward to me a binding declaration that it will abide by these demands, in a form acceptable to myself and to my legal advisors. In the event that RTC fails to do so, I reserve all rights to take action to compel RTC's compliance.

- - -- Frank Joseph Copeland <fjc@thingy.apana.org.au> - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux)

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- -- Frank Copeland Home Page: <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fjc/> Not the Scientology Home Page: <URL:http://xenu.apana.org.au/ntshp/>

Keep it in Usenet. E-mail replies and 'courtesy' copies are not welcome. If you're selling, I ain't buying. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)

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