Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.censorship,alt.clearing.technology,alt.conspiracy,alt.current-events.net-abuse,alt.law-enforcement,alt.privacy.anon-server,alt.society.civil-liberty,comp.org.eff.talk,misc.legal,misc.legal.computing,news.admin.misc,news.admin.policy From: noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring) Subject: FWD: Letter from CoS [Church of Scientology] Lawyer Message-ID: References: <3foqdn$128@panix.com> Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 21:15:32 GMT In article ak@panix.com (Andrew Kantor) wrote As part of a short article in the April issue of Internet World, we requested information about the goings on here from the Church of Scientology, and e-mailed Helena Korbin, who has posted here previously. Following is the note we received, portions of which will appear in IW. It is in response to my partner, Eric Berlin. Andrew Kantor Internet World magazine * * * RESPONSE TO E-MAIL FROM ERIC BERLIN: Dear Mr. Berlin: Thank you for your message. To answer your question about who I am, I am legal counsel for several Churches of Scientology, including Religious Technology Center ("RTC") and Church of Scientology International ("CSI"), and affiliated entities, such as Bridge Publications, Inc., which publishes certain of the scriptures of the religion. I understand that the secretary for the public relations director of CSI has spoken with Andrew Kantor and gotten further questions from him. I am supplying the information you both requested below. As you are undoubtedly aware, the issue of unlawful posting of copyrighted and trade secret materials on the Internet is a hot topic currently in both computer and legal circles. Among other cases, Playboy has gotten a favorable decision for copyright infringement based on unauthorized posting of pictures from its magazines, and Sega has gotten a court order against unauthorized postings of its video game software. My clients' interest in the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup is similar. It is related to the use of a.r.s. as a forum for the repeated postings of copyrighted Church materials, including both published materials and unpublished, confidential materials, which are also judicially recognized as trade secrets. The unpublished materials which have been posted are among the religious scriptures of the religion, and their posting on the Internet is a violation of RTC's property rights in the materials. There are both identified and anonymous posters of these materials. The known posters have been approached several times both through letters and personally but they have refused to cease their infringements of the copyrights and misappropriations of the trade secrets. Their unlawful actions will therefore be dealt with directly through the appropriate legal means. However, in light of the refusal of these individuals to cease their actions voluntarily, and the frequent violations of my clients' property rights by anonymous posters, we have also been compelled to request cancellation of the newsgroup as a possible method of preventing such postings. In addition, "Scientology" is a federally registered trademark owned by RTC and licensed for use by CSI and other churches of Scientology. Its use in the Internet address of a.r.s. is a violation of RTC's trademark rights as well. Our request is not made for the purpose of stopping the discussions on a.r.s. Apart from trademark infringement, the sole reason for requesting a.r.s. be shut down is to put a stop to the unlawful postings of copyright and trade secret materials. We are not attempting to prevent discussions which do not infringe on property rights or to cut across anyone's First Amendment rights. We are trying to deal with an anarchy created by some net users who callously trample on the intellectual property rights of organizations and individuals under the guise of the First Amendment. It is our obligation to take action and assert our rights, lest the failure to do so be taken as a waiver of rights. We are not committed to pursuing the "remove group" message to deal with the problem if it is not the appropriate method. If anyone has other viable solutions for eliminating the violations of property rights, we'd be interested to know what they are. If you have any further questions, please let me know. Sincerely, Helena Kobrin *** End of forwarded post ***