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Subject: <nettime> anon.penet.fi: case closed From: t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com> Date: 31 Mar 1998 05:03:57 +0200 * * * * * Sender: owner-nettime-l@basis.Desk.nl Precedence: bulk [Headers edited. Please note that the PGP signature did *not* check out; almost certainly a Finnish<->US charset and/or UNIX<->Mac problem, but my apologies if it's a forgery or a fake. What with this and "Spamford" Wallace getting socked with a US$2M bill for spamming, this is a signi- ficant--and, amazingly, good--week. So far. As Danilo Kis put it in _A Tomb for Boris Davidovitch_: "So much for the past." Now onward... --T] From: pjs@majakka.uwasa.fi (Peik J Str=1Amsholm) <--ASCII 154 Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,misc.legal,comp.org.eff.talk, alt.privacy.anon-server,talk.religion.misc Subject: Anon.penet.fi case closed! Followup-To: alt.religion.scientology Date: 31 Mar 1998 01:17:41 +0300 Organization: University of Vaasa Message-ID: <6fp5m5$69s@majakka.uwasa.fi> NNTP-Posting-Host: majakka-be.uwasa.fi -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The criminal investigation into the reposting of Scamizdat #11 through anon.penet.fi during March 1996 has been closed by the Helsinki Police Department. The case -- which involved secret Scientology "scriptures" -- was investigated as a minor copyright offence, with a statute of limitation of two years. Since they couldn't get enough evidence for an indictment in two years, the case is now closed. As a result of this the information from the investigation is now public. During the investigation, anon.penet.fi operator Johan "Julf" Helsingius was heard as a witness. He was asked to reveal the anon id's used, but refused. A legal battle followed. Finally Julf was ordered by the courts to reveal the accounts; the Supreme Court of Finland refused to hear his case and the decision of the Court of Appeals of Helsinki became final. According to a Helsinki PD document 3300/RTP/R/110659/96 Helsingius gave the police the following information: an498608@anon.penet.fi =3D veno@alpha.c2.org an545430@anon.penet.fi =3D helen@alpha.c2.org This information was sent by Helsingius to the Helsinki PD by fax from Amsterdam on November the 11th, 1997. The Helsinki PD sent the Finnish Scientology lawyer Jussi Savonen a letter dated 15.01.1998 with this information. In this letter, reference is made to earlier phone conversations between Mr. Savonen and police officer Harri Pulkkinen. According to the police investigation, Internic has showed that the contact info for alpha.c2.org in California is: Community Connexion (C5-DOM) 1212 Broadway Suite 1400 Oakland, CA 94612 During brief discussions about this on the irc channel #scientology, it was suggested (after dejanews searches etc) that the accounts may have used a series of web systems that allowed posting anonymous material. The Finnish police has also sent an informal request for information to webmaster@utopia.hacktic.nl, "since similar material has been posted through this machine": [this is typed from a printout of an email message, included in the police record, sent 20.1.1998 to webmaster@utopia.hacktic.nl] Helsinki 20.01.1998 I'm detective sergeant Kari Koskinen from the Criminal Investigation Department of Helsinki, Finland. I was asked to get info about two emails that have passed remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl 15.2.1996 and 12.3.1996. At this point all I need to know is if you have any logfile of that period of time and who was the operater of this server at that particular time. I thank you for your time - and possible further co-operation? If you care to respond, please use the email adress below kari.koskinen@helsinki.poliisi.fi Kari Koskinen Helsingin kihlakunnan poliisi/RTU Pasilanraitio 13, 00240 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358-9-1895163 It would appear the hacktic remailer was contacted for the sole reason that similar material had been posted through that remailer. The police did not seem to have any evidence linking the Scamizdat #11 repost to the hacktic remailer. That's probably why they sent only an informal email request for information. It is possible that Scientology asked the police to investigate the hacktic connection, but there's no direct mention of this in the records I have seen. The police did not get any information from hacktic; included in the record are some printouts from the web relating to the closing of the remailer operated by the Hacktic Foundation. The police had also prepared a formal request for help from the United States, regarding the accounts at alpha.c2.org. The document - in Finnish - is dated 19.2.1998. Such documents should be translated by the Finnish Ministry of Justice before being sent to a foreign country, and since the investigation was closed 16.03.1998, it seems nothing came out of it. While this article contains the essentials of the situation, I have also posted most of the relevant documents in Finnish to the newsgroup sfnet.keskustelu.laki, article reference is <6feivj$h9h@kruuna.Helsinki.FI> More information about the police investigation may be obtained from police officer Harri Pulkkinen, phone +358-(0)9-189 5388, fax +358-(0)9-189 2824. This is probably the last stage of the legal proceedings regarding Scamizdat under Finnish law. Like many Scientology related cases, it has been very unusual. We can note that Scientology is well known for its abuse of the legal system. In this case the remailers and the legal resistance of Johan Helsingius made it impossible for Scientology to find out the reposter of Scamizdat #11 before the statute of limitations ended the investigation. If Helsingius had not appealed, the police could have found out some additional information about the remailer chain, although it's improbable that they could have broken the entire list. So once again the Internet made it impossible for Scientology to use the legal system to their advantage. Before this case about Scamizdat #11, the Helsinki PD was criticized on the Internet because they were once tricked by Scientology, when the Scientologists claimed that their scriptures had been "stolen". Helsingius was then forced to give out the name of some anon ids. After that it seems the police found out the truth about the allegations of Scientology. During the Scamizdat proceedings the Helsinki PD investigated the incident as a minor copyright offence instead of a theft or a copyright crime. Because of this the police couldn't get a search warrant for anon.penet.fi, and they had to start the proceedings about compelling Helsingius to testify. Accordingly, as it was such a minor offence, the statute of limitations was two years only, which ended the investigation without results after the various legal appeals by Helsingius. So one could say that by investigating the incident as a minor offence, the Helsinki PD sort of decided this case -- against Scientology. The police officer Kaj Malmberg, who handled this case earlier, was also very helpful and wrote about it on the Finnish legal newsgroup sfnet.keskustelu.laki. There's no doubt that the police did their job and investigated the copyright offence as required by law, but they were also very helpful with information for people like me who were interested in this unusual case. After the legal proceedings about anonymous remailers and because of his general net.presence, Johan Helsingius has been heard by the Finnish Committee for Reform of Free Speech Legislation (my translation of Sananvapaustoimikunnan mietint=1A 1997:3). The proceedings have also been discussed all around the world. It's obvious that this unusual case has been very important when it comes to the future of free speech on the Internet. [crossposted & mailed to a few individuals] =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D pjs@uwasa.fi, Student of Theology & Law Student at the U of Helsinki Disclaimer: Speaking for myself only. Always using PGP to sign articles. "That which gives light must endure burning" (Unknown) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNRwtmR1yhFX7KT+RAQFZAAP+Ko528E7Txizwff7pMWSoQc5JoJrtlj/L 8+YQQN/teMUX5XIWMhw2i3Ex4rQlArRQElvmWqSw30EFvE9h4Mr2eEiSxK/76YSA f5iRZSTuzDaqj3xxB9xDAOqPb36Oumq52XOyWmYLrV+C4rcb0A5Dr4CqxjyCS0jx lLloGyFn9ME=3D =3Dboxn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -----End of forwarded message----- --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl