From milne@crl.com Tue Aug 22 20:39:49 EDT 1995 Article: 101549 of alt.religion.scientology Path: casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!purdue!lerc.nasa.gov!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.crl.com!crl3.crl.com!not-for-mail From: milne@crl.com (Andrew Milne) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,comp.org.eff.talk Subject: WASHINGTON POST SUED FOR VIOLATING SCIENTOLOGY COPYRIGHTS Date: 22 Aug 1995 14:26:09 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest] Lines: 115 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <41di1h$e6q@crl3.crl.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: crl3.crl.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] August 22, 1995 NEWS RELEASE CONTACT: LEISA GOODMAN OR EARLE COOLEY (202) 667-6404 WASHINGTON POST SUED FOR VIOLATING SCIENTOLOGY COPYRIGHTS The Washington Post and two of its reporters were sued today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by the Religious Technology Center (RTC), holders of the intellectual property rights of the Scientology religion. According to the lawsuit, the Washington Post and its writers have engaged in "extensive, intentional copyright infringement and trade secrets misappropriattion, targeting confidential Scientology scriptures belonging to RTC." Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, due to the urgent nature of the matter, scheduled an August 25 hearing on the temporary restraining order and impoundment application to get the Washington Post to turn over the misappropriated documents. The lawsuit is an amendment of a complaint that was filed on August 11 against an Arlington man, Arnaldo Lerma, and his Internet access provider Digital Gateway Systems, for copyright and trade secrets infringement. According to Boston lawyer Earle C. Cooley, who represents Religious Technology Center, the newspaper and their two reporters, Richard Leiby and Marc Fisher, were added to the lawsuit because they engaged in their own direct infringements of plaintiff's copyright interests and misappropriation of plaintiff's trade secrets, while at the same time aiding, supporting, encouraging, and facilitating blatant acts of infringement and misappropriation by Lerma. The day after the lawsuit was filed, on August 12, a search and seizure order by Judge Brinkema was carried out at Lerma's home by Federal Marshals and computer software, hardware and documents were confiscated. Church lawyers report that they were able to establish that Lerma lied because, contrary to his assertions that computer discs had been purged of any stolen materials, their electronic experts have already found 63 copyright items among the seized material. The new lawsuit reveals that Lerma sent the protected materials to Leiby when he was put on notice by the Church to stop violating its copyright and trade secret rights. The Church now charges that this was done in an attempt to obstruct justice by concealing the stolen copies from lawful seizure. The suit claims the existence of evidence which shows that Richard Leiby choreographed and instigated Lerma's illegal conduct for his own campaign of harassment against the Scientology religion. According to the lawsuit, Leiby's campaign dates back more than 15 years. Church spokeswoman Leisa Goodman said "The Washington Post and Mr. Leiby violated fundamental journalistic integrity by conspiring with lawless elements on the Internet to harm the religion of Scientology." Once the Church became aware that its materials were in the possession of Richard Leiby, it demanded their immediate return. Leiby and the Washington Post handed the stolen copies over to RTC's lawyers last week on August 15. However, "the return of the materials, a seeming display of good faith, was an utter ruse", the complaint states. "At the same time that the materials were being returned to the Church in Washington, Leiby, Fisher and the Post were getting copies of the same stolen records from the clerk's file in LA where litigation was pending regarding the sealing of such materials. A Post reporter persuaded the clerk's office to take the documents away from a Church employee who had checked out the file, to make copies for the Post," the complaint continues. The Church reacted with an emergency motion to the judge on the case in Los Angeles, who immediately ordered the entire case file sealed on August 15, when he was told that the Washington Post had obtained a copy of the copyrighted and trade secret materials. According to the lawsuit, the Church immediately demanded the materials back and also put the post on notice "that its actions could not remotely be deemed news gathering, but rather constituted wholesale copying of a large amount of copyrighted trade secret information in an attempt to sanitize the illicit acquisition of infringing documents which Leiby and the Post concealed on Lerma's behalf." Church spokeswoman Goodman discounted the notion that any free speech or fair-use issues were involved. "Violators of copyright and trade secret laws traditionally try to hide behind free speech or fair-use claims. The Church is a strong proponent of free speech and fair-use. It publishes its own investigative magazine and cherishes the First Amendment. However, free speech or fair-use does not mean free theft and no one, the Washington Post included, has the right to cloak themselves in the First Amendment to break the law." Despite repeated warnings from Church lawyers, last Saturday the Washington Post published a lengthy article by Marc Fisher, which included quotes from the copyrighted, trade secret materials. "Prior to publication of the article, the defendants were placed on notice that their actions would constitute a violation of plaintiff's rights," said Goodman. "The Post made a serious mistake," RTC's lawyer Earle C. Cooley contends, "in allowing themselves to be manipulated by a few maliciously motivated dissidents who want to use the Post to forward their religious hate campaign. The courts take these matters very seriously. The law is clear: If you are going to violate copyrights, you will have to answer for it in court. This applies to the Washington Post just as much as to anyone else." With this lawsuit, Religious Technology Center is asking the court to order the return of its documents by the Washington Post and grant a permanent injunction against the Post and the individual violators of its rights. It also seeks statutory damages and punitive damages. -30-