Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 18:10:16 +0300 From: Peik J Str–msholm Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,alt.privacy.anon-server,comp.org.eff.talk,misc.legal.computing,misc.int-property Organization: University ov Vaasa Subject: ANON ADMIN IN COURT (confirmed) Here follows a rough translation of an article by Kaj Malmberg. Kaj Malmberg, from the Helsinki area in Finland, is the police officer in charge of the investigation of offences related to the Internet. The article <4pp87u$74r@idefix.eunet.fi> was posted to the local Finnish newsgroup sfnet.keskustelu.laki: ... The local court of first instance in Helsinki today (June 13th) took under consideration a motion filed by the police department of Helsinki, where the police asked the owner of the Finnish anonymous server anon.penet.fi company to reveal information about the person who used the anon server to send writings of the Church of Scientology to the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology during March 1996. Johan Helsingius, who is the person in question, asked the court to adjourn the hearing, so that he could get a statement on the matter from, inter alia, the Data Protection Ombudsman. The court granted this request and scheduled the next hearing to August 22nd. The Church of Scientology demanded that Helsingius should be forced to reveal the information, during interrogation by the police or when heard as a witness in court. Helsingius again refused to reveal the names of the posters, considering it his duty to protect the privacy of said users. [snip] [crossposted & mailed to some individuals] ========================================================================== pjs@uwasa.fi, Student of Theology & Law Student at the U of Helsinki Disclaimer: Speaking for myself only. Always using PGP to sign articles. "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." - Shakespeare --------------- From: aaura@deadlock.hut.fi (Tuomas Aura) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,comp.org.eff.talk,misc.int-property Subject: Re: JULF HASSLED BY COPS! Date: 16 Jun 1996 10:17:25 GMT TarlaStar writes: > Any ideas on why Malmberg would want to co-operate with the Scientos > after the LAST fiasco? What sort of lies or pressure are they > applying, I wonder? Mr. Malmberg is an active writer in a Finnish newsgroup sfnet.keskustelu.laki (= sfnet.discussion.law). I is obvious from his posts there that he is personally very reluctant to limit the freedom of the net. Actually, he was the one that first brought the present investigation to our knowledge, as has been the case with several previous Finnish police investigations and court cases involving the Internet. On the other hand, Mr. Malmberg in a police officer and seems very determined to do his work by the law book. According to the Finnish law, the police must investigate the reported crimes, and since there is no special protection for anonymous aliases, they must ask Julf to reveal the names. However, the police can decide which crime they are investigating (are they investigating a first or a second degree murder etc.) and the seriousness of the crime makes a difference in the means the that the police has to conduct its investigation. It the present case, they have decided to call the alleged crime "tekijänoikeusrikkomus" (= minor violation on copyright) and, thus, they cannot raid Julf's server. That is, the court can order Julf to reveal the information, but the privacy of the server cannot be invaded by the police. I do not know what will happen to Julf himself if he refuses to tell the names, though. There won't be much new happening before August 22nd when the case is again brought before the court. My *guess* is that, at that date, the court will order Julf to reveal the name and he will do so. As I understand it, it is very easy to show that SCAMIZDAT has probably violated CoS copyrights, that there are reasons to suspect Grady Ward for doing it, and that knowing the anonymous alias may shed some light into the case. Since this is taking place in the Finnish legal system, any American style legal tricks won't help, only new hard facts.