<html>
<head>
<title>The Church of Scientology vs. the Net</title>
<link rev="made" href="mailto:rnewman@mit.edu">
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<body>
<h1>The Church of Scientology vs. the Net </h1>
<i>This page created by <a href="../home.html">Ron Newman</a>. The opinions
expressed here are solely those of the author, and are not necessarily shared
by MIT.<br>
Last revised June 25, 1995.</i><p>

<h2>Quick index</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="#LATEST-ERLICH-NEWS">Latest developments in
Erlich case, last changed June 24</a></strong>
<li><a href="erlich-defense-fund"><strong>Support the Dennis Erlich Defense Fund (by check OR wire transfer!)</strong></a>
<li><a href="http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/bbctv/the_net/TN950515/svi.html"><strong>BBC TV covers the Erlich case!</strong></a>
<li><a href="#GRADY-INGRAM"><strong>Grady Ward's 74-year-old mother
visited by CoS private investigator Eugene Ingram</strong></a>
<li><a href="#THREATEN-NETIZENS"><strong>Legal and extra-legal threats 
   against netizens, last changed June 4</strong></a>
<li><a href="#FACTnet"><strong>FACTnet needs your help, last changed May 11</strong></a>

<br><br>

<li><a href="#ERLICH">Raid on Dennis Erlich; suit against Erlich, BBS, Netcom</a>
<li><a href="#RMGROUP">Attempt to remove alt.religion.scientology newsgroup</a>
<li><a href="#CANCEL">Attempt to censor alt.religion.scientology newsgroup
with unauthorized cancel messages</a>
<li><a href="#ANON">Attempt to intimidate anonymous remailer operators</a>
<li><a href="#PENET">Raid on anon.penet.fi</a>
<li><a href="#NON-NET">Harassment of writers and journalists</a>
<li><a href="http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/">Legal
    papers in Erlich case</a> (now at the Electronic Frontier Foundation)
<li><a href="media/home.html">Newspaper &amp; magazine articles</a>
<li><a href="#INFO">Other sources of information</a>
<li><a href="./">FTP-like directory &amp; file listing</a>
</ul>

The <a href="http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/sci_index.html">Church
of Scientology</a> is a religious cult which has unwisely
decided to declare war against the Usenet and Internet communities.
Since December of 1994, this Church and its followers have committed the
following acts:


<h2><A name="CANCEL">Tried to censor a Usenet discussion group</A></h2>

Members or allies of the Church have tried to remove messages written
by other people in the Usenet discussion group <a
href="news:alt.religion.scientology">alt.religion.scientology</a>.
They did this by sending unauthorized <em>cancel</em> messages, which
are specially-formatted messages instructing Usenet servers to delete
a previously posted message.  Here's an <a href="net/cancel1">example
of such a cancel message</a>, and here's <a href="net/cancel2">another</a>.
Some of these cancels were accompanied by
text claiming that the original message contained violations of
the Church's copyrights and trade secrets. But copyright disputes
should be settled in a court of law, not by faceless vigilantes
issuing cancel messages.<p>

The first such cancels started around Christmas of 1994, and were sent
by <em>harryj@netcom.com</em> (Harry Jones), who did not understand
his news-posting software well enough to conceal his true identity.
He eventually got smarter, and later cancels came from the
non-existent account <em>robocanceller@netcom.com</em>.  The cancels
quickly attracted the attention of <a href=
"http://www.timeinc.com/time/magazine/domestic/1995/950116/950116.netwatch.html"><em>Time</em>
magazine's Netwatch column</a>, which mentioned them in the
January 16, 1995 issue.  After weeks of complaints, Netcom's system
administrators finally installed software that forced anyone sending a
cancel to reveal their true identity (or, at least, their Netcom user
ID).  Subsequent cancels then came from: <em>mako@netcom.com</em>
(Michael Clark), <em>student@netcom.com</em> (John Palmer), and
<em>bettyj@netcom.com</em> (Elizabeth Jones).  Netcom soon disabled
logins from all of these accounts.<p>

Soon afterwards, two more cancels originated from the site
<em>deltanet.com</em>, and claimed to come from the address
<em>noman@odesi.com</em>.  Don't try to send e-mail there; it's a
non-existent site.  But the good news is that, on March 6, the good
folks at <em>deltanet.com</em> found and terminated the accounts of
two users who issued forged cancels from their site.  Here's a <a
href="net/deltanet">report from deltanet's system administrator.</a>.<p>

<A name="LATEST-CANCEL"> I thought we'd seen the last of the
Cancelbunny</a>, but it came back once again on March 30, this time
from the UK.  Here's a fairly <a href="net/cancel3">recent cancel</a>,
dated April 7.  The system administrator of <i>demon.co.uk</i> has
informed me that the cancel appeared to originate at another UK site,
<i>pipex.net</i>.  That site, in turn, apparently received it from a
site in Ireland, possibly an open-access NNTP port.  The search
continues...<p>

