Slashdot Mirror
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.
Are they convinced the way to expand their membership is to make enemies with... everyone?
Wow, that's the second /. story concerning scientology in a few weeks. They seem very present on the Internet going to some lengths being even more present. I don't have the impression that other 'religions' are as technologically orientated as this. Thoughts?
how does one change his
As I understand it, Google is only required to remove refrences to certain pages on the site, not the whole site entirely?
How effective is this going to be? Even if the pages to "Operation Clambake" or whatever are removed from Google, xenu.net is probably still going to show up (depending on the search criteria used, I suppose). Once you're at the xenu.net home page, it's a trivial matter to find the other pages in question that Scientology has a problem with.
It hurts when I pee.
Come on, if people would just _not_ accept this law (especially if they're in another country!) it won't be affective. Take a lesson from Thoraeu, Gandhi, and King people! It's called nonviolent protest, it's called civil disobedience! It's called a chance against this! Damn....
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
(C)2002 Google - Searching 2,073,418,204 web pages and skipping 4,475,243,576 pages under the DMCA
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
A friend's sister converted to Scientology and she promptly dated a 50 year old bloke - she was 22 at the time. Even ignoring the age difference, the sudden and radical change in her whole personality (from friendly and a good laugh to extremely insular and compulsive neurotic) scared me *a lot*.
She left the cult (whoops, I meant "religion") two years ago and with the support of her family is on the road to recovery. I don't know if her family persuaded her to leave or they did a rescue mission for her.
I don't know what she thinks of Scientology nowadays.
Definitely very creepy fuckers. Best avoided, or failing that, best viewed in a strong critical light. Are they working for your spiritual development, or are they fleecing you for all your money?
In an unprecedented move, RAMBUS, Inc. announced a planned merger with the Scientologist movement. "We invest a lot of money in protecting our ideas, and noticed a similar trend with the Scientologists. It only made sense to pool our resources." noted Tom Quinn, VP of Marketing at RAMBUS. As part of the merger, RAMBUS will drop its chip-making division, leaving them only to focus on their legal persuits. The Scientologists will continue their legal efforts to use the DMCA to erase all traces of their existance. Analysts were uncertain what to think of the merger. "What are they going to do? Make holy chips?" was one response heard.
slashdot!=valid HTML
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
"Google views the quality of its search results as an extremely important priority. Therefore, Google stops indexing the pages on your site only at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for those pages. This policy is necessary to ensure that pages are not inappropriately removed from our index.
"Since Google is committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users, we cannot participate in the practice of censoring information on the world wide web."
Wow... I'm very surprised. Google is usually very good at practicing what they preach.
I'm at a loss to understand how the US law has any sway in another country. Why didn't Xenu (sp?) just tell them to fsck off?
3000 dead over past 2 years, still no free Palestinians, still
Am I the only one who finds it funny that the Scientologist cult denies to the general public that they dont believe the Galactic Emperor Xenu and the body thetans (ie dead spirits of other aliens) are responsible for all the wrongs in the world. Yet if you post the relevant documentation they will sue the hell out of you for trade secret violation.
They dont even care if they have a valid claim for their suits, they just want to intimidate. Ask keith henson, he is currently in exile in canada. He did the horrible crime of posting the gps coordinates of the LA headquarters and hinting someone shoot a T"om Cruise" missle at it. He was convicted of electronic terrorism even though the posting was clearly in jest.
And dont forget poor Bob Mintons cat! Someone left the dead bugger on Bobs doorstep after they tortured it to death. Why is it that the euros see right through the scientologists, but in america most people do not?
If the EFF would get involved in this, maybe the DMCA can be ruled unconstitutional. If there's any case so far that has a chance of going that far, it's this one.
Maybe at the same time, the CoS can be exposed for what it is, a cult, and have their religion status removed by the IRS...
Am I just being too optimistic?
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Even if the DMCA doesn't hold up in this case, they'll find some other way to drive google nuts and remove the links. They'll blame it on copyright, slander, ANYTHING just so Google has to spend money on protecting their interests..
Free Mac Mini
If you were to breed the Ferengi with the Borg you would end up with Scientology.
I am an ex member now considered an 'enemy' of scientology because my activities and statements interfere with the continued extraction of money from the targets of this scam.
The Scientology program is optimized to extract money. One of the scientology program's subroutines tells the adherents to demonize their enemies, this is a pattern of conduct for fanatic extremist groups.
Scientology maintains control of Tom Cruise, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta and the rest of their pretty faced minons by controlling the information they see. By surrounding them with scientology drones.
Scientology's history of seeking gag agreements through burdensome litigation is just a means to an end. it is no more than another effort to control the information available.
I posted the Fishman affidavit to alt.religion.scientology in 1995, and endured almost 2 million in scientology litigation and refused 3 cash offers to settle - because I refused to take the gag agreement that would prevent me from explaining to YOU how dangerous these crazy bastards are.
To Scientology gag agreements are just the cost of doing business. Part of their effort to control the flow of information.
Scientology's massive efforts to create zillions of domains pointing at their website is just another example of Information Control.
The scientology spam and sporge on alt.religion.scientology is just informtion control.
Totalitarian systems, like Stalinist communism or Scientology cannot survive when information is free.
Scientology has been waging information warfare upon the web so that they might have a better chance to capture a few children's lives with their lies.
Don't let Scientolgoy win the google war, help get the word out, cause Scientology is worse than you think
Arnaldo Lerma [ an ex - member ] http://www.lermanet.comFerengi + Borg = Scientology
Free Mac Mini
Are they convinced the way to expand their membership is to make enemies with... everyone?
