The Billyware and Scientology Discreditation Fellowship
Growing the Seeds of Dissent
among the Faithful
Welcome to our Legal Jumble page...
This page has been created to place into the public domain all
correspondence and other material relating to legal matters involving the
so-called Church of Scientology
(ie. the real deal). Please read our disclaimer below:
The Billyware and Scientology Discreditation Fellowship is not
associated with Microsoft or the
Church of Scientology in any
way, shape or form.
This website has nothing to do with either of those organisations,
and exists independently and solely for the protection of the rights
of free speech and unencumbered presentation of opinions of
the author and others who share similar views.
Please note that no animals have been harmed in
the creation and development of this website.
|
Legal Dealings
related to this website
In this section you will find information about legal dealings I have been
involved in while publishing this website. Much of it is fairly boring but
it goes to show that a well-designed website like mine can be subjected to
the weight of large corporate legal machinery. 8-)
February 26, 2003 to Ongoing
- Church of Scientology Threatens Legal
Action
Today I received an email from a woman called Ava Paquette who claims
to represent a legal firm in the USA that is acting on behalf of the Church
of Scientology's 'Religious Technology Centre' in relation to this
website and it's content.
The email (which was sent from an aol.com email address!), goes on to
claim that because I have registered the domain name
'scientology.com.au' and it is being used for a website which is not
an official CoS website, I am violating their supposed tradement of the term
'scientology'. The email continued by citing some allegations
relating to the content of this website.
I never bothered to reply to the first email, though you can read it for yourself.
March 2003 Update: More Emails
On March 6, 2003 another email from Ava
Paquette was received, basically referring to the email she sent on
February 26, 2003 and requesting that I send a reply.
You can read my reply email which was sent on
March 7, 2003.
On March 12, 2003 yet another email from
Ava Paquette was received, basically re-iterating demands made in
previous emails.
Subsquent to this email being received, the March 2003 APANA Management
Committee meeting was held and issues surrounding this website and it's
domain name raised and discussed. As a result of the discussions (which I
took part in), changes to the site design (disclaimers, etc.) and
DNS arrangements (registering the 'bsdf.info' domain name and
making 'www.scientology.com.au' redirect to the site under it's new
name) were made.
No domain-name registry changes been made to facilitate the actioning of
CoS's legal agent's demand to transfer the 'scientology.com.au'
domain name to CoS!...
June 2003 Update: More Emails
On June 11, 2003 a further email from
Ava Paquette was received. This email is almost identical to the very first email that was received back in
February 2003, except that this new email referred to my registration
of 'correctscientology.info' rather than that of
'scientology.com.au'.
I chose not reply to the June 11, 2003 email and simply ignored it.
July 2003 Update: New Domain Name and Site
Re-Organisation
In July 2003 I registered the hereticweb.org and
hereticweb.net domain names. The entire BSDF site was shifted to
appear at the new domain name(s) in late July. The URL forwarding for
www.scientology.com.au and a number of other domain names pointing to
the BSDF material was adjusted accordingly.
August 2003 Update: Threats of Litigation -
New Approach to Securing 'scientology.com.au'
On August 25, 2003 a letter written on
August 21, 2003 was received from Kate Pickering at Davies Collison Cave Solicitors via
courier. The letter contained demands to transfer the registion of
the 'scientology.com.au' and 'correctscientology.info' domain
names to the Church of Scientology's Religious Technology Centre.
The deadline to reply was midday on the 25th of August - which was
the very same day I received the letter! I sent an initial reply by fax on August 26, 2003.
On August 27, 2003 an email was received
from Kate Pickering acknowledging my faxed letter and extending their
deadline to midday on August 29, 2003.
On August 28, 2003 I sent a reply by
email in which I put the legal firm in their place for demanding I
act immediately, and I told them that my family and work commitments come
before them.
After this was sent, I decided on a new course of action which was to
do something I'd actually wanted to do for a number of years since starting
my commercial IT business some years
ago. That was to start up a new business enterprise loosely connected
with the existing business, and give me a legal right to actually
have and use the 'scientology.com.au' domain name by carefully
choosing the name to register for the new business.
