Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
Law of the wires
The Observer - Life magazine supplement, 1st October 1995
Writer: Jim McClellan Earlier this month, the Amsterdam offices of xs4all, a Dutch Internet access provider, were visited by a bailiff, accompanied by the police, a lawyer, computer experts and a representative of the Church of Scientology. The religious organisation set up by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard is filing for the seizure of xs4all's computer equipment, which means, under Dutch law, that a bailiff first comes round to record your assets. On that visit, all that was taken were a few computer serial numbers. xs4all is still up and running. This was the latest stage in the battle between Scientologists and their critics on the Net - a battle over the limits of free speech and the enforcing of copyright on-line which has been going on around the world for the past eight months. The fallout from the Dutch incident may actually see the Scientologists taking legal action in the UK. The Church was on the march in Holland because an xs4all user (fonss) had set up a home page containing some of its copyright material. Though xs4all didn't demand changes and insisted the page was none of its business, fonss removed the document and instead added a link to a British Web page critical of Scientology maintained by Martin Poulter, a philosophy research student at Bristol University. At the time of writing, Poulter hasn't yet received a knock on the door, but it is, he suggests, a distinct possibility. The dispute started with the church's decision to act against one of its critics, Dennis Ehrlich. The former Scientology minister had been posting messages to the Usenet discussion group alt.religion.scientology, which contained excerpts from the church's sacred texts (space opera sagas about intergalactic federations and evil alien rulers). Lawyers for the organisation argued that the texts in question were protected by copyright. Consequently, Ehrlich's home in Glendale, California, was raided in February this year and various computer discs were seized. He has claimed a defence of "fair use", arguing that he needed to quote the texts as part of his critique. In a way, this is just the latest hi-tech chapter in a long history of legal battles between the church and its critics. However, the Scientologists also took action against Ehrlich's Internet service provider, Netcom, arguing that it was also liable for his copyright infringements. It's this which has serious implications for Net culture. In its defence, Netcom says that it should be seen as similar to telephone companies, that it is a "common carrier" of messages, not a publisher, and hence not responsible. It is likely that the case will set some kind of precedent concerning the legal responsibilities of Internet service providers, which might be one reason the official involved, Judge Whyte, is taking his time. If the Scientologists win it won't, as some alarmists claim, mean the death of the Net. It will, however, mean a level of control and censorship previously unknown on-line. Meanwhile, a kind of on-line holy war has been raging as Netheads have retaliated against what they see as an attack on their culture. The Net has ben flooded with anti-Scientology material and alt.religion.scientology has become one of the busiest newsgroups. The Scientologists have responded with more raids. In July they closed down an anonymous remailer in Finland (which lets Net users send E-mail anonymously) because they claimed it was being used to circulate copyrighted materials. They also released specially designed programs (nicknamed cancelbunnies) to delete on-line messages with copyright infringements. For their side of the story and their take on the Net, try the home page of the Church of Scientology International's media relations director, Leisa Goodman. Even if they win their case against Ehrlich and Netcom, it won't stop anti-Scientology activity on-line. The only thing you can say is that Judge Whyte certainly won't have the last word on the case and, like a lot of things on-line, the battle between the church and the Netheads will run and run. Footnote: Details of the xs4all raid are at http://www.xs4all.nl/ Leisa Goodman's home page is at http://www.theta.com/goodman.index.htm Martin Poulter's page is at http://mail.bris.ac.uk/%7Eplmlp/ [Note from sender: the author of this article may be contacted via e-mail at Jim_mcc@cix.compulink.co.uk]
Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive