Computer underground Digest    Fri  Sept 22, 1995   Volume 7 : Issue 75
                          ISSN  1004-042X

      Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer ([email protected]
      Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
      Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
      Field Agent Extraordinaire:   David Smith
      Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
                         Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
                         Ian Dickinson
      Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest

CONTENTS, #7.75 (Fri, Sept 22, 1995)

File 1--CuD readers may want to know...
File 2--VTW BillWatch #18: new child porn bill (S1237)
File 3--Ruling in RTC v. F.A.C.T.NET (Church of Sci. Loses)
File 4--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)

CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Stanton McCandlish <[email protected]>
Subject: File 1--CuD readers may want to know--(EFF Homepage)
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 20:47:43 -0400 (EDT)

..that the EFF-housed CuD archive has been jazzed up a bit for WWW users.
It now features a nice index page.
URL: http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/CuD/

This index should propagate to all the mirrors as well, so all of them
should be browsable in style.

Only the top level is currently so indexed.  Will work on the
subdirectories at some point.

--
<A HREF="http://www.eff.org/~mech/">          Stanton McCandlish
</A><HR><A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">        [email protected]
</A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/">         Electronic Frontier Foundation
</A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/1.html">   Online Services Mgr.      </A>

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 17 Sep 1995 17:30:12 -0400
From: [email protected](Shabbir J. Safdar, Voters Telecom Watch)
Subject: File 2--VTW BillWatch #18: new child porn bill (S1237)

SUMMARY OF INTERNET CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION

The four different pieces of legislation that address Internet regulation
are still waiting for conference committee consideration.  With the budget
as the current Congressional priority, it isn't likely the fate of the
Internet will be considered for several weeks.

VTW is still collecting the signatures of businesses and bulletin boards
that wish to participate in the joint letter to be sent to Congress urging
parental control (instead of censorship) as a means of approaching the
Internet.  VTW urges you to contact your Internet service provider along
with any business that use the Internet to signon to this letter.  Details
can be found at the http://www.vtw.org/cdaletter/
or by sending mail to [email protected] with "send cdaletter" in the subject line.

_________________________________________________________
CHANGES IN US CRYPTOGRAPHY POLICY

VTW has been chronicaling the government's attempts at forcing Clipper II
onto the public and industry.  Of course, it is still extremely unpopular.
At the Sep. 6th and 7th NIST workshop, industry and public interest
groups panned the plan and small working groups setup by NIST to evaluate
the criteria unhappily participated, even openly revolting in some instances.

On Sep 15th, NIST held another workshop to discuss the FIPS (Federal
Information Processing Standard) that would embody Clipper II (also
know as Commercial Key Escrow).  Believe it or not, this meeting was not
a repeat of the Sep 6th/7th meeting.  Several attendees noticed significant
differences:

HEIGHTENED GOVERNMENT PRESENCE
At the Sep 6th/7th workshop, dissent among industry and public
representatives interfered with NIST's attempts at having a discussion
about the specifics of Clipper II.  Simply put, industry and the public
advocates didn't like the plan.  Therefore discussions of the details
were fruitless.  One smaller working group simply refused to work on
the details and issued a statement condemning the whole Clipper II plan.

The government upped the number of Federal participants at the Sep. 15th
meeting in order to prevent the repeat of such an event.  Several public
advocates noticed a high percentage of government-provided participants in
the working groups.  One civil liberties advocate noted that he had never
seen so many NSA individuals identifying themselves in public before.

Needless to say the tactic worked.  Little in the way of opposition to
the plan was voiced.

BURNOUT AMONG INDUSTRY AND PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVES
Having been through this Kafka-esque exercise a mere two years ago with
the original Clipper plan, industry and public advocates are showing
signs of burnout.  It's fairly clear that their concerns are not being
listened to.  Both the public and the industry clearly sent a message to
the Clinton Administration when the original Clipper was proposed.
Said F. Lynn McNulty of NIST in the New York Times Magazine (6/12/94), "We
received 320 comments, only 2 of which were supportive."

