1996-01-20
Craig A. Johnson
In a sign that copyright enforcement on the Net is tightening, a
federal judge ruled yesterday against Arnaldo P. Lerma, who posted
so-called "secrets" of the Church of Scientology on the Net.
The same judge ruled last year in the cult's lawsuit against The
Washington Post that the newspaper had used the CoS documents fairly
in news stories, and called the suit against the Post
"reprehensible."
Excerpts from a story by Peter H. Lewis in today's New York Times
follow, posted under the fair use doctrine.
--caj
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
A POSTING ON INTERNET IS RULED TO BE ILLEGAL
By Peter H. Lewis
A Federal judge ruled yesterday that a Virginia man violated the
coyrights of the Church of Scientology by posting confidential church
documents on the Internet, even though the material was obtained from
public court records.
The Religious Technology Center, which owns the trademarks and
copyrights of the Church of Scientology International, had sued
Arnaldo P. Lerma of Arlington, Va., for posting several dozen pages
of secret church documents about the Scientologist philosophy on the
Internet, the global computing network.
In making her ruling, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the United States
District Court in Alexandria, Va., affirmed that the church holds a
copyright on the documents and that Mr. Lerma infringed on the
copyright by postinb church documents withought comment, criticism or
other significant changes that would constitute fair use.
...
The copyrighted material in question known as the "Operating Thetan
scriptures," were obtained by Mr. Lerma and The Washington Post form
public court documents filed in an earlier dispute betweeen the
church and a former member in California.
The church contends that the documents are trade secrets that deal
with the training of Scientologists who have reached the highest
levels of understanding of its philosophies.
Judge Brinkema ruled last year that the docuemnts were not trade
secrets but could be copyrighted.
~ CYBER-RIGHTS ~
~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
For subscription info, archived postings/documents, and other useful
material, visit the CPSR Cyber-Rights Web Page at:
http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/
You are encouraged to forward and cross-post list traffic,
pursuant to any contained copyright & redistribution restrictions.
~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
