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 ...

ON JULY 28, an appeal court in Lyon reduced the sentences of six members of the Scientology movement charged with responsibility for the suicide of one of their followers. The court also ruled that the "Church of Scientology" was entitled to call itself a religion. In so doing, the appeal court gave the movement created by the science-fiction writer Lafayette Ron Hubbard in 1954 a seal of approval it probably did not expect. The court justified its decision by invoking an ...

TAMPA — A judge in a wrongful death case accusing the Church of Scientology of negligence has temporarily sealed three documents that for three years have been posted on the Internet. The documents — reportedly church instructions on handling members' illnesses — were included among papers filed in a lawsuit that claims a 36-year-old woman died after Scientologists ignored her medical needs. An autopsy found Lisa McPherson died in December 1995 of a blood clot brought on by "severe dehydration and ...

For years, Scientology has gone to great lengths to defend itself from critics. Often its defense has involved private investigators working for its lawyers. While the use of private investigators is common in the legal profession, some instances involving the church have been unusual. Scientology officials said that the investigators operated within the law and that the tactics were necessary to counter attacks made over the years by Internal Revenue Service agents and the press. "When people stop spreading lies about ...

A web of intrigue surrounds the high-stakes legal brawl between FACTnet and the Church of Scientology. Strange things happen around Lawrence Wollersheim. His businesses collapse. His Boulder apartment gets raided by federal marshals, his computers seized. When college students offer to help him rebuild his computer bulletin-board system, they receive threatening phone calls–anonymous voices urging them to stay away from Larry. A California judge who presided over a lawsuit in which Wollersheim was the plaintiff told reporters he'd encountered a lot ...

Title "The S Files" [S as in Scientology Logo] [Presenter Dermot Murnaghan (DM henceforth) no relation to any other DM] Tonight we're going to expose serious financial crime in one of the Scientology cult's most successful operations in Britain. We show how they cooked the books, made false statements to obtain bank loans, and changed invoices to fiddle their VAT. [Extract from "Trust" ad] This advert for the Church of Scientology was recently shown on cable TV. It was a major ...

The founder and former head of the Church of Scientology in Lyons was convicted of fraud and involuntary homicide today in the death of a church member who committed suicide after going heavily into debt to pay the sect for counseling sessions. A French tribunal sentenced the defendant, Jean-Jacques Mazier, to serve 18 months in prison, with an additional 18 months suspended, and fined him $100,000. The eight-day trial, in the first week of October, also examined charges of fraud, attempted ...

PARIS: The Church of Scientology is battling charges in a Lyon courtroom that it is a manipulative and fraudulent cult that practices false medicine and hounded one of its followers to his death. The case could derail the sect's campaign to be accepted as a mainstream faith in several European countries. Last week, it began beaming satellite television advertisements to Britain, its biggest recruiting ground in Europe, despite not being recognized there as a bona fide religion. The advertisements stress a ...

When computers are seized because they contain allegedly stolen intellectual property, and police pierce the security anonymous remailers,the days of the Net as a cozy, cocktail party are over. Welcome to a flame war with real bullets. When computers are seized because they contain allegedly stolen intellectual property, or the security of anonymous remailers is pierced by police, alt.scientology.war the days of the Internet as a cozy, private, intellectual cocktail party are over. Welcome to mortal combat between two alien cultures ...

AN Adelaide journalist was yesterday cleared of theft charges in a London court case billed as the battle of the hidden cameras. The Church of Scientology in London used hidden cameras to try to entrap Alison Braund while she was using a hidden camera in the church while working undercover, the City of London Magistrates' Court heard. Ms Braund was preparing an investigative report for a British television company. Chairman of the bench, Hinda Style, said there had been an abuse ...

A NEW pressure group calling for government action to raise public awareness of cults has come under fire from the Church of Scientology. Founders of Families Under Scientology Stress (Fuss) say that in the few weeks it has been formed it has been amazed at how many people have come forward from all parts of the country pledging support. A group spokesman said: "Most of our supporters have been through difficulties of having a family member in Scientology and it is ...

The group is unhappy that Clearwater has not resolved a dispute over legal fees in a successful fight against the city. CLEARWATER — Mayor Rita Garvey, City Commissioner Fred Thomas and others are singled out for criticism in the latest edition of Freedom, a tabloid newspaper published periodically by the Church of Scientology. The organization is delivering the 12-page publication this week to about 100,000 residences in Clearwater, Largo, Dunedin and Palm Harbor. The new edition also criticizes the ''St. Petersburg ...

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 ...

Two weeks ago, a man was cleared of trying to abduct Kathleen Wilson after he said he was saving her from a cult that had brainwashed her. Kathy doesn't see it that way. At the garage on the road into East Grinstead, the cashier smiles. "Scientologists?" he says. "You'll find them on the way into Turner's Hill. Just follow the road round. "It's a religious sect," he adds, politely. "Ah, yes," I say. "I'm afraid so," he replies. It isn't far. ...

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 ...

Computers have done what years of opposition couldn't do, uniting the handful of former Scientologists who have waged war against the Church of Scientology. These dissidents are now gathered under the rubric of the Fight Against Coercive Tactics (FACT) network, or FACTnet, a free data base and electronic bulletin board available to the public. The network, based in Golden, Colo., electronically stockpiles information critical of Scientology, from affidavits to court rulings to federal investigations. Although fewer than 150 people now use ...

YOUR story Ex-Scientologists to 'Expose' Cult (March 4) completely missed the point. What your readers were not told is that the two Scientology "ex-members" in question have been involved in removing materials from church premises and using these for their own ends. The true story is this. Robin Scott and Ron Lawley engaged in a criminal conspiracy in 1983. In furtherance of' that conspiracy, Scott and others went to Denmark, entered a church using a subterfuge, and stole sacred religious scriptures. ...