If you are familiar with certain American television commercials,
you'll understand why I dubbed this the "Cancelbunny": 
it just keeps going, and going, and going... <p>


<h2><A name="RMGROUP">Tried to shut down a Usenet discussion group</A></h2>

On January 11, 1995, a lawyer for the Church, Helena Kobrin 
<em><a href="mailto:hkk@netcom.com">&lt;hkk@netcom.com&gt;</a></em>, sent
a <a href="net/rmgroup">rmgroup message</a>, which is an instruction to
Usenet servers to delete the entire discussion group 
<a href="news:alt.religion.scientology">alt.religion.scientology</a>.
This message claimed that the group's very name infringed on the Church's
trademark, and again complained that members of the group were posting
infingements of the Church's copyrights.  The "rmgroup" had
little effect, because most Usenet system administrators regard such
messages as purely advisory, and several quickly sent 
<a href="net/newgroup">newgroup messages</a> to re-create the group
on any server that had removed it.<p>

<em>Internet World</em> magazine asked Helena Kobrin for an
explanation, and got a <a href="net/kobrin-to-iworld">long letter</a>
back from her.  I wasn't terribly impressed, and sent her
a <a href="net/reply-to-kobrin">reply</a>.  The magazine's article
appeared in the <a href=
"http://www.mecklerweb.com/mags/iw/v6n4/surf.htm#BlindingMewithScientology">April
1995 issue</a>.  A shorter article (by net.personality 
<a href="http://www.best.com/~jfurr/jfhome.html">Joel Furr</a>) appeared
in the April 1995 issue of the UK magazine 
<a href="media/icomm-today-4.95.html"><em>Internet and Comms Today</em></a>.
Also check out the article in the April 1995 issue of the UK's
<a href="http://www.futurenet.co.uk/netmag/Issue5/Electric/CultWars.html"><em>.net</em>
magazine</a>.


<h2><A name="ANON"> Threatened the operators of anonymous 
                    remailing services</A></h2>

On January 4, 1995, Church attorney Thomas Small sent <a
href="net/remailer-threat">this e-mail</a> to the operators of several
anonymous remailing services, demanding that they disallow anonymous
posting to <a
href="news:alt.religion.scientology">alt.religion.scientology</a>.<p>

In response to both the rmgroup and this letter, Jon Noring
<em><a href="mailto:noring@netcom.com">&lt;noring@netcom.com&gt;</a></em>
 circulated a <a
href="net/noring-petition">Net Petition</a> asking that the Church cease
its attacks on the Net.  At the same time, the 
<a href="http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/HTML/effect08.02.html#SCIENTOLOGY-1">Electronic Frontier
Foundation issued a statement</a> urging the Church to stop threatening
Internet system administrators with litigation.  Daniel Akst
wrote a <a href="media/latimes-akst-1.25.95">"Postcard from Cyberspace"
column</a> in the January 25 <em>Los Angeles Times</em>, and Richard
Leiby wrote a <a href="media/washpost-2.2.95">"CyberSurfing" column</a> in
the February 2 <em>Washington Post</em>.<p>

<A name="LATEST-REMAILER">
<b>Update, April 4, 1995</b></a>: Helena's at it again!  This time she's
made <a href="net/threats/homer">three threatening phone calls to
remailer operator Homer Smith.</a>

<h2><A name="PENET">Compromised the security of anon.penet.fi,
an anonymous remailer in Finland</A></h2>

In early February, 1995, Church representatives somehow used Interpol
and the Finnish police to demand the True Name of a user of
<em>anon.penet.fi</em>, an anonymous remailer in Finland.  Julf
Helsingius, the administrator of <em>anon.penet.fi</em>, announced
this in a <a href="net/anon-julf-msg">Usenet message</a> to many
newsgroups on February 18, 1995. He followed this with a <a
href="net/anon-julf-press-rel">press release</a> on February 21.  The
Finnish newspaper
<a href="media/helsinki-news-2.18.95"><em>Helsingin Sanomat</em></a>
covered the story on February 18; this was soon followed by the <a
href="media/anon-AP-2.28.95">Associated Press</a>,
<a href=
"http://www.timeinc.com/time/magazine/domestic/1995/950306/950306.technology.html"><em>Time</em>
magazine</a>, and another 
<a href="media/latimes-akst-2.22.95">"Postcard from Cyberspace" column</a>
from Dan Akst in the February 22 <em>Los Angeles Times</em>.

