Scientology hassles Aussie ISP

Gnome, Frank Copeland, David Bromage, Nick Andrew, David Gerard, Ex-Mudder, Reg Braddock, November 1998

From: "Gnome" <gnome@one.net.au>
Subject: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Message-ID: <01be092d$379f07e0$e80165cb@dorie>
Date: 6 Nov 98 02:31:26 GMT

It seems that Scientology is upset at my website -
http://web.one.net.au/~gnome/xenu.html
Needless to say, it is still under construction. 

Apparently they have contacted my service provider "ONE.NET" -
http://www.one.net.au/one_site to complain.
I have found One.Net to be an excellent service, and my website is still there.  I do not intend to change
the site at the moment, but it does need to be updated.  (I will change the "Scientology is mentioned later
in the article." bit for example.)  In any case Scientology has not contacted me to point out what their
problem is.

I am curious as to whether Australian law requires that the site as it is be changed.  (I have for example
quoted OTIII, Scientology's *secret* alien story up to "His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various
misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.")

Thanks!  Gnome 

From: fjc@thingy.apana.org.au (Frank Copeland)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 6 Nov 1998 03:48:06 GMT
Message-ID: <slrn744sb6.17l.fjc@thingy.apana.org.au>

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Gnome <gnome@one.net.au> wrote:

Small request: could you wordwrap at about 75 characters. Makes everyone's
life a bit easier.

>It seems that Scientology is upset at my website -
>http://web.one.net.au/~gnome/xenu.html
>Needless to say, it is still under construction. 
>
>Apparently they have contacted my service provider "ONE.NET" -
>http://www.one.net.au/one_site to complain.
>I have found One.Net to be an excellent service, and my website is still
>there.  I do not intend to change the site at the moment, but it does need
>to be updated.  (I will change the "Scientology is mentioned later in the
>article." bit for example.)  In any case Scientology has not contacted me
>to point out what their problem is. 
>
>I am curious as to whether Australian law requires that the site as it is
>be changed.  (I have for example quoted OTIII, Scientology's *secret* alien
>story up to "His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data
>by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.") 

I'm not a lawyer, but I've been there and done that. At the moment your
problem isn't $cientology, it's ONE.NET. Your OTIII quote is well within the
bounds of Fair Use, and $cientology knows it. What $cientology also knows is
that most ISPs are congenitally spineless and there's a good chance they
will capitulate in the face of bogus legal threats. 

The fact that your page is still there shows that ONE.NET do actually have
some backbone, but it's a good idea to do what you can to stiffen it. You've
got David Gerard's site linked from yours; get them to have a look at the
section on his dealings with $cientology and various ISPs over some stuff he
posted: 

  <URL:http://suburbia.net/~fun/scn/pers/fun/nots/> or
  <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fun/scn/pers/fun/nots/>

The short story is, force them to deal with *you*, not your ISP. If the ISP
tells them to piss off often enough, they will. If they haven't got their
*Australian* lawyers involved yet, they are bluffing. If it's Mark Hanna or
Brian Johnston or one of their little spooks making the noise, tell them to
crawl back under their rock. If Helena Kobrin or Ava Paquette try it on,
laugh at them. American lawyers don't count here. If Davies Ryan De Boos get
involved, *then* take it seriously. 

Post or summarise any mail you've got over this (ask for permission if it's
from your ISP, no need to annoy them). Get it all documented, it's all
valuable for building the case against the cult. .zip up your web page just
in case to make it easier for people to mirror it.

- -- 
Home Page: <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fjc/> 
Not the Scientology Home Page: <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fjc/scn/>

Keep it in Usenet. E-mail replies and 'courtesy' copies are not welcome.
If you're selling, I ain't buying. 

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From: dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 6 Nov 1998 04:38:12 GMT
Message-ID: <71tufk$kvv$4@news.mel.aone.net.au>

I got similar threats from Co$ in 1996. They claimed the "copyright" and
"secret" angle. It has already been found by numerous courts that the
"secret" status of the NOTs no longer exists. 

