Dutch Court Rules That Linking Is Legal In Scientology Case

touretzky writes "The Court of Appeal in The Hague today rejected all of Scientology's claims in appeal in Scientology's action against XS4ALL, Karin Spaink and ten other internet providers. As a result, Karin Spaink's website, which Scientology sought to remove from the Internet based on copyright claims, is entirely legal in the Netherlands. The court also overturned two lower court rulings, one of which said that linking to material that infringed a copyright was itself actionable. The other ruling said that ISPs that failed to act on credible notification of a copyright violation could be held liable for that. The Appeals Court felt that this was too vague a standard, and thus posed a threat to free speech. More info at ScientologyWatch.org."

Heh

[True Dork]

I first read that as "Thinking ruled is legal in Scientology Case" and thought "It's about time!". Oh well. I wouldn't dare think anything about the case... Hold on... Someone's at my door.

You knew it was coming...

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new Church of Scientology overlords

Never called what it really is

[Anonymous Coward]

Scientology = a satanic cult.

They never call it that, but that's what all of the teachings really are. Their basic ideas is that you are the center of the universe, and anything you do to anybody to obtain your goals is OK. And their rituals (with the E-meter) are just as strange. The only reason for giving it a different name is that "Scientology" is able to recruit celebrities, while those same celebrities typically avoid anything with obvious satanic connotations.

(of course the way Bill Gates manages Microsoft often reminds me of Scientology, but that's a separate topic ;-)

Wanna know the meaning of scientology?

[civilengineer]

Here is what dictionary.com says:

scientology: log in for this definition of scientology and other entries in Webster's Millennium(TM) Dictionary of English, available only to Dictionary.com Premium members

Re:A bad decision

[eht]

You haven't been here long enough...

All copyrights are bad except things copyrighted by the GPL.

Scientology

[Nanite]

I think a litmus test for all future court cases should be: "If the case is brought by the Church of Scientology, it must have no merit."

WELCOME!

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our new Xenu overlords.

Re:Go XS4ALL!

[BlindSpot]

XS4ALL is also the host of Python's official web site [python.org], so in a small way - probably a very very small way - this is also a victory for open source!

Re:"Confidential" nature of religious documents?

[donnz]

I get so confused by propaganda - is that the same religion that spreads the virgin birth and cannibalism nonsense...or are there others?

What could be the problem with links?

[Chuck Chunder]

Every Slashdotter knows no-one reads them anyway....

Re:"Confidential" nature of religious documents?

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely Sonny Bono wasn't the only person who couldn't see any reason why copyrights should ever run out. I bet people like Jack Valenti would likely agree. So by extension, there most likely are people who would see nothing wrong with someone (the anglican church? the british royals? heirs of the translators?) having copyright to the King James Version of the bible.

Re: Philip knew how to treat the Knights Templar

[Black Parrot]

> Ought to deal with Scientologists the same way. If their work is so secret that they cannot have it published, then perhaps they are consorting with Baphomet too!

Nah, Baphy told them to stuff it. Standards to maintain, kind of thing.

Re:Never called what it really is

[Black Parrot]

> Scientology = a satanic cult. They never call it that, but that's what all of the teachings really are. Their basic ideas is that you are the center of the universe, and anything you do to anybody to obtain your goals is OK.

How do you know they aren't just politicians instead of satanists?

Re: Suppressed Documents

[Black Parrot]

> Here is the document that Slashdot removed when COS threatened them with the DMCA: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/Declaration/o t3-summary.html

Yeah, I can kinda see why they wouldn't want anyone to see that. Out of context it could leave the impression that they were some kind of k00ks or something.

Re:"Confidential" nature of religious documents?

[R.Caley]

...but nobody is going to sue me for either singing a hymn or spreading "The Word" in ANY language.

This is because Christianity has lost it's power base. Remember they used to burn people alive for translating the bible from latin just because doing so allowed the actual doctrine to leak out to ordinary people.

Hidden secrets are common in religions. A cynic might say this is because the stuff whichis most obviously bollocks has to be kept from people who haven't yet been brainwashed into complete gullability, but I couldn't say such a thing or Hastur will ge.....

Once upon a time: slightly offtopic

[bettiwettiwoo]

Once upon a time I actually did one of those Scientology personality tests (in my defense: it was sort of early in the mid-afternoon and the sun was really, really quite uncomfortably bright and I was really hung-over and ... well, anyway, it's a long story) and it was the greatest thing: I never heard from them again and could always say -- truthfully -- to all those pesky Scientologists accosting you on the street trying to make you take one that I already had.

On the other hand, you know you're really f*cked when not even the Scientologists want you.

Who is this the work of?

[nimblebrain]

I can't resist...

"Hmmm, well isn't that special. Posting links to church secrets. Who could be behind this? I just can't imagine who...

Could it be... THETANS?"

Props to the Church Lady :)

Microsoft ad?

[michajoe]

Why is it that I get a Microsoft ad to go with this article on Scientology.

Strange, hmm ....

Re:"Confidential" nature of religious documents?

[ThyTurkeyIsDone]

I guarantee that neither Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John will sue your ass...

And even if they did, you could always turn the... um, other cheek.