NIST made the Clipper Chip a government standard anyway, and it flopped
in the marketplace.  How many of those Clipper-phones do you see running
around?  The government's so-called "stupid criminals" are just falling
over themselves to buy them, aren't they?  NIST has stated that it has
already been decided to make Clipper II a standard, before receiving any
public input.  Is this how democracy is supposed to work?

COMMERCIAL CHEERLEADING FROM SELECT INDUSTRY INDIVIDUALS
If you're wondering how the Clinton administration can get away with
pushing such a disastrous proposal again, look no further than select
members of the hardware and software industry.  Several companies that
make both security software, hardware devices and several key escrow
companies are pushing Clipper II because they incorrectly believe that
the government will not make it mandatory, and because they believe
the industry wants key escrow.

VTW believes they have it half-right: industry wants key escrow, though
not on the Clinton Administration's terms.  It is clear, however, that
the Administration will not allow key-escrow to be a voluntary program.

The EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) has proved that the
government has enough common sense to know that key escrow is going to be
unpopular and will have to be forced on the marketplace. (See FOIA'd
documents at URL:http://www.epic.org/crypto/).

Never the less, several companies who want to produce hardware key
escrowed devices, key escrowed software, and become escrow holders have
become the champions of the Clipper II (Commercial Key Escrow)
program.  With their support, VTW predicts that the Clinton
Administration will ratify Clipper II as a FIPS standard over the
objections of industry and public.

Stay tuned to BillWatch for progress on Clipper II.
______________________________________________________________

Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act (HR 1978, S n.a.)

               *** THIS BILL IS IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ***

Description:
       HR 1978 is an attempt to recognize the unique medium that is
       online systems and avoid legislating censorship.  It would:
        -prohibit the FCC from regulating constitutionally-protected
         online speech
        -absolve sysops and services from liability if they take
         good faith measures to screen their content or provide
         parental-screening software

       See directions below for obtaining analyses from various
       organizations.

House sponsors and cosponsors: Cox (R-CA), Wyden (D-OR), Matsui (D-CA),
       White (R-WA), Stupak (D-MI), Rohrabacher (R-CA)

House status:
       HR 1978 was passed 8/4/95 by the House in a vote (421-4).

Where to get more info:
       Email:  [email protected] (with "send hr1978" in the subject line)
       Gopher: gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com
       WWW:    http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon

___________________________________________________________

1995 COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT (CDA) (Passed Senate, HR 1004)

               *** THIS BILL IS IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ***

Description:
       The CDA would criminalize electronic speech currently protected
       in print by the First Amendment.

House CDA sponsors: Johnson (D-SD)

House status:
       HR1004 will probably never leave committee.

Senate status:
       The Senate affirmed the Communications Decency Act (84-16)
       as amended to the Telecommunications Reform bill (S 652).

Where to get more info:
       WWW:    http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon
               http://www.eff.org/
               http://www.cdt.org/
               http://epic.org/free_speech
       Gopher: gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com
               gopher gopher.eff.org
       Email:  [email protected] (with "send cdafaq" in the subject line)
               [email protected]
               [email protected]

____________________________________________________________
Child Protection, User Empowerment, and Free Expression in Interactive
Media Study Act (Amendment to HR1555 in the House, S 714)

               *** THIS BILL IS IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ***

Description:
       Would direct the Department of Justice to study whether current
       law is sufficient to cover enforcement of existing obscenity
       laws on computers networks.

Senate sponsors: Leahy (D-VT)

Senate status:
       Currently unattached to any legislation; attempted attachment to
       S.652 but failed (6/14/95).

House sponsors:  Klink (D-PA)

House status:
       Amended to HR 1555 in committee.

______________________________________________________________

Last-minute provisions of the Manager's Mark amendment to HR1555 (added to
       HR1555 at the last minute)

               *** THIS BILL IS IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ***

Description:
       Criminalizes many forms of constitutionally-protected speech
       when they are expressed online.

