Editing Scientology and law (section)

=== Sweden ===

In 1996, [[Scientology and the Internet#Notable legal actions|Zenon Panoussis]] of Sweden published some of the confidential [[Operating Thetan#NOTs|NOTs]] documents online and the Church of Scientology sued Panoussis for copyright infringement.{{r|rinder|page=153}} In his defense, Panoussis used a provision of the [[Constitution of Sweden]] that guarantees access to public documents. Panoussis turned over a copy of the NOTs documents to the office of the [[Swedish Parliament]] and, by law, copies of all documents (with few exceptions) received by authorities are available for anyone from the public to see, at any time he or she wishes. This, known as the Principle of Public Access (''Offentlighetsprincipen''), is considered a basic civil right in Sweden. The case, however, was decided against Panoussis and he was ordered to pay $164,000 for infringing copyright. The results of the case sparked a legal firestorm in Sweden that debated the necessity of re-writing part of the Constitution.<ref>{{multiref2 |1={{cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/Short+Take+Scientologists+win+Net+court+case/2110-1023_3-215586.html |title=Short Take: Scientologists win Net court case |last=Macavinta |first=Courtney |date=1998-09-15 |work=[[CNET]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104092708/http://news.cnet.com/Short-Take-Scientologists-win-Net-court-case/2110-1023_3-215586.html |archive-date=2012-11-04}} |2={{cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/Scientologists+settle+legal+battle/2100-1023_3-223683.html?tag=item |title=Scientologists settle legal battle |last=Macavinta |first=Courtney |date=1999-03-30 |work=[[CNET]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103052054/http://news.cnet.com/Scientologists-settle-legal-battle/2100-1023_3-223683.html |archive-date=2012-11-03}} }}</ref>

In 1997, the Church of Scientology engaged [[Sonny Bono]], then a member of the [[United States House of Representatives]] who had studied Scientology in the 1970s and 1980s, to pressure US Trade Representative [[Charlene Barshefsky]] to pressure Sweden to change their law permitting free access to any published work regardless of copyright. Along with pressure from Congress, the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] and the [[United States Department of Commerce|Commerce Department]], Sweden agreed to pass tougher copyright protection laws.{{r|reitman|page=269}}