ISP Reveals Scientology Critic
Wired News, June 8, 1999
by Polly Sprenger
In response to a subpoena, AT&T on Monday released the identity of a
WorldNet subscriber to Bridge Publications, a corporate arm of the Church of
Scientology.
The subscriber, known as "Safe," had posted portions of the church's
doctrine to a newsgroup critical of Scientology. The church claims that
these postings violate its copyright, and under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act obtained a subpoena to induce AT&T
Ava Paquette, the attorney who filed the subpoena, said that Safe had made
"unauthorized, verbatim postings," from the group's copyrighted doctrines.
Safe contends that his postings were not verbatim.
Paquette did not return calls for comment.
"She got a questionably legal subpoena to violate my privacy under these
false pretenses," Safe said. "I guess it won't surprise anybody that because
AT&T has put my life at risk to this harassment organization, I will be
switching both Internet service providers and my long-distance service from
AT&T to MCI."
"There has been a history of them aggressively pursuing people who allegedly
misuse their information," said David Sobel, general counsel of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Those people have historically
tended to be critics. This is not a new phenomenon."
Sobel added that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act opens the door for
privacy violations.
"This case arises in the context of the whole controversy surrounding online
anonymity," he said. "The problem is that before there's even a real
determination whether [there's an infringement], the legal information is
identified. There needs to be better protection and some safeguards before
the identity is disclosed."
Dan Leipold, an attorney who was advising Safe, said that AT&T had not given
him reasonable time to respond to the subpoena while still protecting Safe's
identity.
"AT&T didn't seem too enthusiastic to file objections or to stall this for
even a couple of days," Leipold said. "If I had two weeks to deal with this
I could have gotten everything done nicely."
AT&T was issued the subpoena by Bridge Publications on 28 May. The company
was instructed to comply by 2 June. Leipold said that the issuance of the
subpoena over Memorial Day weekend was strategic.
Safe said that he is worried that once in possession of his information, the
Church of Scientology will engage in a campaign of discrediting and
harassing him.
Safe said that not only was he not given enough time to argue against the
subpoena, but the attorney for Bridge who filed it perjures herself in her
statement.
Keith Henson, another critic of Scientology who was sued for alleged
copyright infringement, said that Safe does have something to fear from the
church. He said he suffered a stream of harassment at the hands of
Scientologists, abuse that continues today.
"They put up posters in my neighborhood saying I was a child molester,
picketed my house, showed up at all the places where I worked," Henson said.
"That's the kind of thing he can expect to see right away."
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