Re: Cease and Desist!

• Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 17:07:55 PDT
• From:
  Thomas Wouters <zonny@dds.nl>
• cc: moo-cows@parc.xerox.com
• Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
• In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960602091642.27679A-100000@crl9.crl.com>

(No, not more legal advice, just a little moral support (i hope ;-))

On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Arthur Chandler wrote:


[SNIP]

>   I realize this issue may sound like a laugher. But so have many other 
> cases, which have wound up in court with substantial damages extracted 
> by the offended party.

I must admit i did laugh, or rather, i had a silly puppy-grin for an hour,
not at you or your concerns, but more at the familiarity of your
situation, and all the support you got from the list (It really made me
feel 'at home' more or less :)

As for the familiarity, it reminds me of the trouble XS4all (my current 
boss, an Internet Service Provider) and DDS (my former boss, a freenet 
(see .sig)) had with the Church of Scientology (Co$) I'll spare you the 
full story, (instead give you an URL on it, below ;-) but suffice to say 
Co$ tried to intimidate a lot of people. They tried very hard, indeed, 
not just flame mail but visits with cops, claiming to have legal rights 
to do so, et cetera (to be sure, it was all most obviously intimidation, 
they never meant to go to court, but a threat of a 'big' company is very 
scary to a 'little' man.) For instance, they sued only private persons, 
and small ISPs (and XS4all, which isn't small, but they couldn't back out 
of their threats :)

It all ended rather happily, though - Co$ 'lost' on most accounts (the
important ones) and a precedent was set (although i'm told it's not a
'real' precedent in the legal sense) concerning ISPs and the information
on them -- ISPs were judged to act as a mail service (unresponsible if not
ingorant of the contents of the messages and errands they run) instead of
a newspaper (who are very responsible for what they write)

Want to read the whole story ? (it's fun, i assure you :) see 
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/fishman/home.html (Don't worry, it's 
english) or you can mail me if you want a (relatively :-) short version.

As for this 'mystical crossroads', i don't think you have anything to 
fear, (see other posts) but if the bloke keeps at it, i know you can get 
a /lot /of support, and not just from this list. Mail me if you need 
help, i think i know some people who would like a bite from something 
else than Co$ for a change ;-)

Regards,
Thomas.

Thomas Wouters   |   Visit The Digitale City (DDS)   | Forever an Addict to 
zonny@moo.dds.nl |    The Dutch Digital Community    | Virtual, Digital,
Ynnoz @ MOOs     | http://www.dds.nl/plein/centraal/ | Unconventional Rubbish
Jay_* @ MUS[HE]s |  WWW -- World Wide Wackos :)      | (Except for Windows)

• Cease and Desist!
• From: Arthur Chandler <arthurc@crl.com>

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