Grady Ward
Encyclopedia
William Grady Ward is an American software engineer, lexicographer, and Internet activist who has featured prominently in the Scientology versus the Internet
controversy.
Prior to his opposition to Scientology practices, Grady Ward compiled the Moby Project
, an extensive compilation of English language lexical resources and in 1996 released it to the public domain. One of its components, Moby Thesaurus, has more than 2.5 million synonyms and related words, making it the largest thesaurus in the English language as of early 2006. Previously, Ward was known for compiling and distributing a public domain version of the complete works of William Shakespeare, Moby Shakespeare, which has been credited as being the most widely distributed works of Shakespeare in the world.
In 1993 his publisher, the Austin Code Works was investigated as to the export of strong cryptography. The US government at the time treated cryptographic software above a certain strength as the legal equivalent of munitions and restricted them accordingly. Ward spent time developing source code fragments collectively called Moby Crypto to encourage the pervasive development of programs containing state-of-the-art cryptography. Ward also promoted the idea of creating secure, memorable pass-phrases through "shocking nonsense." On 30 March 1995 he aided in the distribution of an NSA employee handbook when it was leaked by the on-line magazine Phrack
arguing that if the government could not keep safe its own materials, then why would anyone trust them to maintain a secure key escrow scheme the NSA had proposed?
In 1996 the Church of Scientology sued Ward, alleging that he was responsible for anonymous postings of material to which the Church claimed copyright. After several years of litigation in which Ward defended pro per in forma pauperis
and responded to more than 1000 docket items in the Northern District of California, San Jose, the lawsuit was eventually settled on 12 May 1998. Ward prevailed on the Church's trade secret claim resulting in a dismissal with prejudice, but agreed to a stipulated judgement on Scientology's copyright claim. Without a finding of liability by Ward, he agreed to pay Scientology $200 a month for life. Unusually for legal settlements with the Church of Scientology, the settlement was not secret, and contained no restrictions on what Ward could say about Scientology. The settlement itself became a source of ongoing legal dispute with two appeals to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but to date it has not been violated by either party.
Scientology versus the Internet
"Scientology versus the Internet" refers to a number of disputes relating to the Church of Scientology's efforts to suppress material critical of Scientology on the Internet through the use of lawsuits and legal threats. In late 1994, the Church of Scientology began using various legal tactics to...
controversy.
Prior to his opposition to Scientology practices, Grady Ward compiled the Moby Project
Moby Project
The Moby Project is a collection of public-domain lexical resources. It was created by Grady Ward. The resources were dedicated to the public domain, and are now mirrored at Project Gutenberg...
, an extensive compilation of English language lexical resources and in 1996 released it to the public domain. One of its components, Moby Thesaurus, has more than 2.5 million synonyms and related words, making it the largest thesaurus in the English language as of early 2006. Previously, Ward was known for compiling and distributing a public domain version of the complete works of William Shakespeare, Moby Shakespeare, which has been credited as being the most widely distributed works of Shakespeare in the world.
In 1993 his publisher, the Austin Code Works was investigated as to the export of strong cryptography. The US government at the time treated cryptographic software above a certain strength as the legal equivalent of munitions and restricted them accordingly. Ward spent time developing source code fragments collectively called Moby Crypto to encourage the pervasive development of programs containing state-of-the-art cryptography. Ward also promoted the idea of creating secure, memorable pass-phrases through "shocking nonsense." On 30 March 1995 he aided in the distribution of an NSA employee handbook when it was leaked by the on-line magazine Phrack
Phrack
Phrack is an ezine written by and for hackers first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine," the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkable works or express original ideas on the topics of interest...
arguing that if the government could not keep safe its own materials, then why would anyone trust them to maintain a secure key escrow scheme the NSA had proposed?
In 1996 the Church of Scientology sued Ward, alleging that he was responsible for anonymous postings of material to which the Church claimed copyright. After several years of litigation in which Ward defended pro per in forma pauperis
In forma pauperis
In forma pauperis is a Latin legal term meaning "in the character or manner of a pauper". In the United States, the IFP designation is given by both state and federal courts to someone who is without the funds to pursue the normal costs of a lawsuit or a criminal defense...
and responded to more than 1000 docket items in the Northern District of California, San Jose, the lawsuit was eventually settled on 12 May 1998. Ward prevailed on the Church's trade secret claim resulting in a dismissal with prejudice, but agreed to a stipulated judgement on Scientology's copyright claim. Without a finding of liability by Ward, he agreed to pay Scientology $200 a month for life. Unusually for legal settlements with the Church of Scientology, the settlement was not secret, and contained no restrictions on what Ward could say about Scientology. The settlement itself became a source of ongoing legal dispute with two appeals to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but to date it has not been violated by either party.