What, you ask, does this have to do with Scientology? When I was asked to help this person in December of 1995, he had been bankrupted by his legal expenses and by the corporation using his private files to run him out of business. I was repulsed by the blatant misconduct (the foregoing is my analysis and opinion only, libel lawyers) and started to research the issue. Imagine my surprise when I found that almost all the relevant cases involved the "Church of Scientology." The Scientologists invaded Dennis Erlich, a former high-ranking member in the church, in Southern Californa. They invaded Arnie Lerma in Virgina. They invaded Grady Ward, a computer expert only tangentially involved with the church and never a member, in northern California. The case files were replete with Church of Scientology cases alleging copyright and trade secret violations. Now curious, I ran "church of scientology" in lexis and got over a thousand hits. This has to be the most litigious group in the history of mankind.
What were they doing? Apparently the founder of Scientology, Lafayette Ron Hubbard, said that the purpose of courts is to harass, and the purpose of a lawsuit is to silence and destroy critics. Erlich, Lerma, and Grady Ward were guilty of posting excerpts from some of the most ridiculous religious dogma of all time to the internet. Dogma which the church claims is copyrighted and protected by trade secret status, and which the critics claim is so ridiculous that if people (Raw Meat in Scientologist language) find out about it, the church will never get any converts. So the church filed for temporary restraining orders to keep *you* from finding out their dogma. If the Scientologists have their way, Hubbard's incoherent ravings will remain their secrets until you pay the approximately $325,000 that they charge their converts for it.
All of this litigation is not without its consequence. Some critics are intimidated and afraid to speak, but in attacking the internet, the Scientologists have found a beast like the hydra. As they silence one head, twenty spring forth.