House sponsors:  Unknown

House status:
       Amended to HR 1555 through the Manager's Mark on 8/4/95.

______________________________________________________________

1995 Protection of Children from Computer Pornography Act (S 892)

Description:
       Would make Internet Service Providers liable for shielding
       people under 18 from all indecent content on the Internet.

Senate sponsors: Dole (R-KS), Coats (R-IN), Grassley (R-IA), McConnell (R-KY),
       Shelby (R-AL), Nickles (R-OK), Hatch (R-UT)

Senate status:
       A hearing was held Monday July 24th.  No action on the bill
       has happened yet as a result of that hearing.

___________________________________________________________

Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 (HR n.a., S 974)

Description:
       S 974 has many effects (not good) on law enforcement's use of
       intercepted communications.  It would also make it unlawful for
       any person to publicly disseminate encoding or encrypting
       software including software *currently allowed* to be exported
       unless it contained a "universal decoding device".  This
       more than likely means that Clipper-style key escrow systems
       could be disseminated, but not strong, private cryptography.

Senate sponsors: Grassley (R-IA)

Senate status: Currently not active and probably won't move before the
       August recess.

Senate citizen action required:
       Request bill below and familiarize yourself with it.  VTW is
       tracking this bill, and will alert you when there is movement.
       There is no Congressional action to take right now; as other
       bills (such as the Communications Decency Act) pose a greater,
       more immediate threat.

House of Representatives status: No House version is currently enrolled.

Where to get more info:
       Email:  [email protected] (with "send s974" in the subject line)
       Gopher: URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com:70/11/vtw/


_________________________________________________________
Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1995 (HR n.a., S 1237)
Description:
       S 1237 would criminalize material that depicts children engaging
       in sexually-explicit conduct whether or not the material was
       produced with children or entirely without computer.

Senate sponsors:
Hatch (R-UT), Abraham (R-MI), Grassley (R-IA), Thurmond (R-SC)

Senate status: In the Judiciary committee, no hearing has been held yet

Senate citizen action required:
       Read the bill below and familiarize yourself with it.  VTW is
       tracking this bill, and will alert you when there is movement.

House of Representatives status: No House version is currently enrolled.

Where to get more info:
       Check URL:http://thomas.loc.gov and search for bill S1237.  VTW
       will have a homepage on this bill soon.  We've included both
       the text of the bill and Congressional debate on it below.