Yes, in a way that is a good summary of their world view from _out_ perspective. They, of course, think that it's the other way round...
Scientology is, in a way, similar to a doomsday cult, although they don't believe in a soon-to-come end of the world. They believe that humanity is on a path to immediate self-destruction and that Scientology is the only way to "save" and "free" the world. They believe that they are superiour beings (members claim to have gained superhuman powers by their Sc.-training). We, the non-members, are just stupid "wogs", who can be cheated, lied to, even killed at will. Hubbard actually promised his members the superhuman power of killing such enemies by mere thought.
They also believe to be in a constant state of siege by the outside world, surrounded by enemies trying to enslave them. The outside world is seen as hostile, non-members are a grey goo of stupids and critics are evil enemies who can be attacked with every means possible. Sc.'s favourite weapon is lawyers...
Of course, Sc. sees this as pure self-defense against the hostile outside world. However, someone who dares to say something remotely critical of the cult is instantly labeled an enemy and handled as such, making the small critic an even fiercer critic...
So, yeah, Scientology is making itself is making enemies from people who just expressed doubt. And this helps Scientology, because *having* enemies is proof of their worldview and is what keeps the cult together.
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
...before Operation Clambake is censored into oblivion?
Note to Scientology Lawyers: I did not explicitly specify which bastards I advocate nuking of. For all you know, the nukification I am endorsing could be the one of three-legged peruvian llamas (oh, how I hate these) and not at all the leaders of the IMO controversial and IMO dangerous cult full of IMO manipulative IMO crooks who IMO abuse the weak-minded by syphoning out their cash (IMHO) and producing god-awful films with stars who manage to IMO ruin their career twice. By assuming that the bastards I am referring to are representatives from the Church of Violentology...er...Scientology (great, now Steve Jackson Games' lawyers will be going after me, too!), you are setting up yourselves to be sued by your own employers for libel.
Seriously, someone should firebomb the Celebrity Center (and by that I could mean Kelly Preston's navel, or John Travolta's ego - hey, you can't physically harm an ego!
IMHO, of course.
Reminder: find a new sig
(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
Does Google realize that by censoring one site
on the basis of content, they must now monitor
every site they index/cache for compliance with
all local laws in every nation that Google is
accessible from?
If Google does contend that they delisted Xenu.net
for "google-bombing", then I expect Scientology.com
and its sibling sites delisted for the same practice.
On another note: Anybody else notice that Google
hasn't released a press statement yet?
http://www.whitehatresearch.net -- Its what's for dinner.
The original web page in question, found at http://xenu.xtdnet.nl/ is entitled "Support the Dutch Action against the Church of $cientology." Put that with the fact that the information is supplied in a downloadable tarball, and, well, this guy has got to be a faithful Slashdot reader.
Then again, what more would you expect from an organization with figures like John Travolta and Tom Cruise...
Here's a whois from xenu.net
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact: Operation Clambake Aardalsgata 5 N-4014 Stavanger Norway
We all know that the DMCA does NOT apply in Norway. Therefore, xenu.net cannot be shut down. I guess the stupid Scientology church knows this, so they went after the search-engines.
Now, if google wants to remove this page from their database, they should remove ALL pages that contain anything that breaks the DMCA.
A search on "DeCSS" on google gives several hundred results, here are the first ones:
Gallery of CSS Descramblers
DeCSS for Linux and DVD
Pigdog Journal - DeCSS Distribution Center
Basically, my point is that this is completly and utterly rediciolous. Google know's that DeCSS is illegal in the US, yet they have hundreds of pages with DeCSS in their database?? Either they religiously remove all pages that contains something that breaks the DMCA (wouldn't be much left), or they leave them ALL in there. Alternatively, they fight because it is not up to them to stop pages from having illegal material. I used to like google, even installed their toolbar. However, after seeing that they give in to threats without even trying to fight, the google toolbar is gone from my browser. I think I'm gonna see how good Yahoo is nowadays.
Isn't Barratry a crime, at least in some districts?
What we need is a properly-motivated DA in such a district -- they can track down people harassed by Scientology's sharks^H^H^H^H^H^Hlawyers, and bring barratry charges against them.
It might not do much more than "send a message", but I would think if done properly, and with accompanying civil suits (again, the trick is to find sufficient funding to take the Scientology teams on), people could start to put the hurt back on this cult.
Xentax
You shouldn't verb words.
Dubya forgot to mention one member of his "Axis of Evil".
Because of the /. effect xenu.net is now effectively unreachable. Way to go.
Being well balanced is overrated. -- John Carmack
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.
I have seen many horror stories over the years regarding $cientology and I am a complete opponent of their organization. The thing that I haven't really seen come up in all this is any real fact-based (with references) pro-$cientoloy position. Is this because nothing pro-scientology exists? Are the people at the "church" only capable of threats and not responding to some of these criticisms? If so, why? I'm not saying that every religion must justify itself, but when it gets to the point of threats and other manipulations of people... the whole thing seems to just beg the question.
If you need a cult, check out subgenius (I'm not a memeber, just an observer). At least they have a guarantee on your money!
especially in Germany where tom cruise and travolta's movies are not really welcome...
You mean they are welcome in the US?
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
<A HREF="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/21/ 0453200">The Truth About Scientology</A>
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Really, take a look at Xenu.net and all the other pages out there which detail the stuff they do.
Just like Al Qaida they:
- Go after young impressionable people and turn them into zealots.
