The Church of Scientology is infamous for trying to quash dissent from former members. They’ve often tried to claim copyright infringement when any former member says anything against them, particularly if they mention things like “Oh, the Scientologists claim X, Y and Z, but that’s patently absurd.” “Hey, X, Y and Z are our copyrighted materials, so you’re infringing,” claim the Scientologists. There have been numerous suits fought over this in the past, usually pitting the fabulously wealthy Scientologists against individual web sites and ISPs that host them.
Well, they’ve come up with a new tool. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Church has coerced Google into removing links to sites they claim infringe their copyrights. The Scientologist have laid that claim against anyone who printed anything
See, they don’t have to prove it. They just have to claim it, with the threat, if they manage to prove it in court, of humongous fines levied on Google’s head. It’s not surprising (though a bit disappointing) that Google has given in on this, but consider the implications.
Most people use Google as their interface to the web. If it isn’t there, a lot of people don’t know where to find it, or that it even exists, and so don’t go to it. The Scientologists, using the DMCA, have managed to, de facto, censor the Internet, without a single legal shot being fired.
And they used the DMCA — pretty much acknowledged by everyone except for Hollywood as the worst piece of computer-related legislation of the last fifty years — to do it.
(Via Boing Boing)
UPDATE: It gets better. One reason the particular site, Xenu.net, was targeted by the Scientologists is because, in response to church attempts to manipulate Google’s ratings for its own sites, a number of folks managed to counter-manipulated the ratings in order to get Xenu.net listed at #4 when you searched on “scientology.” There’s a good story on this here. Note that Xenu.net has managed to evade direct harrassment or litigation from the Scientologists until now because it’s actually located overseas — but Google is not, and for Xenu.net to counterclaim to Google that their material is okay puts them under US jurisdiction.
Let me make it clear: As far as I’m concerned, Scientologists are free to believe the moon is made of green cheese and Thetan monkeys regularly flew out of L. Ron Hubbard’s butt and whispered the secrets of the cosmos to him. That’s freedom of belief, and frankly their beliefs are not the silliest or most threatening out there.
I also support folks who have been members and now wish to vocally oppose the church’s teachings. That’s their right. What chaps my hide is when the Scientologists, rather than engaging in discourse or simply respecting others’ rights to disagree, use money and lawyers to silence dissent.
All I can infer is that they don’t think their beliefs hold up to scrutiny. Either that, or what they’re most interested in is selling their materials to suckers willing to fork over increasing quantities of dough.
(Via InstaPundit)