On August 31, 2003 another email was
received from Kate Pickering. She tried to claim I've had more than
enough time to hand over the domain names and extended the deadline to
September 5, 2003.
Over the next few days I created a new website for the startup business I
had decided to bring into reality, and made sure that it was visible from
the 'www.scientology.com.au'
URL. A business name registration application was sent to the NSW Department of Fair Trading
was sent during this time.
September 2003 Update: Threats of
Litigation Continued - New Business Venture using 'scientology.com.au'
On September 4, 2003, I received the official business name
registration certificate # BN98000722 from the NSW Department of Fair Trading
which proclaimed that I was now licensed to use 'SRK Science and
Technology Research' as the trading name of the new business venture.
On September 5, 2003 I sent a reply by
email to Kate Pickering outlining that I had stopped using the
'scientology.com.au' domain name to directly link to material
critical of CoS, and that I was now using it for a brand new legitimate
business. I mentioned that the registered name of the business entitled me
to legally utilise the domain name for the business website. Basically, I
was keeping the domain name and CoS would not be getting it (but I
did put a courtesy link to CoS's main website on the page in a small
disclaimer to eliminate any confusion).
In the same email, I told Kate that if CoS wanted to obtain
'correctscientology.info', they would have to enter into negotiation
with me and make a fair and reasonable offer to me before I would agree to
transfer the domain to CoS. I based this on the summation that CoS
clearly intends to gain significant commercial (and other) benefit from
obtaining the 'correctscientology.info' domain name, so I intend to
utilise the opportunity to also obtain significant benefit for myself
from a commercial perspective. 8-)
January 2004 Update: CoS Australian Representative
Phones Requesting Discussion, Etc.
On Thursday, 22-Jan-2004, I received a call on my business mobile
phone from Nick Broadhurst who claims to be a representative of CoS
in Australia. It was not a good time to talk to Nick as I was in the middle
of getting some lunch, but I plan to pursue this further and find out what's
going on...
May/June 2004 Update: CoS Starts Making
Financial Offers
During June 2004, quite a few phone calls were made to me by
Australian CoS people, and I agreed to meet with them for lunch to do them
the courtesy of at least sitting down to chat face-to-face.
During the course of the meeting, a very paltry offer of A$500 was
made for the 'scientology.com.au' domain name, which I said I would
'consider'. 8-)
August 2004 Update: CoS Starts Upping the
Pressure Again
During the first weeks of August 2004, the same CoS representatives
have made several calls to me and have waved what they call a
'substantial offer' in front of me. I presume this is their version
of the 'carrot and stick' approach, with the stick no doubt
being the resumption of threats of legal action.
All I can say is BRING IT ON!
February 2006 Update: Gone quiet in 2005
During 2005 I wasn't contacted by anyone at CoS - strange how their
nominated representatives become so silent when they don't really want to
talk to anyone who's anti-CoS. 8-)
Due to circumstances beyond my control the scientology.com.au domain
registration lapsed and CoS were able to secure it around the middle of
2005. sigh. However it's interesting to see sites such as ScienTOMogy springing up to show up
the farce of CoS for what it really is.
One wonders if the RTC will be able to keep control of all their domain
names since they're scrambling to register any domain name and variations of
them which might be snapped up by people such as myself before CoS realises
they're taken! Sucked in to CoS if they lose out!
If you have any comments, I am more than happy to receive them and read them with
an open mind.
'Axis of Evil', 'billyware.org', 'bsdf.info', 'purescientology.info', 'anti-scientology.org', 'oatee.net', 'war-is-terrorism.net', 'scientomogy.biz', 'operatingthetan.info' and the 'Dynamic Destruction Device' are trademarks of the
Australian Anti-Defence Signals Directorate
Inc.. Unauthorised use, copying, forwarding or
transmission without express permission of the trademark
owner is prohibited and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law.
Feel free to email us at any
time. Sporadics: 
to date.