- Have armed camps and compounds (See Gold Base)
- Abuse the law and system as much as they can
- Attack and threaten anyone who speaks out against them or tries to leave the organization
- Meddle and infiltrate the government of their hosting countries. The Taliban in Afghanistan were also Al Qaida people to a large extent. The same is happening here, just look at the DA in California who went after Henson. Look at Clearwater Florida.
If we were really running a fully serious war on terrorism, we would have a couple of B1-B's level Gold base and the Navy would blow the Free Winds out of the fucking water. The FBI and CIA would fall upon Clearwater and put the town under martial law until they had rooted out the Scientologists there.
I think countries like Germany, Canada, France, and especially any Islamic countries should turn around and point a finger at the US and say, "Look, before you go waging war in other countries, why don't you take care of your own criminal organizations similar to Al Qaida?"
Really? Why aren't we looking as much into them as we are into Al Qaida? Especially after the stunt they pulled at Ground Zero after the attacks, trying to recruit by posing as medical workers.
I think its time that Bush and Co. took a look at home as much as they are abroad.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Nope, they are in no way banned here, even though two or three years ago they tried to get a lot of international media attention claiming they were opressed.
Truth is: they lost a court case regarding exemption from taxes as a religious non-profit-organisation (I mean, c'mon, sc. and non-profit...) _and_ organisations and business firms that do training, coaching and counselling for gouvernment agencies have to sign a declaration that they are not a part of sc. and that they will not introduce scientologic philosophy and methods - this rule was introduced whe plans had leaked to take over the gouvernment by means of setting up counselling and advisory firms, introducing sc. methods in gouvernment offices and recruiting decision-makers.
Just like with DeCSS, it is the Constitutional duty for each reader with the ability to do so to post the contents of those pages referenced in the complaint on his or her website and register them with Google. I wonder how many letters those Hubbard freaks can write.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Care to explain?
Free Manning, jail Obama.
FORD EXEC: This site is critical of our new Ford Excessive SUV, DMCA it out of you're listings!
GOOGLE: Oh...O-OK...sure... (Butter's voice)
BLIZZARD LAWYER: This site has a program to allow our games to be used on a LAN! DMCA it out of your database!
GOOGLE: Oh...O-OK...sure...
BILL G.: This review says bad things about our SQL server. Fire the DMCA at it Google!
GOOGLE: Oh...O-OK...sure...
DUBYA: Our military plans are protected by the DMCA. Google, nuke this site that criticizes them!
GOOGLE: Oh...O-OK...sure...
Maybe if they had stood up for their own free speech rights they wouldn't have opened the barn door like this. As much as I like Google, part of me wants to see the floodgates open and the de-listers come swarming in. Maybe someone will realize that occasionally, you do have to stand up for your rights.
-sk
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.
Scientology is not a religion, its just a fascist organization seeking to brainwash and control others. A friend in Germany explained to me how they banned this fascist cult in most placed in Europe such as the UK and Germany, we should do the same here I'm sorry to say. Its bad when government has to step and ban certain things but groups like this and NMBLA should not be protected under the first amendment. What's more amazing is how organizations can actually get away with suing people for criticizing them. So the first amendment, I'd say the most sacred right in the USA, should protect YOUR OWN EXISTENCE but not the rights of others, correct? If that isn't fascism, I don't know what is.
Ben
Move 'em (or more particularily the offending pages) to a location outside the US. Problem solved.
BTW does anyone have a mirror of the site with its "offending" pages intact? Maybe some of us should grab them before they disappear forever.
You're using her as bait, Master!
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/16/125622 6&mode=thread
Haven't they bothered the geek community enough? They know that they're not going to convert any geeks over because all of our money is already spent on b33r, hardware, pr0n, and chicks. We're so broke that we resort to P2P for our music and downloading warez so we can use our computers.
Didn't that already happen here:Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot ?
Free Manning, jail Obama.
Scientology has been very aggressive lately in trying to run critics off the 'Net. In fact a musician I met online has been threatened by Scientology lawyers for putting up some songs critical of them on MP3.com. He goes by the name of "El Queso" and has had a site on MP3.com for nearly a year. A cease and desist was sent to MP3.com and they immediately folded, pulling the site and sending all of his personal info to the Scientologists! Now he is just waiting for the inevitable "Fair game" tactics to start. He expects them to pull some shit, because he acutally insulted Scientology's mighty leader, David Miscavige. You can read all about it here and listen to the music here
Isn't it great that all I have to do is ask and I can have any information I want removed from the most widely used search engine on the 'net? And think about it this way: since there are thousands of corporations in existence, and since they all have information they probably don't want people spreading, and since Google will basically just bend over and do anything a company asks them to, there soon won't be any information left in their database. Great job, Google!
I have a sneaking suspicion that there are Scientologists working at Google. How else do you explain their sudden shifting in attitude and policy. Up until now, they've maintained that information indexed within their database is not their responsibility... Just think about it.
If you want to write to Google about this, comments@google.com is the address to use.
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
...Operation Clambake (xenu.net) still comes in about halfway down in a search for "Scientology".
You're using her as bait, Master!
Does anyone else look at religions in general and wonder what good has come out of them?
There seems to be a difference between spirituality and religion, with religion claiming to be the organization of spirituality, but in fact, I would argue that it stifles and kills spirituality.
From the crusades, to the inquisition, to terrorist actions to the suppression of the apple of knowledge throughout the history of man what has religion done for us?
This isn't a rhetorical question, i'd like to read an answer.
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.
Lee, tell these folks all about the Office of Special Affairs. If ever there were a terrorist group operating on U.S. soil, OSA is it. Harassment, dirty tricks, stealing files from government offices, they've done it all.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
If Google's policy is in conflict with Federal Law ( IE, the DMCA ), guess which one will be upheld?
