Karin Spaink (born December 20, 1957 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
) is a journalist, writer and
feminist.
Spaink is a free speech advocate and social critic. Some of her subjects are:
* New-age writers who assert all diseases are only a psychological phenomenon;
* The
Church of Scientology, who sued her for more than ten years;
* Opposition to a U.S. court decision which took down an anti-abortion internet site that contained names, addresses, photos and personal data of abortion providers along with calls for violence against them (Spaink describes herself as
pro-choice
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...
on the issue of abortion, but felt that freedom of speech should prevail);
* The right to inform people about methods of suicide and to discuss the danger or reliability of various methods.
Biography
![Karin Spaink](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Karin_Spaink.jpg)
Spaink was born in Amsterdam and trained as a secondary school teacher from 1975 to 1981, specialising in English. From 1981 to 1984 she studied sociology at the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
, She was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis in 1986, She started writing freelance around this time.
In 1986 and 1987 she trained as a
computer programmer, at Volmac and
Fokker. In this period she worked for the
Pacifist Socialist Party
The Pacifist Socialist Party ( nl, Pacifistisch Socialistische Partij, PSP) was a democratic socialist Dutch socialist political party. The PSP played a small role in Dutch politics. It is one of the predecessors of the GreenLeft.
Party histor ...
. From 1988 until 1990 she worked for Fokker. She writes a regular column for ''
Het Parool
''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...
'' (1992 to present) and previously wrote for ''De Groene Amsterdammer'' (1998-2000).
From 2001 to 2004 she was an external adviser for the Freedom of the Media bureau (FOM) of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...
(OSCE), advising them on freedom of speech and the internet.
![Karin Spaink en Fabian van Langevelde (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Karin_Spaink_en_Fabian_van_Langevelde_%281%29.jpg)
In 2005 she became the chief editor of a new book series
The Next Ten Years The first book in the series, which dealt with electronic patient records (EPR) and the accompanying hack of two major hospitals, led to a debate in parliament. A few months later, the national introduction of EPR's was stalled by the Department of Health, citing Spaink's research. In that same year, she embarked on writing the history of
XS4ALL and
Hack-Tic.
In 2013 she joined the Committee of Recommendation of the Dutch whistleblower foundatio
Publeaks which on 9 September 2013 launched a
whistleblowing initiative based on
GlobaLeaks software.
In 2015, Spaink was named Freethinker of the Year by
De Vrije Gedachte.
Spaink gave the 2018
Mosse Lecture
The Foundation George Mosse Fund of the University of Amsterdam (Stichting George Mosse Fonds van de Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a Dutch foundation (stichting) that aims to promote gay and lesbian studies. It was founded in 2001 at the Univer ...
, titled ''Tussen Grewel en Fortuyn: Identiteit, herzuiling, privilege en verschil'' (''Between
Grewel and
Fortuyn: Identity, re-pillarification, privilege and difference'').
Disputes with New Age proponents over physical ailments
Spaink first came into the national limelight by accusing such
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
writers as
Louise Hay and
Bernie Siegel of over-simplifying physical ailments by reducing them to a purely psychological phenomenon. Suffering from
multiple sclerosis, she was insulted by the suggestion that her disease was nothing more than the result of her own lack of willingness to heal. (Compare
Idealism
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected t ...
with
Materialism; see also
New Thought Movement
The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...
.)
Her essay ''Het strafbare lichaam'' ("The Penal Body") coined
neologisms
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
such as ''kwakdenken'' ("quack thinking") and ''orenmaffia'' ("mind mob") that even made it into the
Dutch language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...
dictionary. The latter term derived from the expression that something is "all between the ears," in other words, "all in the mind."
Scientology
In 1995 the
Church of Scientology began a legal campaign to remove what it held were copyright infringements and trade secrets from the Internet; see
Scientology vs. the Internet
There are a number of disputes concerning the Church of Scientology's attempts to suppress material critical of Scientology on the Internet, utilizing various methods primarily lawsuits and legal threats, as well as front organizations. In la ...
. Spaink, as one of the first famous Dutch Internet personalities, was one of the first of about a hundred Dutch people to put up pages containing the
Fishman Affidavit in protest against the actions of the church.
The Church of Scientology responded by suing Karin Spaink and a large number of Internet providers, including
XS4ALL, for
copyright infringement
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
. Part of the Fishman Affidavit were documents that Fishman had asserted to be the official teachings of Scientology. The defendants responded by challenging the church to prove it was actually the copyright holder of the disputed documents.
The church allowed a Dutch
notary
A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems.
A notary, while a legal professional, is disti ...
to compare the church-copyrighted documents with the texts on Spaink's homepage. Through her lawyers, Karin Spaink received a copy and started rewriting her homepage, just a week away from the court date for handling the motion for summary judgement. Spaink replaced the contested documents with an analysis of the documents, quoting liberally, but not too liberally from them; Dutch copyright law does not have a
fair-use provision, but allows quotation for purposes of scientific dissemination. A representative of the Church of Scientology used this occurrence to back up an assertion that the church had won the court case.
