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."

Comments

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.

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

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."

What could be the problem with links?

[Chuck Chunder]

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

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.