---
Segmentation Fault ( core dumped )
Pimply Henchman: But Sire, we've been trying to get their ISP to remove them. It hasn't worked so far. I fear the task is impossible.
Evil Scientology Kingpin:Fool! We are Scientologists! Nothing is impossible to us! Bring me my trusted cronie, Michael of Slashdot...
Michael enters, and bows before the kingpin
Michael:My Lord.
Evil Scientology Kingpin: Michael, I want you to post a story about Scientology. In it, I want a prominent link to Xenu.net.
Michael: But Sire, why do you encourage negative publicity?
Evil Scientology Kingpin: Not for publicity, Michael, but for The Slashdot effect!. Xenu.net's servers will burst into flames when all of the Slashdot minions click on your little link. When its done, we will threaten to expose our pornographic pictures of CowboyNeal to the world unless the article you write is removed....No lasting negative press, and Xenu.net is finally removed.
Evil Scientology Kingpin laughs maniacally
Michael: It shall be done, my Lord.
"I like to wear big boy pants."
You say:
"This top-down approach is, as far as I know, unique to them. No other religious grouping that I am aware of does that."
The Jesuits also operate this way.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Hmmm... Yesterday there was speculation on kuro5hin whether the google-censorship was due to xenu.net using "google-bombing". There seems to be little doubt that xenu.net has been google-bombing. The only question is whether this contributed to google's decision of having them bumped. If so, good riddance. People who try to exploit search engines by phoney meta data and other practices are scum. (Yes, I know the Scientologists did the same thing, but that does not justify anyting. You don't see me going around brainwashing people just because the Scientologists do...)
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
Why remove those specific pages?
The answer I've come up with is simple. Removing the pages listed got rid of all the xenu.net links on the first 3 pages of google results for a search for scientology. Even if they reinstate the links, it will probably take a while for them to resume their former place in the index. This is just like the tons of domain names all run by the Scientologists, it's a ploy to make it harder to find info about them. They know they can't stop it completely, but that's OK, as long as they can make it so that the average person won't see anything bad about them without specifically looking.
Google says that the counter-notification must include:
But does DMCA really require that counter-notifications require such a ridiculous jurisdiction consent thingie? (Damn, I defended the notification/counternotification aspect of DMCA just a few days ago..)Another idea: Since the integrity of Google's searches is compromised and there's nothing Google can do to prevent damage to their reputation, then they should at least minimize the damage by doing the right thing: They should add a special case to their code, to cause searches on all scientology-related terms, to point anti-scientology sites, and delist all pro-scientology sites. No caching for those sites; just search results.
This is a bad thing to do, but it is less bad. Unless xenu.net sends a counter-notification, there is simply nothing Google can do that will let them come out of this smelling like a rose. So they should fight fire with fire; remaining uninvolved is impossible.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
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.
Given the history of scientology manipulating google's ranking system, why not just wipe them out with an equally questionable claim of your own? Send them a DMCA notification saying that every one of their pages (including the ones just used for rank boosting) individually violates a copyright you own. Watch them disappear off google. Suddenly the truly informative Scientology sites are on top. Seems like proper counter-use of a broken law -- the biggest problem being that the COS has some of the deepest pockets around.
:)
Note that everything I say here is quite possibly illegal should not be done under any circumstances, by anyone. Really.
-Puk
I think Scientology is smarter on one point: not to sue someone with 10 times more resources than you have. RAMBUS going after Infineon, Micron was a dumb idea.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
If there's one good thing to come out of this, it would be for every Slashdot reader to learn more about Scientology.
Go read "A Piece of Blue Sky," a well-written expose on the cult. You will be disgusted at the things Scientology has done, and the power that it weilds.
Throwing children into the brig as punishment for weeks at a time, with nothing but water and bread... and rats and bilge-water. Committing local terrorism on home soil to keep critics silent. Allegations of killing ex-Scientologists: people already walking the fine edge of crazy, so they give 'em a short sharp shove off the edge. And on and on.
Ignorance of Scientology is dangerous.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Disagree with xenu.net? Do something controversial and get it posted on /.
...
/. effects kills xenu.net more effectively than any court order ever could
Sheer Genius
My other sig is also a
Search google for xenu and see that the xenu.ca site is still on the engine. Scientologists in the /. audience take note :-b
-Eldurbarn
The more front-page coverage these lunatics get, the more discussion they earn, the more powerful they become. Maybe the best way to deal with Scientology is to ignore it.
I really am left speechless, even soap-box-less. We need to shut this "religion" down.
~ now you know
Well... It could be done now, if there were, perhaps 5 million dollars available to bankroll it.
The scientology litigation machine uses litigation stress and expense to buy silence.
see the graphicindex on lermanet.com
arnie lerma
ex-member Ferengi + Borg = Scientology
I'd prefer to die speaking my mind than live fearing to speak.
The only thing that always works in scientology are its lawyers
The internet is the liberty tree of the new millennium
Secrets are the mortar binding lies as bricks together into prisons for the mind
http://www.lermanet.com- mentioned 4 January 2000 in
The Washington Post's - 'Reliable Source' column re "Scientologist with no HEAD"
You want Bigots? http://members.cox.net/bwarr2/Movie2.html
Ferengi + Borg = Scientology
They should put up webcounters, especially when linked to big hit sites like slashdot, maybe it would give them a clue on how many people are now informed on their abusive practices and they might reconsider their actions, bad press isn't good and they know it, that's why they are going against these sites in the first place, now if they realize that their actions are actually generating way more awareness in a week than the site alone in a year, if they have minimal judgment, they'll do the math.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
If people can just remember those words, they'll find the site right away. Search for that on google and xenu.net comes up first. Of course most people don't know about or won't remember those words, but I remember the site only because of the phrase and the big pictures of the clams on the front of it.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
While I have nothing but admiration for the lengths you apparently went to, to make sure you're still allowed to expose the true nature of this "religion" - I also have some doubts as to whether it's even worthwhile to fight the SoC in court.