         To amend certain provisions of law relating to child pornography,
         and for other purposes.
                          IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
                   September 13 (legislative day, September 5), 1995
         Mr. Hatch (for himself, Mr. Abraham, Mr. Grassley, and Mr.
             Thurmond) introduced the following bill; which was read twice
             and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
                                        A BILL
         To amend certain provisions of law relating to child pornography,
         and for other purposes.
           Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
         United States of America in Congress assembled,
         SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
           This Act may be cited as the `Child Pornography Prevention Act of
         1995'.
         SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
           Congress finds that--
               (1) the use of children in the production of sexually
             explicit material, including photographs, films, videos,
             computer images, and other visual depictions, is a form of
             sexual abuse which can result in physical or psychological
             harm, or both, to the children involved;
               (2) child pornography permanently records the victim's abuse,
             and its continued existence causes the child victims of sexual
             abuse continuing harm by haunting those children in future years;
               (3) child pornography is often used as part of a method of
             seducing other children into sexual activity; a child who is
             reluctant to engage in sexual activity with an adult, or to
             pose for sexually explicit photographs, can sometimes be
             convinced by viewing depictions of other children `having fun'
             participating in such activity;
               (4) prohibiting the possession and viewing of child
             pornography encourages the possessors of such material to
             destroy them, thereby helping to protect the victims of child
             pornography and to eliminate the market for the sexually
             exploitative use of children; and
               (5) the elimination of child pornography and the protection
             of children from sexual exploitation provide a compelling
             governmental interest for prohibiting the production,
             distribution, possession, or viewing of child pornography.
         SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
           Section 2256 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
               (1) in paragraph (2)(E), by inserting before the semicolon
             the following: `, or the buttocks of any minor, or the breast
             of any female minor';
               (2) in paragraph (5), by inserting before the semicolon the
             following: `, and data stored on computer disk or by electronic
             means which is capable of conversion into a visual image';
               (3) in paragraph (6), by striking `and';
               (4) in paragraph (7), by striking the period and inserting `;
             and'; and
               (5) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
               `(8) `child pornography' means any visual depiction,
             including any photograph, film, video, picture, drawing, or
             computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made
             or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of
             sexually explicit conduct, where--
                   `(A) the production of such visual depiction involves the
                 use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct;
                   `(B) such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a
                 minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
                   `(C) such visual depiction is advertised, promoted,
                 presented, described, or distributed in such a manner that
                 conveys the impression that the material is or contains a
                 visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit
                 conduct.'.
         SEC. 4. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES RELATING TO MATERIAL CONSTITUTING OR
                           CONTAINING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.
           (a) In General: Section 2252 of title 18, United States Code, is
         amended to read as follows:
         `Sec. 2252. Certain activities relating to material constituting or
         containing child pornography
           `(a) Any person who--
               `(1) knowingly mails, transports, or ships in interstate or
             foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, any child
             pornography;
               `(2) knowingly receives or distributes--
                   `(A) any child pornography that has been mailed, shipped,
                 or transported in interstate or foreign commerce by any
                 means, including by computer; or
                   `(B) any material that contains child pornography that
                 has been mailed, shipped, or transported in interstate or
                 foreign commerce by any means, including by computer;
               `(3) knowingly reproduces any child pornography for
             distribution through the mails, or in interstate or foreign
             commerce by any means, including by computer;
               `(4) either--
                   `(A) in the maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the
                 United States, or on any land or building owned by, leased
                 to, or otherwise used by or under the control of the United
                 States Government, or in the Indian country (as defined in
                 section 1151), knowingly sells or possesses with the intent
                 to sell any child pornography; or
                   `(B) knowingly sells or possesses with the intent to sell
                 any child pornography that has been mailed, shipped, or
                 transported in interstate or foreign commerce by any means,
                 including by computer, or that was produced using materials
                 that have been mailed, shipped, or transported in
                 interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by
                 computer; or
               `(5) either--
                   `(A) in the maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the
                 United States, or on any land or building owned by, leased
                 to, or otherwise used by or under the control of the United
                 States Government, or in the Indian country (as defined in
                 section 1151), knowingly possesses 3 or more books,
                 magazines, periodicals, films, videotapes, computer disks,
                 or any other material that contains any child pornography; or
                   `(B) knowingly possesses 3 or more books, magazines,
                 periodicals, films, videotapes, computer disks, or any
                 other material that contains any child pornography that has
                 been mailed, shipped, or transported in interstate or
                 foreign commerce by any means, including by computer,
             shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
           `(b)(1) Whoever violates, or attempts or conspires to violate,
         paragraphs (1), (2), (3), or (4) of subsection (a) shall be fined
         under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both,
         but, if such person has a prior conviction under this chapter or
         chapter 109A, such person shall be fined under this title and
         imprisoned for not less than 5 years nor more than 15 years.
           `(2) Whoever violates paragraph (5) of subsection (a) shall be
         fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or
         both.'.
           (b) Technical Amendment: The table of sections for chapter 110 of
         title 18, United States Code, is amended by amending the item
         relating to section 2252 to read as follows:
         `2252. Certain activities relating to material constituting or
             containing child pornography.'.
         SEC. 5. PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT AMENDMENTS.
           Section 101 of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C.
         2000aa) is amended--
               (1) in subsection (a)(1), by inserting before the semicolon
             at the end the following: `, or if the offense involves the
             production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution,
             shipment, or transportation of child pornography, the sexual
             exploitation of children, or the sale or purchase of children
             under section 2251, 2251A, or 2252 of title 18, United States
             Code'; and
               (2) in subsection (b)(1), by inserting before the semicolon
             at the end the following: `, or if the offense involves the
             production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution,
             shipment, or transportation of child pornography, the sexual
             exploitation of children, or the sale or purchase of children
             under section 2251, 2251A, or 2252 of title 18, United States
             Code'.
         SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY.
           If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or
         the application of such provision or amendment to any person or
         circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this
         Act, the amendments made by this Act, and the application of such
         to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.


