Damon Chetson's response to Helena Kobrin
From dc7v@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU Wed Jul 5 18:08:27 BST 1995
The learned attorney, Helena Kobrin, wrote me a pleasant email letter
this evening informing me that several of the documents in the file I
received anonymously are, in fact, copyrighted material. They have been
shown to be copyrighted in documents entered into evidence in the lawsuit
against Dennis Erlich. Several of the documents are forgeries.
She has also said that her client, the Cult, has requested that she begin
legal action against me, but litigation will be avoided if I cooperate by
deleting all copies in my account and sending her all hardcopies I have
made. Since I have no hardcopies, I have nothing to mail her. But I
have deleted the entire two files from my account.
She also says that "any further disclosures" of this material will be met
with legal action by the Cult. I have not disclosed anything about the
material, so I'm not quite sure what "any further" means. She also says
that "downloading" material is illegal. As I've explained to her,
I never downloaded the material. I received it through an anonymous
service via email.
And then there's this business about legal action! I've done nothing
illegal. In fact, I've been more than cooperative. I, suspecting that
these documents might be copyrighted, requested clarification from her
about them. End of story. I did not distribute the documents in any
way, either via email or via ftp or via usenet.
It's all a terrific shame, because the documents were hilarious. But
they are both trade secrets and copyrighted and, as such, I can not
discuss them.
Anyone got any money left in their bank account for a Defense Fund. :-)
Police Officers, when you come to the door with that warrant, please ignore
the mess! I haven't had time to straighten up. But I'll be brewing some
coffee for you. :-)
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Here are parts of the letter which pertain to everyone who has received
this material:
>From daemon Thu Jun 29 23:17:29 1995
Received: from netcom21.netcom.com (hkk@netcom21.netcom.com [192.100.81.135]) by darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id XAA89456 for ; Thu, 29 Jun 1995 23:17:28 -0400
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 20:16:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Helena Kobrin
Subject: Re: parodies
To: Damon Chetson
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Only two of the documents included are not authentic
writings of L. Ron Hubbard. These documents are labeled as
follows:
The first says:
HCOB of 5 May 80 Issue I
OT VIII Series 1
C O N F I D E N T I A L
The second says:
OPERATING THETAN
SECTION VIII
and begins with the words: "The following is a suggestion for OT
VIII."
Both of these documents are forgeries and are not documents
belonging to my clients.
All of the remaining documents contained in the posting are
copyrighted materials belonging to my clients. With the
exception of two, they are all also confidential, unpublished
trade secrets. There are two copyrighted documents which are
published and not trade secrets. One is headed:
HCO Policy Letter 19 June 1961
Sec Check Whole Track.
The other is headed:
HCO Information Letter
[A 11 April 1962
Dynamic Processing Checks.
Please be advised that you do not have permission to publish
or disclose any of the documents which I have identified above as
copyrighted and/or trade secrets. Regardless of whether you knew
with certainty of the copyright and trade secret status of these
documents previously, it is obvious that you were on sufficient
notice to make inquiry regarding their status. Having done so,
you are now on specific notice of the copyright and trade secrets
status of the documents as noted above. The law is clear that
such notice is sufficient to hold you liable for any subsequent
disclosures of the materials.
The characterization of these materials as a parody is a
transparent attempt at making a claim for fair use, but these
materials are *not* a parody, and their posting is not fair use.
With regard to the materials which are trade secrets, there is no
fair use defense to trade secret misappropriation.
As you are undoubtedly aware, my clients have filed a
lawsuit entitled Religious Technology Center, et al. v. Netcom
On-Line Communication Services, Inc., et al. in the United States
District Court for the Northern District of California regarding
copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation relating
to most of these materials. The information regarding the status
of the materials has been provided to the Court in that case, and
is sufficient proof of their trade secret and copyrighted nature.
You are advised that your downloading of these documents
into your computer constitutes violation of these intellectual
property rights. You are to delete these documents from your
computer and any disks and send any copies you have printed off
to my office. You are not to provide copies of these materials
to anyone else. My clients have requested me to start legal
proceedings against you. If you cooperate, litigation may be
avoided, which would be preferable for all concerned. However,
please be informed that my clients will take any necessary legal
steps to protect their intellectual property rights.
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