Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 21:35:41 +0300 From: Peik J Str–msholm Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,misc.legal.computing,misc.int-property Subject: JULF FORCED TO REVEAL NAMES! Organization: University of Vaasa Today on 22nd of August the local court of first instance in Helsinki decided that Johan Helsingius has to reveal the email adress asked for by the Police Department of Helsinki. This has to be done within 30 days when summoned for interrogation. Since this is merely a part of a case, this decision can't be appealed. If Helsingius still refuses to reveal the info he will be repeatedly fined and ultimately jailed for up to six months. The decisions about fines and jail can be appealed, but an appeal won't stay the execution of the ordered fine/jail, only a judgement of the appeals court will. The questions about different appeals in this case are somewhat complex and regarding the possibility to appeal it was a split decision (4-1). The court ruled against Helsingius in this matter. During the hearing Helsingius argued against this view in many ways: he objected on constitutional grounds and on grounds relating to statutes regarding criminal investigation. This information is based mainly on message <4vi0tt$geq@idefix.eunet.fi> in the local Finnish newsgroup sfnet.keskustelu.laki, by Kaj Malmberg, the police officer in charge of the investigation of the matter where Scientology scriptures were posted through anon.penet.fi. More reports from this case will probably follow soon. ========================================================================== pjs@uwasa.fi, Student of Theology & Law Student at the U of Helsinki Disclaimer: Speaking for myself only. Always using PGP to sign articles. ---------- From: aaura@deadlock.hut.fi (Tuomas Aura) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Court orders Julf to reveal anon id Date: 22 Aug 1996 21:26:30 +0300 Message-ID: <4vi8om$bub@deadlock.hut.fi> Reply-To: Tuomas.Aura@hut.fi Today (August 22nd 1996), the city court in Helsinki ordered Julf Helsingius to reveal the identity of the anonymous poster who posted scientology scriptures to a.r.s in March. In its decision, the court says that anonymous server logs are not protected by any legislation. Therefore, the information needed in the police investigation must be provided to the police. The court also recognized the church's right to control the publication of the posted documents. Furthermore, the court says that the anonymous poster, not anyone else, is legally responsible for the postings. Julf Helsingius has 30 days to reveal the name. The decision cannot be appealed. In my opinion, there is nothing surprising about the result. Finnish privacy laws simply are not up-to-date with the net. It is actually fortunate that scientologists are the first ones to attack the anon server because now it should be easy to convince people that anonymity needs legal protection. ----------------------- From: aaura@deadlock.hut.fi (Tuomas Aura) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Re: Court orders Julf to reveal anon id Date: 26 Aug 1996 14:53:19 +0300 Message-ID: <4vs37f$5qm@deadlock.hut.fi> Reply-To: Tuomas.Aura@hut.fi Karin Spaink writes: > aaura@deadlock.hut.fi (Tuomas Aura) wrote: > > > Today (August 22nd 1996), the city court in Helsinki ordered > > Julf Helsingius to reveal the identity of the anonymous poster > > who posted scientology scriptures to a.r.s in March. > > I couldn't remember what and who CoS complained about - but now I do. This > is presumably about an545430@anon.penet.fi, aka DarkDemonStalker, who > reposted Scamizdat issues. Yes. The ids that will be compromized are "an498608@anon.penet.fi" (a.r.s posting February 15th 1996) "an545430@anon.penet.fi" (a.r.s posting March 12th 1996) I have no further information on the contents of the postings, but it is easy to guess that they were repostings of Scamizdat. --------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 13:11:56 -0500 From: Declan McCullagh To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Cc: azeem@dial.pipex.com, jseiger@cdt.org Subject: Helsingius shuts down anon.penet.fi server in Finland This is a sad day in the history of the Net. Hundreds of thousands of people had accounts on Julf's pseudonmyous server and many netizens relied on it daily to preserve their privacy online. (Unlike cypherpunk remailers, it's not truly anonymous since Julf keeps records of what anon id maps to what email address.) From Azeem's report and the press release below, Julf's move seems to be in response to a Finnish court's preliminary decision that the privacy remailers could be violated by court order -- something the Scientologists have been pushing. Still, I'd be surprised if Julf's decision wasn't prompted in part by the hideous London Observer article that falsely accused him of being a middleman in the distribution of child porn -- check out a scan of the Sunday cover at: http://scallywag.com/ -Declan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 17:11:51 +0100 From: Azeem Azhar To: azeem@ivision.co.uk Subject: [ALERT] Penet is dead Hello all, I just got off the phone with Johann Helsingius who runs the anon.penet.fi anonymous e-mail service. 1. He has decided to close the service. 2. This is not related to the article in The Observer. It is, in fact, due to a decision of a lower Finnish court on petition from the Church of Scientology. Penet went to court last week and made the decision today. The implication of the decision is that e-mail over the Internet is not protect by the usual Finnish privacy laws. 3. The server is currently down while Julf re-writes the software. Once it runs again, it will be phased out for private use, but groups such as the Samaritans and human rights agencies should be able to use it. 4. They are appealing against the decision. 5. Julf expects that revisions in Finnish law to provide a safe legal status for anonymous remailers will be in place at the earliest in Spring next year. 6. Once again: this is unrelated to The Observer's scandalous reporting. Your faithful furry friend, Azeem ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 17:15:41 +0100 From: Azeem Azhar To: azeem@ivision.co.uk Subject: [ALERT} Penet is dead (correction) Sorry . . . a slight error: > 2. This is not related to the article in The Observer. It is, in fact, > due to a decision of a lower Finnish court on petition from the Church > of Scientology. Penet went to court last week and made the decision > today. The implication of the decision is that e-mail over the Internet > is not protect by the usual Finnish privacy laws. The implication of the court's decision (rather than Penet's to shut the server) is that e-mail over the Internet is not protected by the usual Finnish privacy laws. Sorry! --