<h2><A name="ERLICH">Sued a user, his BBS, and his Internet
service provider<br>
Invaded the user's home, seizing and deleting files</A></h2>

On February 8, 1995, two Church corporations filed a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/cos_020895.complaint">lawsuit</a>
and a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/cos_tro_020895.application">request
for a restraining order</a>
against Dennis Erlich of Glendale, California, alleging that he was
posting the Church's "copyrighted trade secrets".  They also sued the
bulletin board he was using, <em>support.com</em>, and the bulletin
board's Internet service provider, Netcom.  Two days later, they
received a <a href= 
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/erlich_tro_021095.order">temporary
restraining order</a> against the three
defendants, as well as a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/erlich_seizure.order">writ
of seizure</a> allowing them to search Erlich's home and seize computer files.<p>

Erlich did not know about any of this until 7:30 in the morning of
Monday, February 13, when Church attorney Thomas Small and seven
other people demanded entry to his home.  According to Erlich, they
spent over six hours copying and deleting files from his computer
system.  A Glendale police officer was present at the beginning 
and end of the raid, but not at any other time. <p>

Dennis posted a <a href="1st-person/erlich-raid">first-person account of the
raid</a> to Usenet that night. The following day, both the <a
href="media/glendale-2.14.95"><em>Glendale News-Press</em></a> and the <a
href="media/latimes-2.14.95"><em>Los Angeles Times</em></a> reported on the
raid. Church lawyer Helena Kobrin (remember her?) posted <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/cos_raids_erlich.statement">her
version</a> of the story to Usenet as well.  (This link also
includes two responses from David Sternlight and Jon Noring.)  In
addition, the <em>Glendale News-Press</em> published an <a
href="media/glendale-edit-2.21.95">editorial supporting free expression on the
Internet</a> on February 21, which drew a <a
href="media/glendale-scn-reply-2.24.95">reply from a Church spokeswoman</a> in
the same newspaper three days later.  Toronto's 
ultra-net-savvy weekly newspaper <em>eye</em> published a
<a href= "http://www.interlog.com/eye/News/Eyenet/1995/net-0223.htm">good
article in their February 23 issue</a>.<p>

A court hearing was held on Tuesday, Febrauary 21 in San Jose
Federal District Court.  Dennis made a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/erlich_whyte_022195.letter">statement</a>
to the court.  Tom Klemesrud, the owner and operator
of <em>support.com</em>, also made a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/klemesrud_950221.declaration">statement</a>.
Netcom's vice-president of software engineering, Rich Francis,
filed a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/francis_021795.declaration">statement</a>
as well, as did <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/netcom_opposition_021795.memo">Netcom's
lawyers</a>.
At this hearing, the judge lifted the restraining
orders against <em>support.com</em> and Netcom, and <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/amend_erlich_tro_022395.order">modified
the restraining order</a> against Dennis.<p>

I won't go into the details of the hearing on this page;  instead, 
read the <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/court_hearing_022195.transcript">official
court transcript</a>,
or the first-person accounts by
<a href="1st-person/shelley">Shelley Thomson</a>,
<a href="1st-person/speaker">Alan Hacker</a>,
and <a href="1st-person/ckaun">Carl Kaun</a>, as well
as the February 22 newspaper articles in the
<a href="media/glendale-2.22.95"><em>Glendale News-Press</em></a>,
<a href="media/latimes-2.22.95"><em>Los Angeles Times</em></a>, and
<a href="media/sjmerc-2.22.95"><em>San Jose Mercury News</em></a>. The Church
also issued a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/cos_post-hearing.announce">post-hearing
press release</a>.<p>

After the hearing, the Electronic Frontier Foundation issued a
February 23 edition of its newsletter <em>EFFector Online</em>,
containing a
<a href="http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/HTML/effect08.02.html#SCIENTOLOGY-2">substantial
addition to its original statement</a> about the Church's threats to
the Net.<p>

On February 27, Helena Kobrin wrote a <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/kobrin_whyte_022795.letter">letter
to Judge Whyte</a> claiming that Dennis Erlich had violated
the amended restraining order the previous day.  Erlich sent an <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/erlich_whyte_022795.letter">apology</a>
to the Judge that same day,
explaining that he had not yet received the amended restraining order
before allegedly violating it. (Apparently it was delivered to
the wrong address.)  That was not good enough for the Church
lawyers, who promptly filed two more motions, one seeking a
contempt-of-court citation against Erlich, the other
<a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/renew_cos_injunction_030895.motion">requesting
an injunction against Netcom and support.com</a>.<p>

