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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 State Department and the Commerce Department, Sweden agreed to pass tougher copyright protection laws.
=== Defamation and anti-critic lawsuits ===
==== Paulette Cooper ====
After writing an article and publishing a book about the Church of Scientology in 1971, journalist Paulette Cooper was sued 19 times as part of the Church's Operation Freakout, and almost successfully framed in 1976 for crimes. The plan was foiled when in 1977 the FBI raided several Scientology offices, seizing over 48,000 documents, which detailed the operation against Cooper.
==== Time magazine ====
In May 1991, Time magazine published a cover story on Scientology entitled "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". The Church responded by suing Time and journalist Richard Behar for $400 million; a five-year legal battle ensued in which Time spent approximately $7 million defending itself in court. The case was eventually dismissed in the magazine's favor. Scientology unsuccessfully sued Reader's Digest in Switzerland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany to stop distribution of a condensed version of the Time story.
==== Hill & Knowlton and Eli Lilly ====
The PR firm Hill & Knowlton (H&K) was hired by the Church of Scientology in 1987. Right after the devastating Time magazine article The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power was published, H&K dropped them as a client. In 1992, the Church of Scientology sued H&K and Eli Lilly for $40 million claiming H&K had illegally terminated the contract because of pressure exerted upon their parent company WPP Group by Eli Lilly, which Scientology had been attacking through its branch group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights. In 1994, after 57,000 pages of discovery and 75 depositions, the parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount or conditions.
==== Cult Awareness Network ====
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was driven into bankruptcy in 1996 in part by a number of Scientology-related lawsuits. As the TV news program 60 Minutes reported in 1997, Scientologists filed over fifty lawsuits against the non-profit organization, which spent over $2 million on its legal defense. After one court handed down a judgment of $1 million against CAN, the organization filed for bankruptcy and auctioned off its assets, which were purchased for $20,000 by a lawyer affiliated with Scientology.
=== Scientology versus the Internet ===
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Scientology launched a coordinated legal campaign to prevent the online distribution of its confidential materials. Early lawsuits relied on copyright claims, but when courts required the Church to authenticate the leaked documents, Scientology increasingly shifted to trade-secret arguments, which allowed them to assert confidentiality without publicly producing the disputed texts. The campaign included lawsuits against individuals, ISPs, and online archives, as well as attempts to expand liability for hyperlinks and online discussion.
Scientology filed lawsuits against a number of Internet users, The Washington Post newspaper, over fifteen various Internet service providers in The Netherlands, and others concerned in the matter of Karin Spaink, a supporter of Arnie Lerma and other Internet activists who posted on her Web page excerpts from Scientology's confidential works. This legal case included claims by Scientology that hyperlinks to alleged copyright infringements were also illegal. Spaink's case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands; however, the Court rejected Scientology's claims in their entirety, including the claims regarding hyperlinks.
==== Netcom ====
Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc. (N.D. Cal. 1995), is a U.S. district court case about whether the operator of a computer bulletin board service (BBS) and Internet access provider that allows that BBS to reach the Internet should be liable for copyright infringement committed by a subscriber of the BBS.
==== FACTNet ====
In 1998, Scientology sued FACTNet for claimed copyright violations. When federal judge John Kane denied Scientology's request for summary judgment because FACTNet challenged Scientology's ownership of the copyrights of the documents, a settlement was reached in 1999. The terms were that if FACTNet is ever found guilty of violations of Church copyrights, they are permanently enjoined to pay the Church $1 million.
=== Religious Technology Center v. Gerbode ===
In Religious Technology Center v. Gerbode, 1994 WL 228607 (C.D. Cal. 1994) (against Frank A. Gerbode, inventor of Traumatic Incident Reduction), a Rule 11 sanction of $8,887.50 was imposed against Helena Kobrin, an attorney for the Church, for bringing baseless and frivolous claims.