From grady@nospam.tidepool.com Mon Mar 17 21:53:05 EST 1997
Article: 4100 of alt.religion.scientology
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From: grady@nospam.tidepool.com (Grady Ward)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,misc.legal,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Magical "5 years" and Copyright registration
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 18:00:46 GMT
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To perhaps clarify the confusion over registration requirements and lapsing
of documents into the public domain:

(1) If the work was published before January 1, 1978, the 1909 Copyright
governs. This means that if the work was published without the required
copyright notice it will have lapsed into the public domain pursuant to
that 1909 law.

(2) For works published after the Berne Convention effective March 1, 1989
there is no requirement for a copyright notice, although registration is
mandatory prior to bringing suit for infringement.

(3) For works first published inbetween 1978 and 1989 a third rule govens,
The 1909 requirement for notice was still in effect, except that a
deficiency could be remedied if within 5 years after publication without
proper notice, the error was rectified. (17 USC 405(a)-


Now how might this apply to the criminal cult of scientology?

We know that in May of 1982 Hubbard officially transferred rights of
distribution to R.T.C. Since RTC's job was to offer these rights for
further distribution and display to third parties, this might be construed
as the date of first publication (before this works such as OTIII perhaps
enjoyed common law copyright as unpublished works.)

We also know that in July of 1987 OTIII and many other works were first
registered with the Copyright office. We also know that in 1995 Church of
Spiritual Technology -- the true owner of the copyright following the death
of Hubbard in 1986 -- demanded that R.T.C. affix copyright notices to the
Advanced Technology.

Reading 17 USC 101 definitions of "publish" is seems a good case can be
made to claim that early 1982 was at the latest the publication date of OT
III. But *more* than 5 years later the works were first registered and
copyright notices attached.

And this material was first published and registered in the (3) interregnum
that required a notice defect to be remedied within 5 years. But it was
not.

It would appear as if the OTIII and other Advanced Technology works have
indeed fallen into the public domain and that the RTC bringing suits
alleging infringement is pure fraud, and if involving the use of wires and
the mails, is futher Racketeering predicate acts against the respective
defendants of such suits.