Subject: Internet Battle Goes To Court
Copyright: 1995 by The Associated Press
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 95 11:40:24 PDT

	BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- To the Church of Scientology, Lawrence
Wollersheim is a computer terrorist bent on filling the Internet
with propaganda and religious intolerance.

	To his supporters on the worldwide computer network, Wollersheim
is a hero, trying to expose what Denver media attorney Tom Kelley
called ``advance teachings of the (church) that bring about mind
control of the most pernicious sort.''

	A federal judge in Denver is being asked to decide who is right.
The judge admits the case involves a technology emerging so fast
the legal system has been left in the dust.

	``Not only am I as a judge, but the courts in general are adrift
in trying to figure out this fairly new problem,'' said U.S.
District Judge John Kane Jr.

	Founded 41 years ago by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard,
Scientology teaches that technology can expand the mind and help
solve human problems. A forerunner of the human potential movement,
it also has been accused of being a cult and engaging in
mind-control.

	The church is accusing Wollersheim, a 46-year-old former church
member from Boulder, and Robert Penny of violating copyright and
trade secrets by making church secrets available around the world
on 48,000 computer bulletin boards. Wollersheim and Penny operate
the non-profit F.A.C.T. Net, which distributes information about
Scientology on the Internet.

	The church got a federal court order Aug. 21 to seize their
computers and disks, and then sifted through up to 10 million pages
of data, looking for secret church doctrines. Church officials said
300 pages of privileged information has been turned up so far.

	Computer activists called the raid an attack on freedom of
speech, designed to silence Wollersheim and others, and said it
won't work. Already copies of Wollersheim's document are spreading
around the world, faster than a computer virus.

	``I don't think the Church of Scientology realizes how much ill
will they're creating among millions of Internet users,'' said Mike
Godwin, staff council for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San
Francisco, a civil liberties organization dealing with computer
issues.

	Church officials said they were only trying to protect church
secrets and retrieve documents they say have netted pilferers up to
$2 million.

	``Free speech is not free theft,'' said the church's president,
Rev. Heber Jentzsch. ``Under copyright law, we must forcefully
enforce it. We have done so on this issue.''

	The church already has lost one battle in this case. A federal
judge in Alexandria, Va., last week allowed the Washington Post to
retain a copy of the church's texts and use them in its news
reporting, saying the paper's news-gathering rights far outweigh
claims that the documents are protected by copyright and trade
secrecy laws.

	The Rev. Kurt Weiland, church director, said Wollersheim was a
church member from 1969 to 1980, when he was excommunicated.
Wollersheim sued, claiming emotional distress and won $2.5 million.
The church is continuing to dispute the judgment, and Wollersheim
posted the church documents in part for revenge, Weiland said.

	Wollersheim said he was trying to convince federal officials to
launch a grand jury investigation of the church, which he believes
to be a cult. He said the church has misused federal trade secret
and copyright laws to try to stop him.

	``From what I hear, there are now hundreds of thousands of
copies out there. ... Can you believe it?'' he asked.

	``It's like a seed. Sometimes, you have to crack a seed before
it will germinate and grow. They (the church) crushed the seed, and
they've opened it up, and now it's growing,'' he said.

	Particularly galling to the church in the Internet battle is a
court document Wollersheim is accused of posting known as the
Fishman-Geertz Document. It is an affidavit filed in a California
court by former church official Steven Fishman, alleging the church
is a cult.

	Church officials say the document was deliberately seeded with
church secrets, including nearly the entire church course that
parishioners pay tens of thousands of dollars to learn.

	Although the affidavit was not sealed, church attorney Todd
Blakely told Kane church members have shown up every day for the
past two years to check it out and keep it from the public.

	Jentzsch said the material in Fishman's affidavit was stolen
from a church computer, and using a court document to make it
public is like laundering drug money through a bank.

	The affidavit contains keys to advancement in the church. Among
other things, Scientology members are told to find spots in a room,
wrap themselves in a beam, and look at clouds. They also are told
to communicate with plants or trees, and with zoo animals.

	Critics said the information had to be disclosed to prove claims
the church is a cult.

	Weiland said Scientology is not a cult; it has 8 million members
and is recognized as a religion in 115 countries, he said. A
primary reason for disclosing the church secrets was to hold
members up to ridicule, he said, adding that many religions would
sound ``strange'' if their practices were taken out of context.

	``One man's cult is another man's religion,'' he said.

	Critics also claim the church is trying to stop distribution of
the document because it contains confidential student briefings
that quote Hubbard, who died in 1986, as claiming to be the
anti-Christ. The document also quotes Hubbard as saying Christ
``was not nearly the sainted figure he has been made out to be,''
calling him ``a lover of young boys and men.''

	Jentzsch said that part of the document a forgery; Hubbard never
attacked Christ, he said. The church cited a Hubbard speech in
which he called Moses, Christ and Mohammed ``great spiritual
leaders, because they gave to man on down through the years the
hope that life could go on.''

	Church attorney Helena Kobrin acknowledged the other posted
church secrets were authentic and demanded they be taken off the
net.

	Jentzsch said copyright violations have been an issue on the
Internet for a long time, but no one was willing to force the
issue.

	``We just got elected sheriff,'' said Jentzsch.

	``The Internet is a wonderful invention. It has phenomenal
potential, but we say it should be self-policing. If we don't do
something about those who want to destroy it for others, then we
have to suffer the consequences of government intrusion,'' he said.

	Godwin said if the church were serious about stopping the spread
of church secrets, it failed. He said the documents have become one
of the more popular items on the Internet. When the church
succeeded in shutting down sites where the material was posted in
Canada, the United States and other countries, other copies popped
up in Finland, Germany and at U.S. universities.

	``The problem with the Internet is that it turns everyone into a
publisher,'' Godwin said. ``The church hopes that if it cracks down
on critics, it will scare and deter others. What they don't
understand is that it has backfired.''