[UFO Chicago] Google gets censored by Scientology

[Eric Pement]

In light of the discussions on UFO about copyright and censorship, I 
think this item might be of interest to some readers.  

The following article is excerpted from "Apologia Report", vol. 7, 
no. 13 (April 8, 2002), an electronic newsletter. If this type of 
thing interests you, please visit their website at 
http://www.apologia.org/   Thanks.  

SCIENTOLOGY

"Google Yanks Anti-Church Sites" by Declan McCullagh -- "the Church 
of Scientology has managed to yank references to anti-Scientology 
websites from the Google search engine.
   "Citing the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act 
[DMCA], Scientology lawyers are claiming that Google may no longer 
include anti-Scientology sites that allegedly infringe upon the 
church's intellectual property."
   Until recently, "anyone typing in 'Scientology' on the wildly 
popular search engine found references to the Xenu.net site in the 
first page of results.
   "Now Xenu.net and clambake.org have virtually disappeared from 
Google's database. ...
   "Last November, Scientology used the DMCA to pressure a U.S. 
Internet provider to remove the church's secret scriptures from the 
scientology-kills.org site." 
   As Scientology searches out its critics, McCullagh reports that 
"DMCA threats from the church seem to be becoming so common that 
Dave Touretzsky, a scientist at Carnegie Mellon, has even drafted a 
form letter that can be sent in reply. ...
   "One Internet executive in the Netherlands reported this week 
that Scientology 'harassed' him and his upstream providers for years 
because he hosted an anti-Scientology site.
   The late founder, "[L. Ron] Hubbard's secret scriptures teach 
that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic overlord named Xenu 
solved the galaxy's overpopulation problem by freezing excess people 
and transporting the bodies to Teegeeack, now called Earth. After 
the hapless travelers were defrosted, they were chained to volcanoes 
that were blown up by hydrogen bombs - and their disembodied spirits 
continue to haunt mankind today." Wired News, Mar 21 '02, 
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51233,00.html>
   A related story, "Cult forces Google to remove critical links" by 
Matt Loney, explains that "Andreas Heldal-Lund, Webmaster of the 
Xenu.net Web site, said in a Usenet posting that Google was removing 
links to the site, which bills itself as Operation Clambake: The 
fight against the Church of Scientology on the Net. The term 
Operation Clambake comes in part, according to Heldal-Lund, from 
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's claims that humans evolved from
clams. ...
   "Google did not remove links to the Xenu.net site that were not
covered by the DMCA notification." ZDNet UK News, Mar 21 '02, 
<http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t412-s2107088,00.html>
   Google reverses itself overnight and restores the links! USA 
Today, Mar 22 '02 
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/03/22/google.htm>

Preceding article copyright 2002 by Apologia (www.apologia.org)

--
Eric Pement - pemente@northpark.edu