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Scientology Uses DMCA to Delist Critic's Website
touretzky writes: "Scientology has used a DMCA threat to force removal of a large number of pages from xenu.net from the Google search engine. Some of the pages Scientology is objecting to contain no material owned by the cult; other pages are clearly covered under "fair use". Scientology's ongoing abuse of Google is documented here. Of course, the Norwegian owner of xenu.net could write a counternotification letter, but that would require him to agree to the jurisdiction of a US court in a district of Scientology's choosing." The posting by Heldal-Lund agrees with what we can observe at Google - the pages listed in the posting aren't in Google's database, though many others are. Update: 03/21 14:16 GMT by M : Paul Wouters of xtdnet.nl (which hosts xenu.net) submits this page documenting Scientology's attacks against the ISP for continuing to host xenu.net.
Andreas, xenu.net's owner announced all this on the usenet group alt.religion.scientology. You can read his posting here on google (hah!), where he talks about it, and what URLs were de-listed.
Alas gallinaceas de urbe bovis volo
(From section 512)
`(d) INFORMATION LOCATION TOOLS- A service provider shall not be liable for monetary relief, or, except as provided in subsection (j), for injunctive or other equitable relief, for infringement of copyright by reason of the provider referring or linking users to an online location containing infringing material or infringing activity, by using information location tools, including a directory, index, reference, pointer, or hypertext link, if the service provider--
`(1)(A) does not have actual knowledge that the material or activity is infringing;
`(B) in the absence of such actual knowledge, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent; or
`(C) upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material;
`(2) does not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity, in a case in which the service provider has the right and ability to control such activity; and
`(3) upon notification of claimed infringement as described in subsection (c)(3), responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, except that, for purposes of this paragraph, the information described in subsection (c)(3)(A)(iii) shall be identification of the reference or link, to material or activity claimed to be infringing, that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate that reference or link.
Pay special attention to subsection `(3). So even linking to copyright infringing material is illegal?!? wtf were those wackos who wrote this bill thinking? This is a serious freedom of speech violation (since software is, after all, speech, and links are just software written in a scripting language). The sooner that abomination of a law gets repealed, the better.
In this instance, here's what xenu.net should do: register a new, and temporary, domain name. The scientologists will have conniptions hunting down his new domain names, he'll have to pay less than lawyer fees.
I wonder if I should become a sci fi author and start my own relition?
BlackGriffen
In this case, it doesn't. It's being used against a company in the United States (Google).
I don't think it's affecting Google in Italy, for example
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
I was a scientologist for almost eight years and worked out in LA at "Big Blue." This complex used to be the Cedars of Sinai hospital but was purchased by Hubbard and company back in the 1970's. It is where ASHO, AOLA, and the LA orgs are, as well as a good portion of OSA. They've remodeled most everything there so some things might have changed since then.
In any case I am here to tell anyone who will listen that Scientology is evil. I don't make that kind of a claim lightly. Scientology is a cult made up of people who have ceased to think for themselves and are no longer acting in their own best interest but are instead being manipulated and coerced into living for the cult, to their own detriment. There are so many things that Scientology does that are wrong that it is difficult to know where to begin in detailing them all. Scientology is to me a weird conglomeration of Nazi-esque nonsense, corporate abuse of the public trust, and organized crime.
Others whose words are far better than mine have already detailed the nature of Scintology's evil far better than I can at 7 am. The link below points to a website that has just about every significant book written that exposes the evil nature of scientology:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/
I applaud the owner of this site for having the courage to make a stand against one of the most evil organizations of our time.
Lee Reynolds
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
In Canada, they've lost all the way to the Supreme Court - One case is Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto, 1995. It was a libel case, and the details will look pretty familiar. Holysmokehas an extract and this is the full thing. Umontreal's archive is linked from the official Supreme Court of Canada page.
Great quote: "Every aspect of this case demonstrates the very real and persistent malice of Scientology." - from the Court itself.
I know that there have been many other rulings in Canada against Scientology, but only this one is easily available on-line.
Henry Troup - hwt@igs.net
You can read it here.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
There are two issues at hand:
The first issue is a serious one, and in the past this has been the method which the C. of S. used to shut down critics: those critics were breaking the law by reproducing copyrighted works. The law allows for critics to quote limited amounts source material within the context of written criticism. The law does not, and should not, allow wholesale copying of other poeple's material; regardless of whether that material contains lies.
The second issue is the real issue; however, as I've already noted, cults use the misbehaviour of their critics against them. Yes, let's put cults out of business; but let us also remember that "the end doesn't justify the means." Remember McCarthy and the mess he made while operating under and end justifies the means assumption.
Exactly. Want to see how L. Ron Hubbard would deal with non-CoS members? Check out Scientology's plan for extermination. The CoS has a "tone scale", which they think everyone falls onto, and that you can predict someone's exact behavior based on where they fall on that scale. If you are a 2.0 or less on that scale, they believe you should have no civil rights at all. (Hubbard actually wrote that in one of his books, isn't that lovely?). You can read more on that scale here.
Also, you can see a copy of Scientology Related Deaths here (thanks google cache! ha!)
If Google's policy is in conflict with Federal Law ( IE, the DMCA ), guess which one will be upheld?
---
Segmentation Fault ( core dumped )
Clicking on the link above, one of the two Google Directory categories was Society > Religion and Spirituality > Opposing Views > Scientology. And, featuring promenantly on the top of that list, is Xenu.net.
Yes, it's a teensy bit obfuscated, but the fact that just one additional click can still get you there shouldn't be ignored.
Here is an article about their interference at ground zero.
n /S cientology_reaches_o.shtml
o gy-vol unteer-ministers.htm
http://cisar.org/010919a.htm
They also have been posing as mental health professionals:
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/02/08/Worldandnatio
or from their OWN MOUTHS here
http://www.scientology.org/message/Scientol
They claim to have been volunteering, but they were actually recruiting.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Top-down was used by Christianity for a long time. When it became the official religion of the Roman empire, it was not the most practiced religion or even close - rich, powerful people had been converted (like Constantine and many of the emperors up to whoever actually made it official). When the Christians went to convert the barbarians, they'd target the leaders of the tribe (mostly because it was the leader's beliefs that dictated the beliefs of the tribe).
But it is pretty effective.
Then, according to xenu.net, scientologists were swarming at ground zero trying to route psychologists away from the victim's family, and doing "touch assists" at the site.
I'd link to the page at xenu.net but it seems to be down or /.ed at the moment.
Here's (ironically for this story) the cached link on google:
Chris Owen exposes all.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
We will be visiting Google's headquarters IN PERSON to search for Xenu information -- with cameras rolling.
Who: The Mountain View, California Xenu Study Group
(This means you)
What: First meeting: "Finding Facts about Xenu on the Net with Google"
Where: Meet at Dana St. Roasting Company, 744 Dana Street,
Mountain View.
Then, travel to Google HQ.
When: 3:45 PM, Thursday, March 21, 2002
Why: To make sure that accurate information about Xenu is available through Internet search engines.
What to bring: 1. another video camera (we already have at least one, but could use some more shots)
2. Your pen and paper for taking notes about how to find good Xenu (and Scientology) sites.
Contact: Don Marti -- dmarti@zgp.org