  STATEMENTS OF INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS (Senate -
  September 13, 1995)



 THE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY PREVENTION ACT OF 1995



  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, it is impossible for any decent American not
  to be outraged by child pornography and the sexual exploitation of
  children. Such material is a plague upon our people and the moral
  fabric of this great Nation.

  And, as a great Nation, I believe that we have both the constitutional
  right and moral obligation to protect our children from those who,
  motivated by profit or perversion or both, would abuse, exploit, and
  degrade the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.

  Current Federal law dealing with child pornography reflects the
  overwhelming bipartisan consensus which has always existed, both in
  Congress and in the country, that there is no place for such filth
  even in a free society and that those who produce or peddle this
  reprehensible material must be made to feel the full weight of the law
  and suffer a punishment reflective of the seriousness of their
  offense.

  As with many of our criminal statutes, however, effective enforcement
  of our laws against child pornography today faces a new obstacle: The
  criminal use, or misuse, of new technology which is outside the scope
  of existing statutes. In order to close this computer-generated
  loophole and to give our law enforcement authorities the tools they
  need to stem the increasing flow of high-tech child pornography, I am
  today introducing the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1995.

  The necessity for prompt legislative action amending our existing
  Federal child pornography statutes to cover the use of computer
  technology in the production of such material was vividly illustrated
  by a recent story in the Washington Times. This story, dated July 23,
  1995, reported the conviction in Canada of a child pornographer who
  copied innocuous pictures of children from books and catalogs onto a
  computer, altered the images to remove the childrens' clothing, and
  then arranged the children into sexual positions. According to
  Canadian police, these sexual scenes involved not only adults and
  children, but also animals.

  Even more shocking than the occurrence of this type of repulsive
  conduct is the fact that, under current Federal law, those pictures,
  depicting naked children involved in sex with other children, adults,
  and even animals, would not be prosecutable as child pornography. That
  is because current Federal child pornography and sexual exploitation
  of children laws, United States Code title 18, sections 2251, 2251A,
  and 2252, cover only visual depictions of children engaging in
  sexually explicit conduct whose production involved the use of a minor
  engaging in such conduct; materials such as photographs, films, and
  videotapes.

  Today, however, visual depictions of children engaging in any
  imaginable forms of sexual conduct can be produced entirely by
  computer, without using children, thereby placing such depictions
  outside the scope of Federal law. Computers can also be used to alter
  sexually explicit photographs, films, and videos in such a way as to
  make it virtually impossible for prosecutors to identify individuals,
  or to prove that the offending material was produced using children.

  The problem is simple: While Federal law has failed to keep pace with
  technology, the purveyors of child pornography have been right on line
  with it. This bill will help to correct that problem.

  The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1995, which includes a
  statement of congressional findings as to harm, both to children and
  adults, resulting from child pornography, has three major provisions.
  First, it would amend United States Code title 18, section 2256, to
  establish, for the first time, a specific, comprehensive, Federal
  statutory definition of child pornography. Under this bill, any visual
  depiction, such as a photograph, film, videotape or computer image,
  which is produced by any means, including electronically by computer,
  of sexually explicit conduct will be classified as child pornography
  if: (a) its production involved the use of a minor engaging in
  sexually explicit conduct; or (b) it depicts, or appears to depict, a
  minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (c) it is promoted or
  advertised as depicting a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

_____________________________________________________________

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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 15:21:41 CDT
From: CuD Moderators <[email protected]>
Subject: File 3--Ruling in RTC v. F.A.C.T.NET (Church of Sci. Loses)

((MODERATORS NOTE: The following is the text of the Church of
Scientiology civil action against F.A.C.TNET. The ruling
is a legal blow for CoS. Links to web sites detailing what
some have called a "campaign of litigation terrorism" or a
"war on the Net" can be found on the CuD homepage at
http://www.soci.niu.edu.

