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Scientology Attacker Will Be Sentenced To Jail
OBG writes "A Nebraska native charged with taking part in a massive cyber-attack against the Scientology website will be spending the next year behind bars. 20-year-old Brian Thomas Mettenbrink will plead guilty to the charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer for his involvement in the denial of service attack, which was orchestrated by the online group 'Anonymous.' Mettenbrink's is the second successful prosecution connected to the 'Anonymous' attacks. Last year, Dmitriy Guzner of Verona, New Jersey, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for attacks on Scientology sites."
We are Anonymous Cowards, all your base are belong to us.
So, if you beat up somebody, you'll probably get less jail time than refreshing a website several times using a script?
Scientology Gullibility Test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IQQE04_TCM
Why do we bother traveling around the world to fight religious extremist terrorists when we can do it right in our own back yard? And then to put people in prison for it... Okay, I suppose Anonymous' activities probably caused some unintended network congestion outside their specific targets, but hey, I'll take "lag" over "DU syndrome".
"Now, at home they'd hang me, here they'll give me a fucking medal, sir."
As long as parents have the legal "right" to force their (property) offspring into organized religion, ethical people have the RIGHT to use force to oppose such religions.
Dangerous phrase.
... ethical people have the RIGHT to use force to oppose such religions
Ah, well, that is where it gets problematic, isn't it? There is no universal, objective standard for "good ethics", and in extreme cases we have people such as the terrorists of all denominations, who feel they have the ethical right to kill innocent bystanders "for a higher truth". Evil is evil, even if you use the excuse of a good cause.
Of course I understand the sentiment - it is galling to see a large organization like Scientology, that is considered a criminal organization in many countries, get any sort of victory, however small. But we are only as good as our deeds; and a crime is still crime, even if it is committed against criminals. This is the price you pay for being good.
And anyway - criminals like Scientology are always going to win if you play by their rules and fight them with their own dirty methods; they have much more experience in that game.
O I admit it's a dangerous idea. I just think it's worth the price. I believe that our freedom and survival as a species depends on doing away with irrational faith and building an educated participatory society. When you seriously start challenging hierarchy, you can expect the powerful to react. Let's specifically look at historical precedents for throwing off the yoke of reactionary religion. The democratic Spanish constitution enacted in 1931 established complete separation of Church and State in what had been a theocratic monarchy for centuries. It excluded the Church from education. This was one of the major reasons for the rise of Franco's fascism. In the first weeks of the Spanish Civil War, the fascists slaughtered teachers from the secular schools (as similar right wing forces had done to Francisco Ferrer, founder of the anti-authoritarian and anti-clerical modern schools decades earlier).
We need to be prepared for these kinds of reactionary forces if we are serious about liberating ourselves. There is a lot of violence hidden behind modern respectability. Tacit threats. Our current complacency exists because we are afraid to act and are unprepared for the consequences. Get the fuck ready. Organize.
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
Everyone here on /. knows Scientology is evil. But why did Anonymous do something stupid with a denial of service attack? Now the Scientologists can say Anonymous is a terrorist organization, get rid of all its critics using the PATRIOT act and get some good PR too. The only way Scientology will be defeated is if there is some major internal schism or everyone realizes they're not the nicest religion out there.
In some ways you can think of a person's brain as a computer.
When can we expect Scientology types to go to jail for fucking with peoples' heads?
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
However irrational religions are, they serve also usefull purposes.
Useful for the elite.
If the shift would be to[sic] rapid, you'll get chaos and the world reverting quickly to a state worse than before the shift.
You're on slashdot and you don't see how self organization, voluntary association, and mutual aid, can work? Hierarchy and exploitation are chaos. Democracy and freedom could give us more peace and order.
the gods are...completelly real...as constructs which proved hugely beneficial during our evolution; they wouldn't be so prevalent otherwise.
Once again, beneficial to those in charge, not the rest of us. Pie in the sky when you die; That's a lie!
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
To me its just a bunch of gullible people believing some texts that have little if any supporting evidence (and in many cases evidence against).
So scientology is a crock. You think the abrahamic religions which believe in a magic garden with a talking snake and a man made out of clay and a woman made out of a rib make any more logical sense??
All religion is rubbish , it just depends how many people believe the rubbish which defines whether a particular belief system is classed as a religion or a wacky cult (which ironically all religions started out as).
After all, the catholic church is probably responsible for more misery in africa due to its attitude to contraception than any other single institution.
All religions fuck with gullible and/or insecure peoples heads. How is scientology different?
Yet again, in the USA the more money buys the "better justice".
And the Co$ has gobs of money.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
People can believe whatever they want. But face it, few freely choose their religion. Most just go about beliveing whatever their parents foisted on them.
We need to acknowledge that we live in a society. We no longer live in hunter gatherer tribes. Two parents are not longer sufficient to raise a child. It take a whole society. Whatever material and ideas that the parents give to their offspring, they got from the larger group. Whether we like it or not, child rearing is already a part of mass society. We need to stop allowing parents to use the violence of restricting necessities (affection, food, shelter) to indoctrinate youth into religion. Young people are given the choice: have faith in some crazy shit, or give up your whole support system. We need enough public social support for youth (food, personal care and relationships, shelter, education, etc) in order that they be free to disobey their crazy parents.
Then we will see quite the revolution!
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
So, if I start a cult and force my members to kill people I see as a threat I'm absolved of punishment. But if I make your computer system go haywire for 10 minutes, I'm sentenced to jail time?
Well, [sarcasm]I can see how that's fair![/sarcasm]
You moved your mouse. Please restart Windows for changes to take effect.
I don't agree with Scientology at all, but if you('re stupid enough to) get caught DoS'ing their site you deserve to go to jail.
To pre-emptively counter the usual no-worse-than-Catholicism thought-terminating cliche, here is a very fresh anecdote about an OT-VII from a WISE software development house. Dude uncovered a pattern of embezzlement where his boss sent several $200,000 - $250,000 payments to CoS. Boss set dude up with the promise of a check and capped him on his son's birthday. There is a mystery briefcase, too. It may contain Marcellus' soul.
http://forums.whyweprotest.net/15-media/1st-degree-murder-rev-william-rex-fowler-scientology-minister-charged-60161/
Adams Co. business owner thought to be victim now charged in death of former co-worker
The owner of an Adams County software company has been arrested and charged with the murder of his former business partner.
William Rex Fowler was charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 30 shooting at Fowler Software Design that killed Tommy Ciancio, 42, the Adams County district attorney and sheriff said today in a news release.
(...)
Employees of the software company, which reportedly had suffered financial difficulties since 2008, related in part to the transfer of as much as $200,000 to a church or charity by Fowler, told investigators that Ciancio arrived around 10 a.m. Dec. 30 to collect his check.
(...)
Investigators say the gun was registered to Andrew Hyung Fowler, 26, who lived at 1413 L. Ron Hubbard Way in Los Angeles, when it was purchased. In interviews with police, Andrew Fowler said he gave the gun to his father for Christmas in 2007.
Police also found a briefcase and a typed note, dated Dec. 30 and signed by Fowler, that advised there was nothing confidential in the satchel and that it should be given to his wife, Janet.
When Janet Fowler was interviewed by detectives, she told them she wanted the briefcase returned immediately.
"It is important to me and my church. It is religious material and I want it now," she said to investigators. "Even if you looked at it, and read it, you would not understand anything in it. Because it is way above a normal person and you would not know what it meant. I want it back right now."
Janet Fowler also reportedly told investigators that her husband "is a Scientologist and would not have gone without a fight. He would have grabbed a gun in a struggle and would not have let someone shoot him."
She also told investigators that Ciancio had sent e-mails to Rex Fowler, threatening to hire an attorney and sue over money he said was owed him.
Adams County officials said Fowler is in custody, but would not say where he is being held. He was last at Denver Health Medical Center, but his name no longer appears on patient rosters.
Inmate: What're you in for?
Guy: I beat up millions of people.
[and everyone edges away]
True but I think his point is that the identity of the victim can have a huge impact on motive, good and bad, and motive does have impact on the punishment of the crime.
i.e. In retrospect, killing Hitler would be considered a good thing by many and the motive justifiable.
It's an extreme, yes, but just because someone mentions Hitler it doesn't mean it's automatically reductio ad Hitlerum.
I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull