Helena Kobrin
Helena Kobrin is the infamous legal representative for the RTC/CSI. She achieved notoriety due to the proliferation of legal suits, cease & desists letters and other legal activities on behave of the Religious Technology Center.
She, and her legal practice with her Husband and partner Ava Paquette has assisted the Church to achieve the dubious distinction of being the most litigious religion in the world.
Her full name is Helena Kempner Kobrin and she was born on 27 April 1948. She has achieved a B.A., at Hofstra University and a J.D., at Seton Hall University. One of her classmates from that time at Seton Hall has voiced the opinion that Helena was once a "copyright terrorist" herself.
She was Admitted to the Bar in 1978 and later admitted to the California Bar in1991. Her California Bar number is #152546 and her business address is or was, as there is currently some doubt.
Moxon and Kobrin
Attorneys at Law
6255 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028-6329
Business phone number: 213-993-4435
The firm, Moxon and Kobrin are best known for being attorneys for the Church of Scientology, working for the Religious Technology Center, which controls the trademarks of Scientology and the copyright of the works of L. Ron Hubbard.
The partners are all church staff members, and as such have come under considerable criticism. The firm was previously Bowles & Moxon, until partner Tim Bowles left to become a solo practitioner in Pasadena. The firm was then known as Moxon & Bartilson, until partner Laurie Bartilson left the firm to manage the acting career of her daughter Lynsey Bartilson in 1998.
In 1994, Kobrin and the law firm Bowles & Moxon were ordered to pay sanctions of $17,775 for filing a frivolous complaint in federal court against Frank Gerbode, a former Scientologist.
She also caused controversy in the mid-1990s when she tried to get the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology shut down, and later e-mailed legal warnings to participants who had quoted as few as six lines of Scientology texts.
In 2001 Ava Paquette, representing the firm, threatened litigation against an internet service provider called Westhost for allowing the domain slatkinfraud.com to display an image of the Scientology cross on their site. The Scientology cross consists of a cross identical to the Christian one, with the addition of four spires or twinkles of light emanating from its center, or an "X" superimposed over it, depending on the rendering, and depending on one's interpretation. Although slatkinfraud's webmaster, David S. Touretzky, maintained that the symbol was covered under "Fair Use" in U.S. copyright law, the ISP gave in to Moxon & Kobrin's prolific cease-and-desist letters.
In 2002 Moxon & Kobrin served notice to search engine Google, demanding that Operation Clambake (www.xenu.net) be removed from their search listings. They alleged that the site "contains literally hundreds of our clients' copyrighted works and federally registered trademarks.". Among the specific Church documents they objected to xenu.net's coverage of were those dealing with Dead Agenting, Fair Game, Security Check Children, Xenu, Helatrobus, and various other Scientology doctrines regarding ancient alien civilizations. Google temporarily complied but eventually restored most of xenu.net's pages back to their results. However, many pages objected to by Scientology are still censored from Google today. The site has restructured much of the content to give as many quotations from the documents as possible while still remaining within Fair Use of the copyrighted material.
In 2005 the firm contacted Glen Stollery, webmaster of a site called scienTOMogy, which parodies Tom Cruise's involvement with the Church. A letter was sent demanding Stollery shut down the site and transfer ownership to the Church, threatening him with a $100,000 lawsuit. Moxon and Kobrin stated that "ScienTOMogy" would cause a likelihood of confusion with "Scientology," violating the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(a). So far Stollery has refused to comply.
In 2006 Ava Paquette sent a cease-and-desist letter to YTMND asking Max Goldberg, owner of the site to remove allegedly infringing content uploaded by the users of YTMND. Goldberg refused to remove any content related to Scientology, which sparked a fad of anti-Scientology sites on YTMND.
.Interestingly enough Both Helena and her husband Mike are members of the RTC sponsored "Planetary Dissemination News".
Here is a quote from the "Flag Service Organization" in Clearwater.
"THANK YOU!
"The Planetary Dissemination Department wishes to thank those Scientologists who have recently donated to our various campaigns ..." [Donors amongst others]
EXECUTIVE PLANETARY DISSEMINATOR
Willy Doetschmann
Greg & Debbie Hughes
Albert Jacquier [sic!]
Mike & Helena Kobrin
Peter Mousiol
Waldemar Sichelschmidt
References:
www.chillingeffects.org/search.cgi
www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/h/helena-kobrin.html
www.scientology-lies.com/people/lawyers/helena-kobrin.html
www.skeptictank.org/gen2/gen00025.htm
