FISHMAN AFFIDAVIT

The 'Fishman Affidavit' is a set of court documents submitted by self-styled ex-Scientologist 'Steven Fishman' in 1993 in the federal case, ''Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz''.
The Affidavit contained criticisms of the Church of Scientology and, controversially, substantial portions of the Operating Thetan course materials.

Contents

Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz

Posted to the internet

References

See also

External links

Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz

The documents were brought as exhibits attached to a declaration by Steven Fishman on 9 April, 1993 as part of ''Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz''. Along with Kendrick Moxon and Laurie Bartilson, Timothy Bowles was one of the lead attorneys for the Church of Scientology in the case^[1].
Fishman told the court that he had committed crimes on behalf of the Church. He also attested that he was assigned to murder his psychologist, Dr. Uwe Geertz, and then commit suicide.^[2]
As evidence, Fishman submitted course materials he said that he purchased from the Church of Scientology. The Church says the documents were stolen and considers them to be copyrighted and a trade secret.^[3] Among other materials, the affidavit contains 61 pages of the allegedly trade-secret and copyrighted story of Xenu.
The Fishman Affidavit contains much text from the old versions of the Operating Thetan levels. The versions of OT I to OT VII in the Fishman Affidavit are considered authentic as the Church of Scientology has brought copyright lawsuits over their release on the Internet.

Posted to the internet

Although the Church of Scientology attempted to prevent others from receiving the document by continuously borrowing it, the text of this declaration and its exhibits were scanned, OCR'd and converted to text and posted onto the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology by ex-Scientologist Arnie Lerma. The material was then placed on the World Wide Web by David S. Touretzky.
Lerma's newsgroup posting resulted in the August 1995 raid of his home for copyright violation on the materials, and the resulting lawsuit ''Religious Technology Center (Scientology) vs Arnaldo Lerma, Richard Leiby, and The Washington Post.'' The U.S. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Arnie Lerma had violated the Church's copyrights.
After being posted to the newsgroup, the documents were mirrored on hundreds of websites worldwide. The Church of Scientology responded by suing a number of people and their Internet service providers for copyright infringement. The defendants responded by challenging the church to prove it was actually the copyright holder of the disputed documents.
The other notable case in connection with this was against Dutch writer Karin Spaink — the Church bringing suit on copyright violation grounds for reproducing the source material, and also claiming rewordings would reveal a trade secret. In 2003, Spaink won the case, with the court holding that her quotation of Scientology works was acceptable and expressing concern about Scientology's attempts to prevent discussion of its doctrines.
Critics of the church have accused it of intentionally using lawsuits in these and other cases as SLAPP suits, intended to silence their opposition.

References

1. , , Roger, Gonnet, Alban, , ISBN 2911751043

2. The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power Richard Behar
3. Court TV Library

See also

★ Andre Tabayoyon -- Affidavit referenced in the case, in United States District Court.

★ Scientology vs. the Internet

★ Scientology and the legal system

External links

★ Press Release by Steven Fishman

★ Steven Fishman home page

★ Scientology in the News: Press Office

★ The Fishman Affidavit