... but those types will always be out there, getting taken advantage of by one crooked group or another.
As far as I can tell, their "religion" revolves around money-making and counts on the power of money to increase their influence and membership.
There's a fundamental problem with any organization that works this way; most people who feel they need to "find religion" are looking for something beyond cash as their saviour.
Sure, these characters can prey on the easily-influenced
It seems to me, if you're able to fight them in the courts to the point where they're making cash settlement offers, you've already "won" - because you're sapping some of their perceived power (money). I could see refusing the first, or maybe even the second cash settlement offer, but even the 3rd.?
Every time one of their members becomes an ex-member (and most assuredly, it will continue to happen), if they have to pay to shut them up - they're being weakened. Anything else is just playing their favorite game; manipulate who can see and reveal our paperwork.
Because of the /. effect xenu.net is now effectively unreachable. Way to go.
There's anti-CoS site on Freenet -- and whenever you access that one, it'll make it more accessible and faster to load for others!
hawk, who benefitted massively from eight years of Jesuit education
Maybe I should sell some of my stock options, and take about $1000, and have some cheap T-Shirts printed up with:
"BAN SCIENTOLOGY NOW! - - www.xenu.net"
and donate them to the salvation army. I'd get the tax break, AND hundreds of people walking the street bearing my message. Hey, it worked for DeCSS. . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Chris Owen exposes all.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
I am an atheist. I don't believe in any of that religious bullshit. Anyone who has any common sense doesn't.
I've always been weery of Christians forcing their narrow-minded self-depricating views on others. It seems that these nut-case scientologists are even worse.
These people are wack-jobs. Frauds. Crooks. They need to be exposed for what they are and put in jail. The Church of Scientology is no better than the organized mob.
That these wack-jobs use the word "science" to describe their non-sense is even worse. Scientists should sue them for libel and defamation.
New entry to my list of people who would be better off dead:
-Scientologists
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Per the request of the site owner, http://xenu.net/index.html is no longer available in the Wayback Machine. Try another request...
... post a large banner on their main page that explains everything. Can you imagine how quickly the Scientologists would back down if Google's front page contains a message along the lines of:
"Certain links have been removed from the Google search engine due to pressure from the church of Scientology. For the full story, click here."
Considering the number of people that hit Google's front page every day, this would generate a phenomenal amount of bad PR - and, more importantly, cause ordinary folks to look more closely into the DMCA.
Google actually has a fantastic opportunity here.
Unfortunately, you'd be swearing under penalty of perjury that your claims are valid.
Look, I've went to these sites that offer "scientology" documents. Quit frankly, they're not worth the read, though they do inform you of how much BS these wack-jobs are full of and how corrupt the clan/business of scientology is. I started to read some of this crap by Hubbard or whatever. It's even worse than the bullshit in the Bible.
But, if you want to distribute this crap, do it on P2P networks. There's no way to stop P2P distribution of information.
The more I read about these scientology nutjobs, the more they remind me of the KKK and Hitler's Nazi "Supermen".
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
... I know that this may scare some people in "today's world" but this is the sort of thing that we need to take action about.
No one needs to die, but if it means taking google.com down because we are searching "DMCA", "XENU.NET" and "FREEDOM" so be it.
Of course google is innocent so direct your other DDoS attacks where you think they count.
In this "new world" where everyone is so scared why hasn't anyone stood up and done something to stop DMCA et. al.
Get your Unix fortune now!
While the government's trying to fight "terrorism" how about dealing with these wackjobs. Anyone who claims to be an "upper level" scientologist should be detained in holding cells as being a terrorist.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
This seems to be the goal of all religions: to keep their delusions from scrutiny until you're too far in to question anything. However, in order to reach the largest audience possible, they have to distribute their beliefs pretty widely (I had a huge stack of tiny bibles in college courtesy of those bible pushers on campus). Finally, in order to spread, they need financial resources for schools, thinly-veiled charities, presidential elections, &c.
In order to be effective memes, religions need to strike a balance between scrutiny, free distribution, and payment. Most successful ones have evolved into something resembling poorly-commented open source, i.e., free distribution of writings that are so vague that they could mean anything to anyone. They also don't directly force you into paying ("Join the Mandrake Club, pleaaaaase!"), but rely on guilt to get at your wallet.
The $cientologists have taken the closed source approach (copyrighting their clam drivel) with something that resembles micro$oft's new licensing scheme, i.e., "keep paying if you want to stay locked into our proprietary format."
Both methods give the end users the product they want: a false sense of security, order, and purpose in an otherwise chaotic world (e.g., OpenFaith vs. MS Faith), the closed source approach just ends up costing the users more money and keeps them locked in.
I'm only half joking about this, by the way ;)
Want a simple way to counter scientology? - tell everyone you know about Xenu. He's the space-alien-devil in the scientology religion, most people think they are wierd but they keep the believing in space aliens thing rather quiet (all the better to pull in new recruits). If "scientology" and "space aliens" become synonomous more people will stay away from them - expect of course the real UFO nutters
Well, I have been wanting to setup a webpage, if for no other reason than to learn about the whole thing. Only thing was I had no idea what I wanted to put up. I didn't want to do one of those nasty "this is ME!" pages with my hobbies, pets, family pictures, blah, blah (what ARE you people thinking when you do that?). I now know what I will do. I will put up anti-scientology pages and work towards the goal of getting my pages, with lots of links to the good anti-$cientology pages and information - up on the first page of any google search on "scientology". Perhaps others could also help in this regard.
