Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,alt.clearing.technology,alt.society.civil-liberty,comp.org.eff.talk,misc.int-property,misc.legal.computing,misc.legal Path: netnews.worldnet.att.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!nntp.primenet.com!netcom.com!noring From: noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring) Subject: [I Plan to Order the NOTS] NOTs publicly available in Sweden Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) References: Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 00:29:07 GMT Lines: 93 Sender: noring@netcom8.netcom.com Xref: netnews.worldnet.att.net alt.religion.scientology:153780 alt.clearing.technology:8186 alt.society.civil-liberty:18270 comp.org.eff.talk:23275 misc.int-property:7818 misc.legal.computing:8998 misc.legal:43762 In article grady@netcom.com (Grady Ward) writes: >On Monday, October 21, 1996 I received an unsolicited package >via United Parcel Service, purportedly from a Mr Lars Ek, Box 5027, >161 05 Bromma, Sweden. Enclosed in the package was two separate >copies of the documents the plaintiff claims are the NOTs Series 1-54, >collectively registered under the U.S.Copyright Office as certificate TXu >257 326 and the subject of my preliminary injunction that I have moved >to dissolve. >According to my knowledge and belief and the representation of >the sender of these documents, these documents are publicly available >throughout Sweden from at least (1) The Chancellor of Justice; (2) The >Department of Justice; (3) The office of the Parliament; (4) The Primary >Court of Stockholm. It is my knowledge and belief that the Swedish >constitutional principle known as "offentlighetsprincip" ("public >common papers") applies. This principle guarantees that these papers be >forever publicly available for a standard copying fee. >I file under seal the two documents thus publicly procured >(Exhibit A). Each bears the official seal and security threads of either >the Chancellor of Justice ("Justitiekanslern") or of the Department of >Justice. According to my correspondent, the Chancellor of Justice is the >highest level civil servant in Sweden. She or he has the explicit >constitutional duty to defend the freedom of the media and to protect the >principle of offentlighetsprincip. In Sweden this position is separate >from either the government or of parliament. Under the "law of the >archives" the NOTs are guaranteed to be kept as public common papers >in perpetuity, available for whomever requests it and pays the copying >fee. According to my knowledge and belief, this principle of public >documents is felt to be such an important constitutional cornerstone in >Sweden that Sweden only joined the European Community under the >condition that this principle be preserved. > Exhibit B documents the significance of the security seals and >stamps and gives information on both verifying and ordering these >materials. According to the correspondent, these copies are public >common papers without any relation to the RTC v Zenon Parnoussis >case and were not made public solely as a consequence of this case. >That is, the status of the case in Sweden will have no effect on their >permanent status as "public common papers." This exhibit also >impeaches the testimony of plaintiff Warren McShane in a related >affidavit. > Exhibit C is the receipt in Swedish Crowns for making ten legal >copies of these documents under Swedish law and having them notarized >by the relevant official. IANAL, but I fully expect the cult to pour big bucks into lots of law firms into trying to resolve this matter to their satisfaction because if they don't it'll adversely affect their current U.S. litigation strategy claiming trade secret protection. It MAY also provide a legal way by which each Free Zoner can obtain the NOTS (again, just my opinion, and IANAL -- you do so at your own risk). It is of course a violation of copyright to copy the document obtained from Sweden, but it is not a violation of U.S. law, as far as I can tell (though RTC will be forced to make that claim) to possess and read a copy secured directly from the Swedish Parliament with the proper Swedish government stamps. (It would not surprise me if there are relevant international treaty obligations the U.S. has with Sweden regarding the possession of these documents by U.S. citizens -- and of course, people in other countries are governed by their own country's laws and treaty obligations. I suppose people in Germany can get their own copy of the NOTS legally from the Swedish Parliament. :^) ) I hope that the trade secret and copyright experts on misc.int-property will comment on the aspects of this situation, especially regarding the legality of U.S. citizens of obtaining and possessing a copy of the NOTS from the Swedish Parliament for personal use only. I am not a lawyer, so I'm not sure if a U.S. citizen can legally obtain and possess the NOTS document from the Swedish Parliament. BTW, I wonder if somebody will submit the OT materials to the Swedish Parliament? And maybe the other secret high-level materials once they get exposed to the Internet? I can't wait to get my legal copy from Sweden. My final caveat -- I am not a lawyer -- any action you take as a result of this post is at your own risk. Do consult with an attorney if you are unsure. Jon Noring (p.s., if I don't get a letter directly from Ms. Kobrin or other RTC attorney telling me that it is a violation of law or RTC/CoS rights to order my own copy of the NOTS from the Swedish Parliament, I plan to send in my request next Monday. How about it, Ms. Kobrin? Do I get the letter? Of course, if I do, I won't order the NOTS (since I'm a nice law abiding citizen), but I do plan to forward a copy of your letter to Keith and Grady, which I retain the right to do as part of this notice. I wonder if others here plan to do the same?) -- OmniMedia Electronic Books | URL: http://www.awa.com/library/omnimedia 9671 S. 1600 West St. | Anonymous FTP: South Jordan, UT 84095 | ftp.awa.com /pub/softlock/pc/products/OmniMedia 801-253-4037 | E-mail: omnimedia@netcom.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join the Electronic Books Mailing List (EBOOK-List) Today! 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