YOU ARE PERHAPS SICK OF HEARING that Kate Ceberano, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, John Travolta and various other luminaries owe their glittering fame and wealth to Scientology. You may also have noticed that Scientology is taking ads on buses. The days of the kids with clipboards eyeballing you on the street to ask if you would like to do a personality test are fading. Scientology is moving to big business and the Internet. The Church of Scientology tends to live by ...

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE Religious Technology Center, an affiliate of the Church of Scientology, are claiming a victory for copyright protection in cyberspace as the result of a ruling handed down earlier this month. The suit was brought by the RTC against a former member who posted the teachings of the church on the Internet. In her ruling Federal District Court judge Leonie Brinkema denied the argument by Arnaodo Lerma that his posting of large portions of the church's scripture were protected ...

[Shorter version of Are searches in civil cases also violating rights? | Los Angeles Times (California) | 23 October 1995.] IT'S AN issue of copyright against constitutional rights. Some copyright holders, particularly software makers, are using a special court order to send their employees legally into one's home. At 6:30 a.m. on July 26, off-duty U.S. marshals and officials from software maker Novell Inc. rang the doorbell at Joseph and Miki Casalino's home outside Salt Lake City. They were there, ...

At 6:30 on the morning of July 26, a contingent of off-duty U.S. marshals and officials from software maker Novell Inc. rang the doorbell at Joseph and Miki Casalino's home outside Salt Lake City. Thinking her husband had forgotten something when he left for work, Miki padded to the door in her robe and was shocked to find a marshal flashing his badge. They were there, they told her, to search and seize any and all computer bulletin board (bbs) equipment ...

Arnaldo Lerma, the Arlington man who took on the Church of Scientology by putting its texts on the Internet, won a partial victory yesterday when a federal judge in Alexandria ordered that the church return 58 computer disks that it seized from him. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema also verbally slapped Scientology lawyers, saying their handling of Lerma's files went far beyond what she had authorized as part of a suit alleging copyright and trade secrecy violations. "This case is ...

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) – A former member and critic of the Church of Scientology should be getting his research on Scientology back from the church. A federal judge Tuesday ordered the church to return the files that another judge had ordered seized. Larry Wollersheim operates a computer bulletin board that distributes information critical of the Church of Scientology. The church claimed Wollersheim violated copyright and trademark laws and demanded the board's materials. But the new ruling says "the public interest is ...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., yesterday permitted The Washington Post to retain a copy of Church of Scientology texts and to use the texts 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. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused to issue a preliminary injunction against The Post, saying its excerpts of the church's texts in an Aug. 19 Style section article were brief and ...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Church of Scientology is going to unusual lengths to protect the secrecy of copyrighted church secrets. Two weeks ago, Arnie Lerma's home office was raided by U.S. Marshal's accompanied by lawyers and officials from the Church of Scientology. While the marshal's stood by, Lermas' computer was dismantled and carried away. He left the church 17 years ago after what he calls a dispute involving his romance with the daughter of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. He's been ...

An arm of the Church of Scientology has sued The Washington Post and two of its reporters in an attempt to prevent publication of copyrighted information that belongs to the church. In an amendment to a suit filed against an Arlington man Aug. 11 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, the Religious Technology Center asks that the newspaper return certain documents and refrain from publishing information that the church claims is confidential scriptures protected by federal laws. The church originally sued ...

BOULDER — A computerized attack on the Church of Scientology was halted yesterday when U.S. marshals raided the homes of two church detractors. The marshals turned over the computers and documents to officials of the church. "Marshals just hauled out all kinds of public records," said detractor Lawrence Wollersheim of Boulder. " . . . attorney-client privilege documents, books legally purchased at any B Dalton bookstore. This was a Scientology cult raid to seize the confidential records of FACTNet." FACTNet is ...

The Religious Technology Center (RTC) yesterday sued The Washington Post and two of its reporters, charging they have engaged in "extensive intentional copyright infringement and trade secrets misappropriation, targeting confidential Scientology scriptures." RTC, which holds the intellectual property rights of Scientology, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema will hold a hearing Friday on a temporary restraining order and RTC's impoundment application to retrieve its documents from the newspaper. The new ...

AS USE OF the Internet grows, one thing that's becoming uncomfortably clearer is just how much of existing communications and copyright law depends on the physical limitations of records and publications kept on paper. A copyright infringement suit brought recently in Alexandria, concerning dissemination via the Internet of supposedly secret and copyrighted documents belonging to the Church of Scientology, brings some of these newly problematic issues into sharp relief. It's only one of a string of recent cases that show how ...

