From: felipe@xs4all.nl (Felipe Rodriquez)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: SCIENTOLOGY BACKS OUT OF LEGAL PROCEDURE IN HOLLAND
Date: 12 Dec 1995 16:53:25 GMT
Organization: XS4ALL, networking for the masses
Message-ID: <4akc25$f0k@news.xs4all.nl>


        SCIENTOLOGY BACKS OUT OF LEGAL PROCEDURE IN HOLLAND


The Scientology cult today withdrew from the legal procedure they had
instigated against writer Karin Spaink and Internet providers DDS (The
Digital City), Cistron, DataWeb and XS4ALL.

On September 5th 1995 the cult organized a raid and confiscation at
XS4ALL. Copyrighted documents were being spread through XS4ALL, the cult
claimed. From the first day this claim was made, the defendants have
insisted to see proof of this claimed copyright. Scientology has not
been able to prove this up to this moment.

The cult first filed for postponement of the December 14th court case on
Monday, December 11th, on grounds of:

a) not being able to get a notarised statement saying that the documents
   on the homepages were identical to the OT courses.

b) unforeseen complications regarding the inclusion of Planet Internet,
   another dutch Internet Provider, on the side of the defendants.

Then today, December 12th, they dropped the case altogether. We can only
guess as to their motives at this point in time. They probably
realized victory was impossible in absense of proof of copyright. Seeing
the wave of bad publicity this case had generated for the cult locally
in Holland, as well as the determination of those fighting for freedom
of speech must also have played a part in their deliberations.

The defendants are now contemplating filing a suit with regards to the
costs of the defense. The considerable archives formed on the
malpractices of the cult will be sent to all members of the dutch
parliament as well as other relevant offices of the dutch government.
It's only fair that Scientology pays for the time spent in the
collection of this material.

Never defend, always attack

XS4ALL


--
 Felipe Rodriquez          -  XS4ALL Internet - finger felipe@xs4all.nl for

 http://xs4all.nl/~felipe/ - Frontier Village - pub pgp-key 1024/A07C02F9 

 Civil rights in Cyberspace: http://www.xs4all.nl/~felipe/law/index.html