Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 05:40:07 +0200 (MET DST) Message-ID: <199609240340.FAA23956@basement.replay.com> From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) Organization: Replay and Company UnLimited XComm: Replay may or may not approve of the content of this posting XComm: Report misuse of this automated service to Subject: English Translation of Nettnytt Article on Zenon Panoussis Path: netnews.worldnet.att.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology X-NNTP-Posting-User: nobody@replay.com X-Mail2News-Path: news.demon.net!basement.replay.com Lines: 139 The translator is a Norwegian who wishes to remain anonymous. He will not vouch for the accuracy of the translation, especially regarding legal terms. He also wants to stress that Scandinavian law differs in important ways from what Americans may be used to. Kopinor is (among other related things) the Norwegian association for the interest of holders of copyrights. Traditionally, Scandinavian copyright laws have allowed copying of a larger amount than the US laws have, especially when the purpose of copying has been for non-profit purposes, such as education. During the last few years, limitations have been made to the right to copy, even for individual use. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Publication: Net News (Nettnytt) Date: 10 September 1996 Title: The Net War of the Church of Scientology Comes to Scandinavia The Church of Scientology has sued the Swede Zenon Panoussis for his publication of the religious community's sacred scriptures on Usenet without permission. Swedish authorities searched Panoussis' apartment on Thursday and seized his hard disks as evidence. He now risks a fine of 50,000 Swedish crowns if he continues to publish similar material during the proceeding of the case. "In mid-June I joined a Dutch protest group which I encountered on the Internet," says Panoussis. "I copied the material and put it up on my server, according to the principle that should someone stop it at one place, it would appear at ten other places instead. And there is where this story started." The Church of Scientology claims that their scriptures are sacred, and should therefore not be made available to those who are not part of the congregation. Infringement of copyright is a major reason for taking this to court. The Panoussis case is the latest chapter of a long disagreement over copyrighted material on the Internet. The Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology was early on used for posting of copies of secret scriptures to which the church claims it holds copyrights to. The persons behind the postings claim that they kept themselves within the limits of copyright laws, that they simply commented on quotes from the scriptures in the same way that a critic reproduces some of the contents of a book. The Church of Scientology has contested this claim from the moment the first postings were made, and the Church's lawyers have taken them all to court. Recently, the battle has moved to the Nordic countries. Police investigators in Helsinki claim that the Finnish anonymous remailing service anon.penet.fi was shut down partly due to the copyright argument with the Church. The Church of Scientology tried to locate the person who used the Finnish service for distributing the writings of the Church without their permission. Panoussis displays reserved optimism regarding his chances in Court: "It's difficult to judge, but the way things seem today, I could win the case. But I can't say much about this right now. However, I feel that I have a good chance to win. But this is not the central matter," says Panoussis, who holds that the principles are what's important in this case. Panoussis holds that the Church of Scientology has used copyright in a radically different way than it was originally meant to, and that he therefore has kept himself within the boundaries of the Law. In addition to publishing parts of the material of the Church on the Net, Panoussis has also printed parts of it in a paper edition. As far as the right to quote is concerned, he says it is not central here in this case, and that this rather has to do with the purpose and intention of copyright. "The court case is a natural corollary to the copyright law as far as I can see," says CEO John-Willy Rudolph of Kopinor. Rudolph cannot see that the Panoussis case is different from any other as far as copyright and libel and slander are concerned. He holds that the law is clear on this point. "The right to quote applies to material which has been made available to the public, or which has been published, when most people have access to it. It is legal to quote from published material in accordance with common courtesy. If it never has been made public, it is not permitted to quote from it. If you write a long letter to your sweetheart, then it's to be considered a [work of art]*. But as long as you don't make it public, no one has the right to quote from it. There are several things to be guarded here. Among these are the integrity of the originator," says Rudolph. [*literal translation "work of the spirit". It's a purely Norwegian term. The translator is not certain if it means art in the conventional sense or if it's a legal term meaning the minimum creational level that a work has to reach in order to merit copyright protection.] "Nordic law says that you cannot reproduce a complete work, or large parts of a work, and call it a quote, if the purpose is not to quote. If you are to polemize against me, it's in my best interest that you quote me word for word, rather than rewriting what I've said. If Panoussis had kept himself within the boundaries of copyright law regarding quotation, I doubt that he would have been brought to court. Since they now have sued him, I assume that he has electronically published such a large mass of their writings that it simply amounts to copyright theft. This is no different than any other kind of theft: it is illegal," Rudolph says, and feels that it is a pity that the focus is kept on the controversial Scientologists instead of the heart of the matter - the judicial matter. "You can't just take a book which someone has written and then make it available on the Internet. That's plain electronic publishing. I assume that when you make something available on the Internet it's quite available to people, because it's quite easy to see what you have done. Here, they have probably found that Panoussis has made such an amount available that it is not within the right to quote, or 'common courtesy' as it applies to the law." Spokespersons from the Swedish Church of Scientology were yesterday not available for comments. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The original Norwegian version of the above article can be found at: http://origo.telenor.no/spinn/nettnytt/saker/96/september/scientologi.html Other related Web pages from Nettnytt: Upset over handbook on the net (http://origo.telenor.no/spinn/nettnytt/saker/96/september/jehova.html) No anonymity in Finland (http://origo.telenor.no/spinn/nettnytt/saker/96/september/penet.html) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For further information on this case, consult the following Web page: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d1dd/cos/ (4)