To reach what the Church of Scientology calls the seventh level of spirituality, the church's scriptures instruct followers to go to zoos and parks to communicate with plants and animals and go to train stations to put thoughts in the minds of strangers. Advice like that doesn't come cheap. Scientologists pay tens of thousands of dollars for such spiritual teachings. Now, to the church's dismay, they're free with an Internet account. The scriptures had been entered as an affidavit in a ...

It was 9:30 and Arnie Lerma was lounging in his living room in Arlington, drinking his Saturday morning coffee, hanging. Suddenly, a knock at the door — who could it be at this hour? — and boom, before he could force anything out of his mouth, they were pouring into his house: federal marshals, lawyers, computer technicians, cameramen. They stayed for three hours last Saturday. They inventoried and confiscated everything Lerma cherished: his computer, every disk in the place, his client ...

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 13 — The Church of Scientology is battling a band of on-line dissidents who have used the Internet to mail out globally its secret scriptures, for which some members must pay thousands of dollars. On Saturday, as a result of a copyright infringement lawsuit, United States marshals here seized the computer of a former church employee who had electronically posted a 136-page text that he said was available in court records. The former employee, Arnaldo P. Lerma, 44, ...

U.S. marshals seized computer equipment and files Friday from an Arlington man charged with posting copyrighted materials on the Internet criticizing the Church of Scientology. The church has filed a lawsuit against Arnaldo Lerma, 44, of 6045 N. 26th Rd., and his Internet access provider, Vienna-based Digital Gateway Systems, claiming copyright infringement. The controversy which culminated in last week's raid began a year ago after church officials warned both Lerma and DGS to cease posting "confidential and unpublished" Scientology teachings. The ...

The following message was posted on the Internet. The author, Lawrence Wollersheim recently won a $4 million judgment against the Church of Scientology. The church is extremely concerned about the numerous defections and a number of successful lawsuits and criminal proceedings against it, particularly in Europe. Subject: Emergency message to Internet users interested In protecting the freedom of information in the Internet. From Lawrence Wollersheim, co-director of FACTNet. For those of you unfamiliar with me I am a co-director of the ...

"We believe that all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others." — From "The Creed of the Church of Scientology" IT WAS A GLORIOUS DAY FOR A PICNIC, WARM, CLEAR and bright. Even that old cynic, Sunset Boulevard, looked young and innocent under the sun's radiant benevolence. All around the parking lot of the Church of Scientology's, "Big Blue" headquarters, ...

SAN JOSE - A Glendale critic of the Church of Scientology lost a round in federal court Tuesday as a judge declined to lift an order barring him from transmitting copyrighted religious texts onto the Internet. The order remains in effect against Dennis L. Erlich, a former church member. But U. S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte rejected arguments by church lawyers and lifted restraining orders against a North Hollywood computer bulletin board operator and a San Jose-based Internet access supplier, ...

The Church of Scientology last week filed suit in a bitter dispute over Internet postings that raises questions about the responsibility of network managers for policing their end users. The church sued former member Dennis Erlich, a North Hollywood, Calif., bulletin board system (BBS), and Internet provider Netcom On-Line Services, Inc. for copyright violations. The church alleges that Erlich used the bulletin board, which relies on Netcom for Usenet connectivity, to post copyrighted church teachings. The church is seeking monetary damages ...

Glendale: Church representatives with court order remove files allegedly containing copyrighted texts from home of outspoken critic. BYLINE: ALAN ABRAHAMSON and NICHOLAS RICCARDI TIMES STAFF WRITERS GLENDALE – Led by a lawyer brandishing a federal court order and backed up by a pair of off-duty police officers, a handful of Church of Scientology representatives searched a Glendale house Monday and seized hundreds of computer disks and files allegedly containing copyrighted religious texts. In the latest twist to a fractious dispute that ...

Perturbations, pleasures and predicaments on the information superhighway: The controversial Church of Scientology is not making any new friends on the Internet. In recent weeks, attorneys for the church have threatened legal action against people who they say post church documents in the alt.religion.scientology discussion group. Now the church wants to shut down the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup entirely, claiming its top-secret "scriptures" are being revealed, and its copyrights and trade secrets violated. "We are trying to deal with an anarchy created by ...