As to copyright, if they've followed standard procedure they've probably
faxed the copyright registration forms to your ISP. The titles on the
forms and the NOTs just happen to be the same, but they have not proven
that the documents are what they say they are. Ask for a copy of OTIII to
compare with your web page. Say that if they are too similar, then you're
happy to remove it. :)

Cheers
David

From: nick@zeta.org.au (Nick Andrew)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 6 Nov 1998 18:53:27 +1100
Message-ID: <71u9tn$br5$1@gidora.zeta.org.au>

In <71tufk$kvv$4@news.mel.aone.net.au> dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage) writes:

>I got similar threats from Co$ in 1996. They claimed the "copyright" and
>"secret" angle. It has already been found by numerous courts that the
>"secret" status of the NOTs no longer exists. 

That's "trade secret" as in "we stand to make lots of money by revealing the
contents of this document to carefully selected marks; if you tell the world
how stupid our scriptures are we stand to lose lots of money."

Nick.
-- 
Zeta Internet                     SP4   Fax: +61-2-9233-6545 Voice: 9231-9400
G.P.O. Box 3400, Sydney NSW 1043        http://www.zeta.org.au/

From: fun@thingy.apana.org.au (David Gerard)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 6 Nov 1998 08:47:42 GMT
Message-ID: <71ud3e$5ed$3@youknow.apana.org.au>

On 6 Nov 1998 03:48:06 GMT, Frank Copeland <fjc@thingy.apana.org.au> wrote:

:  <URL:http://suburbia.net/~fun/scn/pers/fun/nots/> or
:  <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fun/scn/pers/fun/nots/>

:The short story is, force them to deal with *you*, not your ISP. If the ISP
:tells them to piss off often enough, they will. If they haven't got their
:*Australian* lawyers involved yet, they are bluffing.


Even if they *do* get the Australian lawyers to write, they may *still*
be bluffing.

Email me if you want to ask any relevant questions about this. Ask one.net
to do the same.


:If it's Mark Hanna or
:Brian Johnston or one of their little spooks making the noise, tell them to
:crawl back under their rock. If Helena Kobrin or Ava Paquette try it on,
:laugh at them. American lawyers don't count here. If Davies Ryan De Boos get
:involved, *then* take it seriously. 


If Mark Hanna (aka 'Neil Silk') or Brian Johnston get involved, it's cos
they're bored. Warn your ISP that they will get hassled by fuckheads.
If they don't like the idea, start warning people about one.net :-)

Brian Johnston has a habit of wandering into ISP offices and harassing
random employees.

If Davies Ryan de Boos send a letter, call *me* first and I'll tell you
what to do. They aren't that hard to deal with  ;-)


:Post or summarise any mail you've got over this (ask for permission if it's
:from your ISP, no need to annoy them). Get it all documented, it's all
:valuable for building the case against the cult. .zip up your web page just
:in case to make it easier for people to mirror it.


I have room for a mirror site. I haven't looked at your page yet (I'm offline
at this writing) - I will do, though.


-- 
http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fun/scn/pers/fun/nots/

From: nick@zeta.org.au (Nick Andrew)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 6 Nov 1998 18:50:32 +1100
Message-ID: <71u9o8$bnj$1@gidora.zeta.org.au>

In <01be092d$379f07e0$e80165cb@dorie> "Gnome" <gnome@one.net.au> writes:

>It seems that Scientology is upset at my website -
>http://web.one.net.au/~gnome/xenu.html

If you're going to quote OT-III and you don't want to be sued, then you
need to make it a fair use quote. For example you should critique it. This
isn't difficult since OT-III is pure science fiction garbage.

For the small number of people who don't know what the cult of $cientology
is all about, OT-III is one of their secret documents ("sekrit skriptures")
which they claim could give you pneumonia or even kill you if you read it
without being properly prepared.

$cientology is all about convincing you that your body is infested with
the souls of dead aliens, which can only be removed by exxxpensive
$cientology frauditing).  That is to say, they're after your money,
and belief in alien infestation is a handy way to keep you coming back
for more.

The OT-III document describes in L. Ron Hubbard's typical flamboyant
style how 75 million years ago, an evil alien overlord called Xenu
tried to rid his alien empire of overpopulation by sending billions
of his citizens to Earth in spaceships which looked just like DC-10s,
packing them around volcanoes, blowing them up with H-bombs and then
collecting their dead souls, confusing the souls by showing them 36 days
worth of movies about Jesus Christ and the Devil, and finally setting up
"implanting" stations on Mars and Venus to distribute these souls into
the bodies of all human beings. This is of course utter nonsense, which
is why it is not revealed until the mark is firmly hooked (to the tune of
many thousands of dollars and hours spent in the cult).

>Needless to say, it is still under construction. 

The Cult of $cientology continues their despicable practices even today
(see my site http://xenu.zeta.org.au/ for a taste), so you should be
prepared to keep updating it as more evidence comes to light.

>Apparently they have contacted my service provider "ONE.NET" -
>http://www.one.net.au/one_site to complain.
> In any case Scientology has not contacted me to point out what their
>problem is.

That's their standard harrassment technique. They will try to browbeat your
provider (who really doesn't care about the issue and is likely to take the
easy way out). If they successfully cause one.net to remove your site they
will consider that the problem has been "handled" and they get brownie points
from their superiors for that.

However, the Internet is like a Hydra. If they cause your page to be censored
then it will cause more people to setup mirrors of your page in protest.

>I have found One.Net to be an excellent service, and my website is still there.  I do not intend to change
>the site at the moment, but it does need to be updated.  (I will change the "Scientology is mentioned later
>in the article." bit for example.)

I think you need to change that. I read a fuller version of the report you
quoted and I believe your "Scientology is mentioned later" bit is misleading.

>I am curious as to whether Australian law requires that the site as it is be changed.  (I have for example
>quoted OTIII, Scientology's *secret* alien story up to "His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various
>misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.")

Just say that it's nonsense, and why. That's fair use for the purpose of
criticism.

Also you need to be more accurate with your wording. You wrote:

        "A US federal judge has awarded the Church of Scientology $US 3
        million ($5 million) against a critic of the church who posted
        parts of the group's secret scriptures on the internet"

That's not right. Grady Ward (the defendant) admitted no such thing and the
judge wrote no liability into the finding. Grady Ward settled with the
Cult and you can infer what you like from that, but remember that the Cult
also settled with Grady (if they had evidence, it would have been to their
advantage to have Grady found guilty; they could then parade his head on a
pike). The judge did not choose the amount; it was agreed between Grady Ward
and the Cult lawyers. And finally, Grady comes out of the case with his
right to free speech intact (as somebody said, it must be a bit disturbing
to the Cult when they put somebody's head on a pike and the head keeps on
yelling at them). Grady doesn't have $3 million and never will; he estimates
the actual amount he will have to pay is around $35,000 net present value.

Just to close, if the Cult continues to harrass your ISP, point out to
one.net that they should have contacted you first (and tell one.net to
tell them to go see you) and secondly the EFA (http://www.efa.org.au/) may
be able to help if they continue to harrass either you or one.net.

Nick.
-- 
Zeta Internet                     SP4   Fax: +61-2-9233-6545 Voice: 9231-9400
G.P.O. Box 3400, Sydney NSW 1043        http://www.zeta.org.au/

From: Ex Mudder <74640.3705@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Message-ID: <OoFpakWC#GA.252@nih2naac.prod2.compuserve.com>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 04:37:41 -0500

<<
>It seems that Scientology is upset at my website -
>http://web.one.net.au/~gnome/xenu.html

If you're going to quote OT-III and you don't want to be sued, 
then you need to make it a fair use quote. For example you should 
critique it. 
>>
  Sorry, but you are wrong about fair use quotes.  If you want to 
be able to argue that the material is copyrighted by you and not 
them, then you will need to transform it by, for example 
critiqing or MST3K-ing.  This is important because most ISPs, and 
many netizens, feel that the unaltered use of copyrighted 
materials is illegal and will delete your account / flame you if 
they get a complaint.
   This is not, however, the only method of "fair use."  Fair use 
is based around how much of the material you are quoting, why, 
for what purpose, and if it undercuts the market.  Transformative 
efforts are based around ratio of new to old material.  Keith 
Henson, for example, spent some time barking up this wrong tree. 
   The transformative argument is one example of the use of 
copyright laws to chill Free Speech - it only permits a minimal 
quoting to minimize the chance of a lawsuit.  And it is becoming 
industry standard on the 'net.


-- 

From: fjc@thingy.apana.org.au (Frank Copeland)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 6 Nov 1998 10:59:29 GMT
Message-ID: <slrn745ljt.ohk.fjc@thingy.apana.org.au>

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I think it was Nick Andrew that said:

>If you're going to quote OT-III and you don't want to be sued, 
>then you need to make it a fair use quote. For example you should 
>critique it. 

