UK JET Report Controversy over - Notts CC backs down (fwd)
Peter Herngaard
I received the following from Yaman Akdeniz.
Please distribute widely!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 00:13:32 +0000
From: Nalan Banu Pektas <ban...@feza.mam.net.tr>
To: Peter Herngaard <pet...@inet.uni-c.dk>
Subject: UK JET Report Controversy over - Notts CC backs down
Peter,
This is good news. I have updated my pages but cannot post to fight
censorship etc. Please do forward it if you can.
Thanks,
Yaman
--------------------------------
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm>
For Immediate Release - 4 August 1997
'UK JET Report Controversy over - Notts CC backs down'
The Nottinghamshire County Council appeared to concede that the mirror
campaign organised by Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) had rendered
its legal action counterproductive, and the formerly banned JET Report
is expected to be available at its original place at
<http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dlheb/Default.htm> sometime later
this week.
According to the official Nottinghamshire County Council Press Release
'bringing this action was the right thing to do,' but the Chair of
Social Services Tim Bell stated that:
'We have been faced with a technology running at a pace which exceeds
the law's ability to adopt to deal with it and the best interests of
Nottinghamshire people would not be served by running up large bills
in difficult areas of law.'
The Council even paid the legal costs of one of the defendants, Mr
John Gwatkin.
According to Yaman Akdeniz, head of the Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties
(UK) group 'the decision of the County Council is probably influenced
by the recent decision of the UK police to drop charges in an 18 month
investigation involving the availability of a blasphemous poem by
James Kirkup on the Internet.'
'The issue in the availability of the JET Report is public interest
and freedom of information. The wide availability of the JET Report on
the Internet is just another of this kind of colloboration by the
netizens on the Internet against nation-states and their local bodies.
The global Internet does not recognise boundaries and will resist any
attempts by individual governments and law enforcement bodies to
suppress or censor information on it.' Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties
(UK) would like to thank all the netizens involved with the
dissemination of the JET Report on the Internet and also to the
Internet media who has covered the issue widely so far.
Yaman Akdeniz, also stated that:
'There are currently 35 mirror sites and every time the County Council
tried to stop the publication of the JET Report, their action spawned
another dozen mirror sites. This case is reminiscent of the
unsuccessful attempts of the UK Government to stop the publication of
the Spycatcher novel in 1986 in Australia which involved the memoirs
of Peter Wright, a senior officer in MI5 from 1955 to 1976. Spycatcher
was also published in the USA and Canada following its initial
publication in Australia. As in the case of Spycatcher it proved
impossible to stop the publication of the JET Report; the genie is out
of the bottle.'
'It may be argued that if the Nottinghamshire CC was successful with
their court action that the hypertext links are also copyrightable the
outcome would have a chilling effect on the development of the
Internet within the UK and elsewhere.'
Background information:
The Joint Enquiry Report into the 1988 Broxtowe Case, the inside story
of UK's first 'Satanic Ritual Abuse' case was published for the first
time on the Internet by three UK journalists (Nick Anning, David
Hebditch and Margaret Jervis) in May 1997. The report which was
written in 1989 by a joint enquiry team ('JET') of police and social
workers in the aftermath of the 'Broxtowe Case' has been made
available on the Internet in the hope that an informed readership will
be able to draw its own conclusions.
But the Nottinghamshire County Council, who holds the copyright for
the JET Report has threatened the three journalists with legal action
if they fail to remove the controversial JET Report from their
Internet Web Site on the ground that any copying of the report is an
infringement of the Nottinghamshire County Council's copyright in
Britain.
On the application of the Nottingham County Council, Judge Boggis QC,
of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice granted an
injunction against the three journalists on the 3rd of June 1997 four
days after the report has been published on their web page. Following
the injunction, the JET Report has been withdrawn from its original
place.
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), a non-profit civil liberties
organisation, has received a request from the three journalists to
help them to set up a mirror page over the Internet following the
possibility of a legal action by the Nottinghamshire County Council on
June 2, 1997. Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) issued a call to the
on-line community later on that day for setting up mirror sites all
around the world.
The Internet community has heard the rallying cry and responded,
heeding the call of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) by
disseminating the notorious JET Report so widely that there is little
the Nottinghamshire County Council could do to plug the leak. But they
managed to stop a Canadian and a German web site mirroring the JET
Report by threatening the owners of the web sites with legal action.
Professor Peter Junger in the US and Dr Michael Baker in Australia
refused to comply with similar threats and replied to the
Nottinghamshire County Council publicly. There are currently 35 mirror
sites of the JET Report all around the world.
Contact Information:
Mr Yaman Akdeniz
Address: Centre For Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, LS2
9JT. Telephone: 0113-2335033 Fax: 0113- 2335056 E-mail:
la...@leeds.ac.uk Url: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm
Please use the following information to contact Mr Yaman Akdeniz
between 23rd July and 1st September 1997:
E-mail: ban...@mam.net.tr
Tel: 00 90 532 4340013
Fax: 00 90 216 3261449
Notes for the Media
Broxtowe Case involved Britain's largest ever prosecution of
multi-generational incest in which the defendants received sentences
of up to ten years is being made available on the Internet in the hope
that an informed readership will be able to draw its own conclusions.
The original inquiry resulted in a five-volume, 600-page detailed
report. The version of the report published on the World Wide Web in
the public interest identifies neither the victims nor the family at
the centre of the Broxtowe Case.
See <http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dlheb/jetrepor.htm>
This press release will also appear through Cyber-Rights &
Cyber-Liberties (UK) pages.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yaman Akdeniz <la...@leeds.ac.uk>
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please use the following information to contact Mr Yaman Akdeniz between
23rd July and 1st September 1997:
Tel: 00 90 216 3266585
Mobile phone: 00 90 532 4340013
Fax: 00 90 216 3261449
E-mail: ban...@mam.net.tr
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~