  Copyright &copy; 1995 Faegre & Benson Professional Limited
  Liability Partnership and Internet Broadcasting Corporation,
  all rights reserved.  http://www.faegre.com))

 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
 FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO

  Civil Action No. 95-B-2143

  RELIGIOUS TECHNOLOGY CENTER,
    Plaintiff,

  vs.

  F.A.C.T.NET, INC., et al.,
    Defendants.

    _________________________________________________________________


 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT
 RULING


  Proceedings before the HONORABLE JOHN L. KANE, JR., Judge, United
  States District Court for the District of Colorado, commencing at 4:00
  p.m., on the 12th day of September, 1995, in Courtroom C-401, United
  States Courthouse, Denver, Colorado.

    _________________________________________________________________



  DEBORAH A. STAFFORD, Official Reporter
  P.O. Box 3592
  Denver, Colorado 80294

  Proceedings Reported by Mechanical Stenography
  Transcription Produced via Computer
    _________________________________________________________________



 APPEARANCES



  For the Plaintiff:

  EARLE C. COOLEY, ESQ.
  Cooley, Manion, Moore & Jones
  21 Custom House Street
  Boston, MA 02110

  TODD P. BLAKELY, ESQ.
  Sheridan Ross & McIntosh
  1700 Lincoln Street, 3500
  Denver, CO 80203

  ERIC M. LIEBERMAN, ESQ.
  Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, P.C.
  740 Broadway at Astor Place
  New York, New York 10003

  HELENA K. KOBRIN, ESQ.
  7629 Fulton Avenue
  North Hollywood, CA 91605

  For the Defendants:

  THOMAS B. KELLEY, ESQ.
  KENNETH LIEBMAN ESQ.
  NATALIE HANLON-LEH, ESQ.
  Faegre & Benson
  2500 Republic Plaza
  370 17th Street
  Denver, CO 80202


    _________________________________________________________________



 PROCEEDINGS



  THE COURT: I have some remarks to make, some of which may be
  considered preliminary. But I think that they are important for a full
  understanding of what this kind of procedure is.

  A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy providing the
  potential for considerable harm, yet because of its emergency nature,
  it does not afford the Court the usual degree of careful consideration
  and examination of all relevant and material evidence which is
  afforded by the deliberative process of a so-called full-fledged
  trial. It is by its very nature an emergency matter, and as a
  consequence, the issuance of an injunction is tentative, and it's
  subject to later modification or for that matter even a complete
  rescission or vacation following trial on the merits. That is why in
  our legal tradition the question of whether to issue an injunction,
  what terms such an injunction should contain are to be approached with
  the utmost caution and prudence.

  The power to issue an injunction, like the power to hold a person in
  contempt of court is a power which is best used sparingly, if at all.
  Moreover, the very purpose of an injunction is to preserve the status
  quo ante. That is a rather elegant piece of Latin which means the last
  existing state of peaceable, non-contested conditions which preceded
  the pending controversy. I will not dwell on this, but I do think it's
  helpful to observe that our legal forefathers were not fools, and the
  complete phrase from the Latin is the status quo ante bellum which
  literally means the state of things before the war began.

