The New York Times
          January 20, 1996

          Placing Documents on Internet Violated
          Scientology's Copyrights, Judge Rules

          By PETER H. LEWIS

          A Federal judge ruled on Friday that a Virginia man had
          violated the copyrights of the Church of Scientology by
          posting confidential Church documents on the Internet,
          even though the material had been obtained from public
          court records.

          The Religious Technology Center, which owns the
          trademarks and copyrights of the Church of Scientology
          International, had sued Arnaldo P. Lerma of Arlington,
          Va., for posting several dozen pages of secret church
          documents about the Scientologist doctrine on the
          Internet.

          In making her ruling, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of United
          States District Court in Alexandria, Va., affirmed that
          the church holds a copyright on the documents and that
          Mr. Lerma infringed on the copyright by posting church
          documents without comment, criticism or other
          significant changes that would have constituted fair
          use. She said the church was entitled to statutory
          damages and legal fees, which will be determined later.

          "They were trying to argue that different rules applied
          for the fair use of copyrighted material on the
          Internet, and the judge ruled otherwise," said Helena K.
          Kobrin, a lawyer for the Religious Technology Center in
          Los Angeles.

          Attempts to reach Mr. Lerma by telephone and e-mail last
          night were unsuccessful.

          Mr. Lerma was the sole remaining defendant in the
          lawsuit, which arose from postings to a Usenet news
          group in August. After Mr. Lerma refused a church demand
          that he stop publishing the documents electronically,
          Federal marshalls and church officials raided Mr.
          Lerma's home on Aug. 12, 1995, and seized Mr. Lerma's
          computer equipment.

          The church had also sued The Washington Post and two of
          its reporters for reprinting portions of the secret
          documents in news reports about the lawsuit and the
          seizure of Mr. Lerma's computer equipment. But Judge
          Brinkema, calling the church's lawsuit against the
          newspaper "reprehensible," ruled in November that The
          Post had used the information fairly.

          Another defendant was the company that provided Mr.
          Lerma with access to the Internet, but the company and
          the Scientologists settled their dispute out of court
          before the judge could rule on whether an access
          provider could be held partially responsible for the
          actions of its subscribers.

          Friday's ruling was the latest twist in a series of
          legal battles between the Church of Scientology
          International, founded by the science fiction writer L.
          Ron Hubbard, and its critics on the Internet. Two other
          lawsuits concerned with the electronic copying of
          confidential church documents - one in California and
          one in Colorado - are pending.

          The copyrighted material in question, known as the
          "Operating Thetan scriptures," were obtained by Mr.
          Lerma and The Washington Post from public court
          documents filed in an earlier dispute between the church
          and a former member in California.

          The church contends that the documents are trade secrets
          that deal with the training of Scientologists who have
          reached the highest levels of understanding of its
          philosophies. These documents are available only to
          those Scientologists.

          Judge Brinkema ruled last year that the documents were
          not trade secrets but could be copyrighted.

                     Copyright 1996 The New York Times