Raising new issues about anonymity on the Net, the Church of Scientology is invoking a law passed last year to force AT&T to disclose the identity of an Internet service subscriber who allegedly infringed the church's copyrights online. Scientology's Bridge Publications, which four years ago helped to forge new law when it sued Internet service provider Netcom, claims the anonymous author "made two unauthorized, verbatim Internet postings" of the church's copyrighted works on the "alt.religion.scientology" Usenet group. Invoking a provision in ...

Responding to customer criticism, Amazon.com today said it will restore a book critical of Scientology to its list of available titles. Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said Amazon removed Jon Atack's A Piece of Blue Sky from its virtual bookshelves in February after being advised that sales of the book were subject to a cease-and-desist order in the United Kingdom. Curry said the order stemmed from a ruling barring distribution of the book in that country because of defamatory language. Amazon has ...

The Church of Scientology International has settled a long-standing legal battle to repossess about 2,000 unpublished and copyrighted documents and keep them from being accessed by computer users in the future. Under a settlement reached in a U.S. district court earlier this month, a Colorado-based nonprofit group called FACTNet is permanently enjoined to pay the church $1 million if FACTNet is found guilty of future violations of church copyrights. FACTNet, started by former Scientologist Lawrence Wollersheim, also promised to return all ...

The Church of Scientology International is accusing two Web sites of trademark violation and is taking action to stop it. The church has threatened to see legal recourse against a Colorado Web site owner if he continues to run a site called "scientology-kills.net," which also sells T-shirts bearing the same phrase. In the second dispute, the church sent a letter to Tilman Hausherr of Berlin on Monday telling him to remove altered Scientology graphics from his CompuServe home page, which he ...

A Finnish operation that allowed people to send anonymous email on the Internet was shut down after accusations it was used for child pornography. Johan Helsingius, who has operated the electronic message relay service since 1993, denied the pornography allegations but said he had received calls from people accusing him of pedophilia, according to the Associated Press. Helsingius called the end of his service "a blow for Internet users and computer privacy," and said the charges are "not even possible." About ...

Many Internet legal analysts are disappointed by an out-of-court settlement between Netcom and the Church of Scientology because now they'll have to wait for another case to come to light before a court sets a firm precedent on Internet access providers' liability for online copyright infringement. Netcom and the church announced an out-of-court settlement Sunday in a copyright infringement dispute dating from December that many expected to set a precedent for Internet service providers' liability. The case involved church allegations that ...

As part of a settlement with Religious Technology Center, Netcom has posted a protocol in which the company states it will block access to material pending an investigation into claims of copyright infringement. Netcom's protocol states that upon receiving a complaint Netcom "will temporarily remove or deny access to the challenged material, to protect the rights of all involved." "If Netcom concludes that complainant has raised a legitimate claim, it will continue to deny access to the challenged material," the protocol ...