The hearing on the merits made compromises: it found that service providers do have a responsibility for documents that users put up on their web site; however, any claims that Karin Spaink was breaking the church's copyright were deemed unfounded, because Spaink had reworked her homepage as soon as she had discovered that the church indeed had valid claims to portions of the documents on that homepage. This implicitly meant that the scholarly study of the church's documents on Spaink's homepage was in fact legal according to the decision.
Court costs were divided equally between parties. In the Netherlands these usually run into (only) thousands of guilders; contrast this with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that American Scientology adversaries had to pay after losing their own, US-based court cases. This may be an indication of why Spaink can still fight the church, and why it is claimed by Scientology critics that the barrage of lawsuits brought on by the church is not making use of a legal right, but a form of
harassment (
barratry).
The Church of Scientology appealed this decision. A court date was originally planned for September 2002, but was postponed several times. Finally in September 2003, the court decided in favor of Spaink and the
internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
s on all points, including the below-mentioned decision on links. The three judges found that Spaink and the providers might indeed have broken Dutch copyright law; quotation is not allowed of works that have not been previously published, and whether or not the release as evidence in a US court case counts as 'publication' was considered dubious. However, the judges felt that they did not have to rule on this subject, because
European law
European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...
states that quotation is legal in cases where the quotation serves a higher goal. The court held it proven that Scientology is an organisation that tries to undermine democracy, and ruled that Spaink had the right to quote the Church in her exposé.
![T-shirt XS4ALL-Scientology](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/T-shirt_XS4ALL-Scientology.jpg)
The Church appealed again, this time to the Supreme Court of Netherlands. In July 2005, a few days before the court was expected to rule, Scientology withdrew the appeal. The Supreme Court dismissed Scientology's claims while accepting Scientology's withdrawal. As a consequence of this withdrawal, Scientology has no possibility to appeal to the
European Court, because this is only possible when all legal means on country level have been exhausted. The verdict of the appeal court stands, but the Supreme Court did not add an evaluation of its own.
Spaink has continued to criticize Scientology, and actively participates in
Project Chanology
Project Chanology (also called Operation Chanology) was a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group. "Chanology" is a combination of "4chan" and "Scientology". ...
's monthly pickets against the organization.
Effects of this court case
In the original court case, the judge upheld the law that ISPs whose customers on their homepages link to copyright infringement are as liable as if the customers infringed on that copyright themselves.
This part of the judge's decision caused an uproar in the Dutch Internet community, where many claim that a link is not a mechanism for publishing works but merely a reference to a work, although there are a number of voices who feel the judge's decision was correct.
In the verdict of the appeal on September 4, 2003, this ruling was reversed.
Right to Die
Spaink is also involved in the
Right to Die
The right to die is a concept based on the opinion that human beings are entitled to end their life or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of this right is often understood that a person with a terminal illness, incurable pain, or without ...
movement; she hosts a website which offers access to information concerning methods of suicide. This website garnered much controversy when, in October 2005, Christopher Aston (25) and Maria Williams (42) from Liverpool and London respectively, entered into a
suicide pact after meeting on a newsgroup discussing the same subject.
Bibliography
* 1982 – Pornografie, bekijk 't maar (''The Politics of Pornography. Feminist Visions on Sexuality'') (edited collection of essays)
* 1986 – De Venus van Milo in de betonmolen (''The Venus de Milo in the Cement Mixer'') (essay)
* 1991 – Aan hartstocht geen gebrek. Handicap, erotiek en lichaamsbeleving (''Passionate Imperfections. Disability, Erotics, and the Perception of the Body'') (with photos by Gon Buurman)
* 1992 – Het strafbare lichaam. De orenmaffia, kwakdenken en het placebo-effect (''The Penal Body. The Mind Maffia, Quack Thinking, and the Placebo-Effect'')
* 1993 – Stokken en stenen (''Sticks and Stones'') (short stories)
* 1994 – Vallende vrouw. Autobiografie van een lichaam (''Falling Woman. Autobiography of a Body'')
* 1994 – Cyborgs zijn heel gewone mensen (ze denken hooguit meer na) (''Cyborgs Are Pretty Ordinary People (They Just Think More)'') (Introduction to the Dutch translation of
Donna Haraway
Donna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies. Sh ...
's ''A Cyborg Manifesto'')
* 1996 – M/V, doorhalen wat niet van toepassing is (''M/F, Cross Out What Does Not Apply'') (essays)
* 1998 – De man met de hamer (''The Man with the Hammer'') (theatre play; performed by Theatergroep Hollandia)
* 2001 – De dood in doordrukstrip (''Death in a Blister Pack'') (essays)
* 2005 – Medische Geheimen (''Medical Secrets'') (essays)
References
External links
Karin Spaink's homepagein Dutch and English
Spaink's cancer blog or clog, in Dutch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spaink, Karin
1957 births
Living people
Critics of Scientology
Feminist writers
Dutch republicans
Journalists from Amsterdam
Scientology and the Internet
Social critics
Free speech activists
Socialist feminists