  Given this purpose and the caution that the law prescribes, there are
  four basic considerations or findings which must be made before an
  injunction can issue. These same four factors likewise assist in
  determining the scope of an injunction and the conditions which would
  attach to it. Applying these conditions and factors to this case and
  reserving, as I had previously indicated, the right, if not indeed the
  obligation, to issue a more detailed document of a finding, finding of
  fact and conclusion of law, in other words, a more formal opinion at a
  later time, I am going to make the following ruling on the case from
  the bench. And if there is any ambiguity, the parties can obtain a
  copy of these comments from the court reporter.

  The first consideration is probability of success on the merits. I
  find the plaintiff has not established a probability of success on the
  merits, either in relation to the copyright or the trade secret cause
  of action.

  With regard to the copyright infringement, on the evidence before me,
  I find there is no probability of plaintiffs succeeding on their
  copyright claim because the evidence which has been presented shows
  that the defendants' use of the copyrighted works constitutes a fair
  use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act in that it is for the
  purposes of criticism, comment, or research, and as such is not an
  infringement.

  With regard to the trade secrets violation claim, the plaintiff has
  not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the materials in
  issue are secret or within the definition of trade secrets under
  Colorado law. The evidence shows the materials are in fact in the
  public domain, and I am not persuaded by the evidence presented here
  that they entered the public domain only through unlawful means.

  The second consideration or factors is irreparable injury, and I find
  that the plaintiffs has not shown it will suffer irreparable injury of
  the use by defendants for the materials in issue. The evidence does
  not show that plaintiff will lose competitive advantage through
  defendants' use of the materials, nor that the defendants are using
  the materials for commercial purpose. In balancing the hardships to
  the plaintiff, I find the threatened injury of the plaintiff does not
  outweigh the damage the proposed injunction would cause the
  defendants. Whereas, the evidence has not shown the plaintiffs will
  suffer harm if the injunction is not issued. It shows the affect of
  issuing the injunction would amount to an infringement on defendants'
  right of fair use of copyright materials, and even more so in this
  case to barely prevent the functioning of the defendant F.A.C.T.NET in
  its entirety.

  With respect to the final consideration of public interest, the public
  interest is served best by the free exchange of speech and ideas on
  matters of public interest. This is indeed a matter of public interest
  and to issue the injunction sought would not serve that interest.

  Having weighed all of the factors, as I am required to do, I conclude
  the plaintiff has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits and
  the balance of harm lies in favor of the defendants. For these
  reasons, Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction is denied.

  I order, however, as follows: That the plaintiffs shall return and
  restore to the defendants immediately at the plaintiff's expense all
  seized materials, including defendants' hard drive in the exact
  conditions that they were taken and from the precise places from which
  they were taken. I also order the defendants in this case that they
  must maintain -- and each defendant must maintain the status quo as to
  the possession of all of the copyrighted materials at issue in this
  case and the defendants, and each of then, are restricted to making
  fair use and only fair use thereof. The defendants here are
  specifically prohibited from making any additional copies of the
  materials or transferring them in any manner or publishing them other
  than in the context of fair use. Those are the orders of the Court.

  I thank counsel for the presentation, and the Court will be in recess
  until 9:00 a.m.

  MR. COOLEY: Your Honor, we'll undoubtedly be appealing this to the
  United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and we would
  respectfully ask a stay of the Court's order of return pending that
  appeal.

  THE COURT: No, I will not order a stay of the return of the materials.
  That would, in my view, cause the exact harm, which I am mot concerned
  with, and that is the inability of the defendants in the case to
  maintain their continued existence during this litigation.

  (Recess.)


    _________________________________________________________________

 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE



  I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from the record
  of proceedings in the above-entitled matter. Dated at Denver,
  Colorado, this 13th day of September, 1995.

  __________________________________
  Deborah A. Stafford


    _________________________________________________________________

  Last changed 15-September-95

  Copyright &copy; 1995 Faegre & Benson Professional Limited Liability
  Partnership and Internet Broadcasting Corporation, all rights
  reserved.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1995 22:51:01 CDT
From: CuD Moderators <[email protected]>
Subject: File 4--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)

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End of Computer Underground Digest #7.75
************************************