Ex Mudder <74640.3705@CompuServe.COM> wrote:

>   The transformative argument is one example of the use of 
>copyright laws to chill Free Speech - it only permits a minimal 
>quoting to minimize the chance of a lawsuit.  And it is becoming 
>industry standard on the 'net.

I think we should perhaps step back here and put this back in perspective.
This is the quote from OTIII in dispute:

" The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars
visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved
overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by
mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put
an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area
ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas
and there "packaged". His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various
misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants. " 

Nothing we all haven't seen many times before. In the first instance I would
argue that such a limited quote is fair use in itself. In the second
instance I would argue that *in the context of the whole web page* it was
part of a valid critique. There is no precedent being set here, it's just an
repeat of the same old clumsy intimidation that earned the 'ho her justly
deserved Usenet Kook of the Month lo those many moons ago. I'm so confident
of this that I've put up a mirror of the page at
<URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fjc/scn/mirrors/web.one.net.au_80/~gnome/xenu.html>.

Move along folks. Nothing to see here.

- -- 
Home Page: <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fjc/> 
Not the Scientology Home Page: <URL:http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fjc/scn/>

Keep it in Usenet. E-mail replies and 'courtesy' copies are not welcome.
If you're selling, I ain't buying. 

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From: "Gnome" <gnome@one.net.au>
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Message-ID: <01be0988$4e406d80$8b0265cb@dorie>
Date: 6 Nov 98 13:23:29 GMT

A big THANKS to those that have replied so far - Frank, Nick, David &
Ex-Mudder; I hope my text is OK now.

Nick Andrew <nick@zeta.org.au> wrote in article
<71u9o8$bnj$1@gidora.zeta.org.au>...
(snip) 
> If you're going to quote OT-III and you don't want to be sued, then you
> need to make it a fair use quote. For example you should critique it.
This
> isn't difficult since OT-III is pure science fiction garbage.

Regardless of whether I *need* to critique it the OT-III story is a good
one and deserves a good dissection.  I think the 'reading this will kill
you' bit also deserves a mention.

> However, the Internet is like a Hydra. If they cause your page to be
censored
> then it will cause more people to setup mirrors of your page in protest.

Looks like this has already happened.  I feel honoured!

> >I have found One.Net to be an excellent service, and my website is
still there.  I do not intend to change
> >the site at the moment, but it does need to be updated.  (I will change
the "Scientology is mentioned later
> >in the article." bit for example.)
> 
> I think you need to change that. I read a fuller version of the report
you
> quoted and I believe your "Scientology is mentioned later" bit is
misleading.

It is, and I have been too lazy to web a proper discription of what is
going on with regard to this proposed legislation.  That quip of mine is
hardly fair and I'll change it.

(snip)
> Also you need to be more accurate with your wording. You wrote:
> 
>       "A US federal judge has awarded the Church of Scientology $US 3
>       million ($5 million) against a critic of the church who posted
>       parts of the group's secret scriptures on the internet"

Here I wanted to exactly quote the newspaper (Aust. Financial Review). 
Again I was too lazy to go into full detail.  I shall point out that no
liability was admitted by Grady Ward, and winge that AFR never (to my
knowledge) corrected their error.  But - Scientology has helped me here -
to put some proper effort into making an informative and effective site. 
Guess I'll have to start telling people it exists!  

Apparently Henry Bartnik has visited One.Net's office; I don't think he
got any converts for Scn.  Thanks again all.

(more snippage)
>Nick.
>-- 
>Zeta Internet                     SP4   Fax: +61-2-9233-6545 Voice:
9231-9400
>G.P.O. Box 3400, Sydney NSW 1043        http://www.zeta.org.au/

From: braddock@labrador.apana.org.au (Reg Braddock)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,aus.legal,aus.net.announce,aus.net.policy
Subject: Re: Scientology hassles Aussie ISP
Date: 8 Nov 1998 12:05:11 GMT
Message-ID: <slrn74b27n.oi5.braddock@golden.labrador.apana.org.au>

On 6 Nov 98 02:31:26 GMT, Gnome <gnome@one.net.au> wrote:

>quoted OTIII, Scientology's *secret* alien story up to "His name was
>Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits
>etc. was placed in the implants.")

You know, a very similar thing happened in the story line of Dark
Skies!

Reg.


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen."
Aristotle.