Put gratuitous links to anti-scientology pages into your pages, regardless of what you pages are actually about. Put as many links for casual browsers to come across as possible to help people get the REAL scoop on $cientology.
I also have all their "censored/copywrited" bullcrap docs on their Theta crap sci-fi. I intend to make them generally available too. Just another way for people to get the stuff that drives those $ci-clowns nutty.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
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
Here's a site to compliment the Xenu site: Rick Ross's Site
.sigs are for post^Hers.
For me, one of the saddest events in internet history, was in 1996 when the church of scientology managed to get anon.penet.fi closed. Back then it was a very popular and widely used (and pretty much the only one) anonymous remailer, with hundreds of thousands of users all over the world.
The events leading to it's closing can be read at :
The Church of Scientology vs. anon.penet.fi
and at the Penetron site itself :
Penetron
The shutdown hit newsgroup posters worst, since especially many *.support.* posters were using the service (for obvious reasons). At the time there weren't really any other semi-anonymous web based email/news providers, and it took a long while until some other similar, much smaller scale, services appeared.
These days, it's hard _not_ to find a way to post/email more or less anonymously, but back then, anon.penet.fi provided an invaluable service, and the stupid courts here in Finland let the scientologists to destroy it all.
Anti-Scientology folks (as well as a few others; I believe the term is used among anti-JW activists as well) have a term, invented by non-member believers (or squirrels, as the Co$ calls them), called the Free Zone. Those are people who still believe what they believe even though they're no longer affiliated with the church.
Yes, you're free to believe what you wish; that's what the freezoners are about, and nobody has the right to take their beliefs away from them. The objection is to the organization. (Granted, the belief system *is* a crock, but you can't take that away...)
/Brian
Well... John Travolta is pretty much persona non grata these days with moviegoers since Battlefield: Earth and Swordfish, and I don't care what kind of delusional good reviews Vanilla Sky got, but Tom Cruise is becoming the new Kevin Costner.
Actually, the most annoying Scientologist in the entertainment industry right now has to be Leah Remini; she's a very talented comedienne, but she comes across as being something of a self-righteous bitch in interviews. (Of course she's something different again on the set, but that's a different story.)
/Brian
Bare-Faced Messiah
There are those who still believe that Hubbard died years earlier and that his death was covered up by the messengers while they consolidated their control over the church. There are those who still believe that Hubbard will soon be entering another body, or might even have done so already, prior to resuming his position as the head of Scientology. There are those who still believe that, for all his faults, Hubbard made a significant contribution to helping his fellow men. And there are those who now believe, sadly, that they were the unwitting victims of one of the most successful and colourful confidence tricksters of the twentieth century.
Da Blog
"However, Scientology was on such shaky grounds, that they settled with us out of court. They promised not to hold us responsible for the user's website, and in return we would give out the user's name and address so they could sue him. With the user's voluntary consent we provided Scientology with his name and address, thereby relieving Xtended Internet from its conflict between privacy laws and blocking a possible lawsuit from happening."
Jack Valenti,
15503 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, California 91436
(818) 995-6600
(Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA))
I stole this Sig
I'm surprised -- I did a little gutter surfing (i.e. surfing at -1) and found little or no identifiable CoS astroturfing in this thread... it's quiet, too quiet...
/Brian
Yes, I know that (and so is Nicole Kidman), but I live in Germany, go fairly often to the movies, and I've not heard that movies with Travolta and Cruise are generaly not very welcome.
Some (not many) people are aware that Travolta and Cruise are scientologists, that doesn't stop them from watching the flick.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
I have a friend who was deeply into Scientology back in 1974. He actually signed a contract with them, which basically made him their slave for life. Of course the contract would never stand up in court but it really showed me what this cult was all about.
If you read the claims that L Ron Hubbard makes about what he's done during his life and you start totaling up the years, you will learn that the man was a liar. Either that or he was able to use some kind of time warping because they don't add up.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
Heelooo, Americaaaaans, anybody at home ?
Frankly, folks, Scientology is a a product you you guys contuinue unleashing onto the world. It is your legal system that protects them and gives them power and shielding. It is your tax exemption (obtained by blackmaling the IRS into submission) that guarantees their funding, and its your bycantine and imperialist court system that helps them to harass people into submission even abroad.
In most civilized countries Scientology leaders sit in or barely stay out of jail, but in America, he Government even has the audacity to complain to other countries about them prosecuting Scientology crimes, actually claiming human rights violations.
Frankly, face it: Scientology will be there, oppressing and destroying everyone who disagrees with them, as long as you allow your judges and your policemen to act as their willing servants.
Go clean up your act, Americans.
There are assholes and there are assholes. Scientologists, however, define the word 'asshole'. They should be right there in Websters along with a color glossy of goatse.cx and a pic of Bill G.
This 'church' is really nothing more than a scam for making money and getting the brainwashed drones to put out for 'church officials'. It's a cult, a con, a terrorist organization - all harbored under the umbrella of 'religion' in the U.S. Criticize it at your peril, for these lunatics will do whatever they have to to silence their opponents. The legality of their actions is of little importance to them.
I spit on the Scientologists and everything they stand for. They are scum of the worst sort, deserving of nothing but contempt and ridicule. They'd be a damned joke if they weren't so dangerous. As is, even criticizing them is enough to attract months of harrassment, online and off.
