Defeat for Scientology in Dutch Internet case

elektro80

The Dutch Attorney-General for the Supreme Court, Verkade, has once more
righted internetprovider XS4ALL and author Karin Spaink in their decade
long defence against legal attacks by Scientology. In his opinion for the
Supreme Court Verkade argues "Although copyright resides under Article 1
of the First Protocol of EDHR and can therefore be regarded as a human
right, this does not exempt copyright from being balanced against the
right to freedom of information." In this specific case, in which Spaink
quoted several critical paragraphs from a statement made in court by a
former member of the organisation, freedom of speech clearly prevails
above the claimed copyrights of Scientology.

The case started in September 1995, when XS4ALL servers were formally
seized by a bailiff, assisted by a representative from Scientology,
because a customer hosted the Fishman Affidavit. This court-testimony
contained many quotes from documents that the church wanted to keep
secret. Spaink first put the entire document on her XS4ALL homepage. When
Scientology threatened to sue her and XS4ALL, many other people put
mirrors on their homepages. Spaink then limited the information on her
homepage to relevant quotes from the document. In interim injunction
proceedings in 1996, the court of The Hague declared all Scientology's
claims against XS4ALL, Karin Spaink and the other defendants to be
unfounded. Scientology appealed, but lost once again in 1999. However,
this 1999 decision included a separate declaratory judgement stating that
providers could be held liable if three conditions are met; first, the
provider is notified; secondly, the notification leaves no reasonable
doubt about the infringement of (copy-)rights; and thirdly, the provider
does not take down or block the material. The later E-Commerce Directive
was clearly influenced by this verdict.

The Supreme Court will rule on 8 July 2005.

Press release XS4ALL (in English, 18.03.2005)
http://www.xs4all.nl/nieuws/bericht.php?id=625&taal=en

mosc · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:07 am Post subject:

Is there a link to the orginal site that the so-called Chruch of Scientology views to be so offensive?

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:15 am Post subject:

I am not sure. However, posting that link here might send us to Scientology hell.. Shocked

mosc · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:21 am Post subject:

Ha ha... no, they lost the case in court. Should be OK to post a link to the site. Laughing

Kassen · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:23 am Post subject:

Xs4All is no stranger to this kinds of case. Non-dutch non-nerds, might not know they decent from "Hacktic", a promonent Dutch group of hackers from back in the day. They obviously changed hats but they are still very active in defending free speech and related rights while other internet providers tend to back down by default in order to avoid lawsuits. I think Xs4All actually went to court agains the U.S. government in one case -and won.

They deserve respect.

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:28 am Post subject:

blue hell · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:33 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:52 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:03 pm Post subject:

BTW: I actually enjoyed "The Divine Invasion". I am reading it again now.

Kassen · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:53 pm Post subject:

My favourite is still the fist short story I read of his. "Faith of our fathers", a short story commisioned to be written under the influence of L.S.D.. It´s one of the most twistededly beautifull things ever, dealing (of cource) with paranoia, gnosticism and drugs, there´s even some sex and politics there all crammed in just a few pages.

It´ll make you want to take anti psychotics to see what happens.

(You realy, shouldn´t of cource, it´s both illegal and unwise to recreationally take perscription medicines, Kas nor Electro-Music encourages such behaviour.)

mosc · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:13 pm Post subject:

I spent a bit of time looking around that Dutch site. You can read the documents in questions. Bad vibes. Don't waste your time there.

deknow · Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:33 am Post subject:

scientology has used the courts in the us in very disturbing ways. it's been about a year since i looked at this, but this is my recolection (there are lots of websties about this).

there used to be a group called "the cult awareness network" which was formed by famillies who's children were seduced by "the children of god". this grew into a decent source of information on fringe religious groups and was helpful in figuring out what was legit and what was a scam. this was a secular (non-christian) group that did good work.

the church of scientology filed lawsuit after lawsuit (probably didn't like being called a cult) until the group went bankrupt, finding it impossible to defend itself.

guess who bought the assetts from bankrupcy? a member of the church of scientology (one who is well involved in the organization). not only did they buy the name, logo, domain name, etc...but also ALL THE CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS OF FAMILLIES WHO HAD CONTACTED THE CAN (CULT AWARENESS NETWORK). (i;ve also read that these are in a university library....confidential records should be in neither place)

now, of course, there is a website for the CAN, and hotlines and the like. i pitty the fool who seeks help from something called "the cult awareness network" (esepcially if they have a loved one involved with scientology) and finds that they are asking scientology for help. it's really sad, and somehow should not be legal.
http://www.rickross.com/groups/newcan.html ...is a good place to read more.