ATTORNEY-GENERAL CONFIRMS RULING FOR XS4ALL IN SCIENTOLOGY CASEXS4ALL News
18 March 2005
SourceToday, Attorney-General Verkade delivered his opinion regarding the Scientology case to the Dutch Supreme Court. In this case the Church of Scientology accuses Karin Spaink of copyright infringement for making parts of their course material available on her website. By publishing this material, Spaink wants to inspire a public debate about the nature of the cult.
According to his 82 page opinion, Verkade is of the opinion that under certain circumstances freedom of speech, as protected by art. 10 EDHR, prevails over copyright. To quote Verkade: "Although copyright resides under Article 1 of the First Protocol of EDHR and can therefore be regarded as a human right, this does not exempt copyright from being balanced against the right to freedom of information."
The opinion also contains essential remarks about the right to quote, especially with regard to the question of whether a work that is quoted from has been legally published.
According to the Attorney-General it is not necessary for the author of the work to have given his consent to publication. In this particular case, making a work available to the public by a court library, as happened with
the Fishman Affidavit, is sufficient for the work to have been legally published. Hence it may be quoted from by third parties.
If Supreme Court follows the advice of its Attorney-General, the ruling in appeal will stand. The Supreme Court will rule on July 8, 2005.