I only wish someone had put a bullet in Hubbard's skull before he came up with this scheme....
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
There's something wrong with a religion that might as well be considered a terrorist group. They're fricking insane, end of story.
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
Google's willingness to abandon specifically DMCA granted exemptions for 'directories' and 'non-service-providers/hosts' from DMCA regulations is a blanket invitation to 'complaints' from every nutball in the universe to destroy *all* excuse a 'Search Engine' has for existing.
From ARS:
Andreas can indeed send them a 'counter notification' and should.
*But*, Google by claiming that its 'links' and 'directory' are subject to DMCA, is itself, despite *specific* exemptions in the DMCA, asking to be destroyed by any and all who prefer their victims incapable of finding 'information', thus removing any value it might have as a'Search Engine'.
Google's cowardice is real, even if it's primarilly the unwillingness to stand up for its own rights as a 'directory' rather than a 'service provider' or 'host'.
Zinj
Google has demonstrated it's short-sighted mercenary willingness to lemmingly wander over the cliff of opportunism.
*Especially* considering that the http://www.xenu.net site itself is still available *because* the 'claims' by the so-called Church of Scientology are as bogus as its Dogma.
Zinj
Where are all the Scientologists on this thread?
Usually the Office of Special Affairs (intelligence/spies) will drown the offending site in pro-Scio posts. Come on, OSA, where are ya?
Chicken? Thousands of people who know what you really do are waiting. Kind of like walking into the middle of a freeway at rush hour.
Xenu, baby.
This really needs to be rated higher than 0; hopefully this particular Anonymous Coward won't mind if I repost:
Scientology was the first organization, back in the early and middle '90's, to use copyright law abuse to shut down its critics, on remailers, newsgroups, and the web.
I would opine firmly that they were at the forefront in the design and passage of the DMCA, using front groups and political influence.
A cult, a nasty little money making corporation that hates daylight, because it would destroy their ability to recruit.
Remember Lisa McPherson.
"Scientology went after the reporter of this article, but Time did not back down."
Furthermore, the Church recently lost their suit against Time over that article. There is still sanity left in the courts.
Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of Scientology
... L RON HUBBARD. ... THE TECH. Scientology at Ground Zero. Keith Henson ...
refugee, Search OC. Search through thousand of related pages here.
Description: The fight against Scientology on the Net.
Category: Society>ReligionandSpir ituality>OpposingViews& gt;Scientology
www.xenu.net/ - 36k - 21 Mar 2002 - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: Scientology Court Files ...
Operation Clambake present: Scientology Court Files. A public library containing
court papers related to lawsuits involving Scientology in some way. Collected
www.xenu.net/archive/CourtFiles/ - 71k - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: What is Scientology? ... Hubbard later created the Church of Scientology... ...
Operation Clambake present: What is Scientology? Norsk introduksjon tilgjengelig
her.
www.xenu.net/roland-intro.html - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
WHAT IS SCIENTOLOGY?
... Created by H@rry Tuttle and translated into english by Martini,
from the first site in Italy about Scientology.
www.xenu.net/archive/scientology_illustrated/ - 2k - Cached - Similar pages
Scientology associated deaths ...
Why are these people dead Scientology? Lisa McPherson. Lisa McPherson (36) - Room
174 Heribert Pfaff (31) - Room 758 Josephus Havenith (45) - Room 771.
www.xenu.net/archive/deaths/ - 88k - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: Scientology and Totalitarianism - a ... ...
Operation Clambake & Laura Kay Fuller present: Scientology & Totalitarianism. Prologue
| Introduction | History | Leadership | Language | Technology | Ideology
www.xenu.net/archive/thesis/ - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: Answers for scientology kids ...
Operation Clambake present: Answers for scientology kids By Tilman Hausherr. Someone
said that a scientologist had told him that their children are disturbed
Description: An attempt to explain Scientology with simple words suitable for children.
Category: Society>ReligionandSpir ituality>OpposingViews& gt;Scientology>FAQs
www.xenu.net/archive/FAQ/answer_for_kids.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: Scientology at Ground Zero ... Chasing. Intercepted Scientology email: ...
Operation Clambake present: Scientology at Ground Zero.
The
www.xenu.net/archive/events/20010911-tragedy/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: QUILL - Scientology from inside out ...
Operation Clambake present: Scientology from inside out A former insider reveals
strategies for managing the news media by Robert Vaughn Young.
www.xenu.net/archive/media/young-quill.html - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
Operation Clambake present: The Cost of Scientology ...
Operation Clambake present: The Cost of Scientology. Courses. CoS
prices for processing up to OT8 and beyond. Membership.
www.xenu.net/archive/CoS_prices.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
In Canada, they've lost all the way to the Supreme Court - One case is Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto, 1995.
Heh. On Toronto's main street, Yonge, there's a multi-story Church of Scientology building, and there are always many whackos out there handing out flyers and trying to recruit new morons. While walking past, I've frequently been propositioned the same way a dope dealer will. Instead of hearing "hydro" or "blunt" whispered at you as you walk past, it's "personality test".
"Jobs Available: Hard Work, Low Pay", they advertise on a sign in the window. And people go in.
One time in about 1994, I was parked on a sidestreet nearby and when I returned to my car, there was a flyer under my windshield wiper, essentially attempting to induct me. I was so incensed that I took it home, used it to wipe a certain region after a certain requirement of the human digestive system, and mailed it back to them. I figured the satisfaction was worth the cost of the postage.
The scariest thing about the Church of Scientology is not their aggression or attempted suppression of freedom of speech. It's the fact that the their cult's survival proves the existence of people who are more stupid than Raelians.
