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In June, the Church of Scientology subpoenaed AT&T Corp., invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to demand that it reveal the identity of a WorldNet subscriber who was posting excerpts from "Introduction to Scientology Ethics" on alt.religion.scientology under the pseudonym "Safe." Faced with the law, AT&T quickly ponied up the user information, an act that Steele says "the fourth amendment protects against -- it's a misuse of the civil justice system for companies to be [defeating] anonymous speech."

"Safe" -- who describes himself as a Free Zone Scientologist, practicing the tenets of Scientology even as he vocally criticizes the church online -- believes that the Church of Scientology simply wanted to know who he was, and had no interest in copyright litigation. "The Church of Scientology does not want its control over its members to be found out by the public and it doesn't want its members to know that they can get scientology outside of the Church of Scientology, " "Safe" posited in an e-mail. "I have not heard anything from the Church of Scientology's Bridge Publications since its subpoena to AT&T to reveal my identity. No doubt this was an intimidation tactic to let me know that they know who I am. I have to admit, even their silence is intimidating."

Are his concerns an exaggeration? The Church of Scientology has a history of confrontations with its critics -- including hiring private investigators to investigate the backgrounds of reporters or picketing their houses. Many of Scientology's online critics have attempted to keep their identities private, fearing retribution. Says Mullaney, "With the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, if anyone wants to fight to keep their Web site up they have to give the Church of Scientology their name and address in a counter -notification; you can't be anonymous. Some people are wondering if the Church of Scientology is just trying to 'out' people with this; there are plenty of reasons that they don't want the Church of Scientology to know who they are. They'll keep their pages down to avoid it."

But the speculation of the Scientology critics is, of course, speculation. Helena Kobrin, a spokeswoman for Moxon & Kobrin, the Church of Scientology's law firm, refused to discuss the specifics of any of these cases, offering instead a statement that "just as other copyright owners, we have used and will continue to use the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as and when appropriate to protect our clients' copyrights. In each instance we follow the precise requirements of the applicable law. We review each situation that arises individually and determine what is the most effective means for dealing with the problem. In most instances a simple request to remove the materials is enough."

Is the Digital Millennium Copyright a good copyright protection tool? Certainly, it offers legal avenues for not just the Church of Scientology but also for its critics. If the Church of Scientology can indeed legally prove its copyrights, and uses this law to prevent online theft, then it has every right to do so, just as all owners of copyrights -- including artists, musicians, writers, and others -- hope to protect themselves from piracy and illegal distribution of their work.

But, as Steele of the EFF explains, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act leaves open too many questions and doesn't offer enough protection to free speech and citizens' rights online. In fact, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation opposed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from the start. "We thought that it went way overboard in adding protection for copyright holders that hadn't existed before; there are many holes in the legislation," sighs Steele.

So far, no Digital Millennium Copyright Act cases have been tried in court, so it's still difficult to predict how the Church of Scientology's use of the law will hold up. Kobrin says that the Church of Scientology has "won judgments and obtained permanent injunctions in five U.S. cases and two non-U.S. cases," but that was back before the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was on the books. Now that critics have a legal fallback as well, will they be able to more easily defend their usage of Church materials? Perhaps, but that's a decision that will have to be made in court. Meanwhile, Lippard hopes that "eventually the Church of Scientology is going to meet someone with the resources and time to fight back."
salon.com | July 22, 1999

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