Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 22:34:41 +0100 To: johncourtney@akllp.com From: "Andreas Heldal-Lund - www.xenu.net" Subject: RE: COS Cc: rvicenzi@interliant.com, ahl@xenu.net Dear John P. Courtney, At 18:50 13.02.01, you wrote: >Dear Mr. Heldal-Lund, > > We have received another complaint from the >Church of Scientology regarding various portions of your site. >I have attached a scanned image of the letter we received from >them without attachments. >Please review the letter and let me know whether you will >voluntarily remove the allegedly infringing material. Thanks >for your cooperation. I see Paquette is working to meet her monthly stats. Here are my comments: A) Items 1 - 14: None of these images are stored at my Interliant account. This is even evident from Paquettes complaint. I don't think Interliant has anything to do with my accounts at Norwegian ISP's. Please inform the cult lawyer that they better address the right ISP in the correct country. Tell her to ask me how HTML and web pages work if she is unable to grasp the concept. B) Item 15: I refer here to my e-mail to you 30 Sep 2000 where I wrote: [START QUOTE] Thanks for the fax. Interesting claim from Paquette, since it makes false accusations against me. I removed the mentioned file last time she complained and changed the link in the HTML file to this Norwegian copy of the image: http://home.online.no/~heldal/CoS/scientology.gif If Paquette had only done her homework she would see this easily by checking the source file: http://www.xenu.net/images/index.html Ask the people at Verio check the file date and you will see that I haven't changed it since August 16 2000. Her complaint to you is dated September 20 2000. Please tell this cult lawyer that the image in question was removed as requested the first time (and as I confirmed to you that I would) and that it since has not been located on Verio's server. You could tell her to do her research more careful so that she does not have to waste your time with nonsense. But since she reminded me of this I did her the honor of retouching my image and put a new version back on my account at Verio. You can see it here: http://www.xenu.net/images/scientology.gif This time the Hubbard head is taken from the front page of the critical book "Bare-Faced Messiah" which you can see here: http://home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/books/bfm/bfmcover.htm Please let me know if you want to get a confirmation from the author Russell Miller that I am allowed to use it. At least the cult can't complain about this one. [END QUOTE] A full scan of the jacket cover can be seen on this American site (which of course is fully legal): http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/bfm/bfmcover.htm C) Item 16: Same goes here as for comment A. D) Banner complaint 1 http://www.xenu.net/archive/banners/oc19.gif We have been through this before. It is not illegal to use trademarks as long as it is not used for trade. This is a banner made by me so when it comes to copyrights it technically belongs to me. The cult is of course welcome to use the banner if they want. As for the text "[Scientology] is an organization with medical, social and ethical practices that are dangerous and harmful." I find it difficult to believe that the use of the trademark here would be considered by any court or judge to create "a likelihood of confusion as to source or sponsorship of this web site", as Paquette boldly puts it. I draw your attention to the disclaimer I have at the bottom of the front page on my web site: "Dianetics and Scientology are trademarks of the Religious Technology Centre (RTC). These pages and their author are not connected with RTC, or any others organization residing under RTC's corporate umbrella." E) Banner complaint 2 http://www.xenu.net/archive/banners/oc17.gif The same comments as for D also goes here. I am the artist also of this banner and drawing. The text "...capable of such danger that the public interest demands that people should know what is going on. -Lord Denning about Scientology" is hardly possible to confuse with an add for the cult. F) Bad faith on my part I exercise my right to use trademarked terms to criticize an organization which, whether the cult or its lawyers like it or not, is within my right of free speech and fair use. I do not offer any product or service in competition to the cult and my site is not doing trade. I have done everything in my power to make very it clear all over the site so that nothing there could possibly be confused with the cult or their business. It is clearly stated that it is a site critical to the cult, L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. I have also all along done my best to abide by the wishes and requests of Interliant even when we disagree about what is within the law. It is not my wish to involve Interliant in this controversy. It is my belief that the methods used by the cult and their lawyers to present my web site and myself as one with no respect for the law is part of their tactic to make Interliant shut down a successful critical site. Any temporary success for the cult to stop freedom of speech will surely result in a lot of attention from the media and people on the Internet. I urge you therefore to handle the recirculated complaints and false accusations from the cult by carefully considering the reasoning and possible motives of both sides and use your professional integrity and wisdom when you evaluate the details of this conflict and report back to Interliant. Please let me know if you have any further comments or questions. Best wishes, Andreas Heldal-Lund, Nunsteinvegen 9, N-4056 Tananger, Norway Pho: +47 90 04 32 99 Fax: 90 32 35 46 E-mail: ahl@xenu.net home.sol.no/~spirous www.xenu.net www.hedning.no/hedning --------------------------------------------------------------- "Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Selassie ---------------------------------------------------------------