But I gotta profess my most profound admiration for L. Ron Hubbard. It amuses me to go to a casino, sit on a stool, and watch obese programmed robots put quarter after quarter into slot machines. I don't gamble - I just get some sort of sick pleasure from watching the old saying "a fool and his money are soon parted" being proven on such a spectacularly grand scale. Scientology kinda makes Las Vegas and lottery tickets seem insignificant.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Interesting. I'm probably gonna get modded all to hell for this, but what are 50 karma points for, if not to be able to post controversial stuff at +2?
I've proven, via the previous statement, that either fundamentalist Islam is a cult or that Scientology is a real religion....
Fundamentalist Islam is, in a way, similar to a doomsday cult, although they don't believe in a soon-to-come end of the world. They believe that humanity is on a path to immediate self-destruction and that Fundamentalist Islam is the only way to "save" and "free" the world. They believe that they are superiour beings (members claim to have gained superhuman powers by their belief in Allah ). We, the non-members, are just stupid " infidels ", who can be cheated, lied to, even killed at will. Bin Laden actually promised his members the superhuman power of having dozens of virginal wives who've never heard of Gloria Steinem by mere thought.
They also believe to be in a constant state of siege by the outside world, surrounded by enemies trying to enslave them. The outside world is seen as hostile, non-members are a grey goo of AH-mair-EEE-cans and critics are evil enemies who can be attacked with Boeings. Fundamentalist Islam 's favourite weapon is martyrs...
Of course, Fundamentalist Islam sees this as pure self-defense against the hostile outside world. However, someone who dares to say something remotely critical of the cult is instantly labeled a "stupid Jew" and handled as such, making the small critic an even fiercer critic...
So, yeah, Fundamentalist Islam is making itself enemies from people who just expressed doubt. And this helps Fundamentalist Islam , because *having* enemies is proof of their worldview and is what keeps the cult together.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Seriously though, now that Hubbard's dead (or frozen in a secret lab?), where does the money go, who gets it? Does it all get funnelled back into Scientology in some self perpetuating system that's out of control, or what?
PS good on you.
Since when does federal law allow a company to stifle the free press? Only a Constitutional Amendment would have that power, and none have been passed to date that would do so(though it probably isnt' far off). Operation Clambake is clearly a journalistic effort, as such it is protected by the Freedom of the Press. It is also individually the Free Speech of the people who have contributed to it.
"Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Thats two clauses of this amendment that this use of the DMCA violates. Therfore, REGARDLESS of the text of the DMCA, Google was not required to remove the links.
I've sent an email to google comments@google.com quoting the First Amendment and explaining how it invalidates this use of the DMCA in this situation. Concluding with this demand:
"If those links are not back on Google within 3 days, I will cease all use of
google for any purposes and will begin a boycott campaign, or, if one has
already begun by then, throw my full weight to support it.My personal
website will contain encouragement not to use google and my signature file
attached to my emails will be modified with such an encouragement added."
And I intend to. Whose with me? This is just too far.
On Kuro5hin, someone had the awesome idea to buy text ads for the words scientology and xenu. More people had decided to buy ads, too. So now when you search on Google for Scientology you are shown ads such as "Why is the CoS censoring this site" and "scientology is evil". This guy deserves an award for best abuse of the system.
Don't ask what others can do, see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=29802&cid=3206 411 for what you can do.
Idempotent operation: Like MS software, wether you run it once or often, that doesn't make it any better.
The best way to help publicise xenu.net - to push it further up the search results for "Scientology" - is to link to it from high-profile pages, with anchor text that contains the string "Scientology". e.g. <A HREF="http://www.xenu.net/">Scientology info</A> The main Scientology page only has a PageRank of 6, so it should be possible to push it off #1...
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
You've actually hit the nail on the head. Scientology is pretty much all about PR. To attack them one would need to attack their PR machine.
1. Counter-information and propaganda.
Spread the word. Xenu.net is an exact example of attacking Scientology.
2. Identification. Make sure that all their activities are known about by a)you b)the general public. If there's a symposium and it's held by the Scientology Cult then blaze big letters by the entrance: Stop Scientology.
Highlight believers in the cult. Doesn't mean they're totally bad people but it will indicate where their priorities lie and you can track their activities.
3. Prevention. Stop their propoganda and recruitment drives. A broad category in which you would use the tools available to counter Scientology's methods. They've got a website? Block it using the DMCA. Contact their ISP. Talk to google. Create sites which rank higher than theirs. They're handing out leaflets? Hand out your own alongside. They're hosting a seminar? Host your own, cheaper, better.
Naturally the biggest problem with all this is the dedication and resources required. The whole system would have to generate it's own revenue. I would recommend running a system similar to Scientology to generate money. Actually the BIGGEST problem is that by doing this you could very easily end up just like them.
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
You are jumping to a very specific sub-set of omnific beings by only diffusing the possibility of a theistic being with anecdotal evidence.
As a finite being, you have no way of gathering enough knowledge and understanding of that knowledge to even comment on the possibilities available to all the kinds of infinite beings. If a worm in my backyard refuses to believe in the existance of the space shuttle, that doesn't mean the space shuttle doesn't exist. Hell, I'm sure the worm would have no direct knowledge of said space shuttle. I'm pretty sure that worm doesn't even know I'm around except in the most basic terms. You are overstating the value of your own capabilities for understanding if you are comparing something that by definition transcends your capacity to understand it to a non-sensical apparition.
If this leaves you shaking your head, let me ask you a question in leaving. Why wouldn't an infinite being appear paradoxal to you?
Namely, geeks.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.