In support of this request, the Church submitted declarations by
church lawyers <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/kobrin_030895.declaration">Helena Kobrin</a>
and <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/wilson_030895.declaration">Andrew Wilson</a>,
an unidentified person named <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/farny_030895.declaration">Lynn Farny</a>,
and three computer specialists: Internet service provider <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/elrod_030895.declaration">David Elrod</a>, 
digital image processing expert <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/castleman_030895.declaration">Kenneth Castleman</a>,
and UCLA computer science professor <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/cardenas_030895.declaration">Alfonso Cardenas</a>.
The Church also filed an <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/amend_cos_030395.complaint">amended complaint</a>
with the court on March 3rd.  <p>

The <em><a href=
"http://sfgate.com/new/schron/old/mar-2-95/mn50735.html">San 
Francisco Chronicle</a></em> belatedly covered the story
on March 2nd, as did the <a href="media/philly-4.1.95"><em>Philadelphia
Inquirer</em></a> on April 1st.
The <a href="media/glendale-3.3.95"><em>Glendale News-Press</em></a>
published yet another article on March 3rd, and the UK weekly
trade magazine <em><a href="media/computing-uk-4.95">Computing</a></em> 
published a brief article in the March 9th edition.  Meanwhile,
the Net's own Shelley Thomson devoted the
<a href="1st-person/shelley2">second issue of her new net-'zine,
<em>Biased Journalism</em></a>, to the Erlich case.<p>

Dennis Erlich now has legal representation, from the
San Francisco law firm of Morrison and Foerester ("MoFo").  Because of
their good work, Judge Whyte cancelled a March 17 hearing which was to hear
a motion to hold Dennis in contempt of court.  Instead, the judge issued an
<a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/hearing_dates_031695.order">order
delaying <em>all</em> pending hearings until further notice.</a>
(Dennis reported this news to Usenet in two messages on
<a href="1st-person/erlich-3.15">March 15</a> and
<a href="1st-person/erlich-3.16">March 16</a>.)<p>

<A name="LATEST-ERLICH-NEWS"> A</a> second court hearing was held on
Friday, June 23 at 2 pm at the San Jose Federal
Courthouse.  This hearing considered a number of motions from all
parties in the dispute, including Helena's motion to hold Dennis
in contempt, Helena's motion for an injunction against all three
defendants, and Tom and Netcom's motion to dismiss them from the case.
Dennis described the motions in 
<a href="hearing-6.23/erlich-preview">this "preview"</a>,
written a few days before the hearing.
Brian Harmon attended the hearing and wrote
<a href="hearing-6.23/bpharmon">this description</a> of what he saw. 
(Dennis later sent several replies, which I've intercut into Brian's text.)
The <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/old/jun-24-95/mn52270.html">San
Francisco Chronicle</a> also covered the story in its June 24 edition.
The trial (by jury) date is set for early 1996.<p>

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has established the <b>Dennis Erlich
Defense Fund</b> for people who want to help Dennis cover the "hard costs"
of his legal defense.  Follow <a href="erlich-defense-fund">this
link</a> for more information.  <b>Update, June 8: You may now
contribute to the Fund by bank wire transfer!</b><p>

Dennis's ex-wife Rosa continues to harass him with claims that he owes
$40,000 in child-support payments.  Dennis claims that he's been
denied the right to visit the child.  Here's a link to
<a href="net/erlich-wife">Dennis's latest postings</a> on this subject.<p>
Dennis suspects that the Scientologists may have "bought" Dennis's
alleged debt from Rosa in order to collect it.<p>

A member of the Church's Office of Special Affairs, Andrew Milne,
posted a message claiming that a Scientologist named Robert Lippman
"has obtained a restraining order against
Dennis Erlich over Erlich's threat to kill him at the 1992 Cult
Awareness Network conference." Erlich says he's never been served
with any such order and has never met or heard of Lippman.<p>

The British Broadcasting Corporation covered the Erlich case
in its first edition of "the Net" TV show on May 15, 1995.
They've put a <a href=
"http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/bbctv/the_net/TN950515/svi.html">transcript
of the show</a> on the Web.<p>

Dennis continues to experience petty harassment of various kinds,
as reported in <a href="net/threats/erlich-harass">this message
of June 3.</a><p>

Follow <a href=
"http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/Cases/CoS_v_the_Net/">this link</a> 
for an index of all legal papers that the Electronic Frontier Foundation 
has received electronic copies of.

<h2><A name="THREATEN-NETIZENS">
Legal and extra-legal threats against netizens</a></h2>
The Church of Scientology's lovely lawyer, Helena Kobrin, has sent
intimidating electronic mail to a number of netizens, including
<a href="net/threats/hkk-to-martin">Martin Hunt</a>,
<a href="net/threats/hkk-to-nico">Nico Garcia</a>,
<a href="net/threats/hkk-to-grady.html">Grady Ward</a>, and
<a href="net/threats/hkk-to-davidson">Daniel Davidson.</a>
Grady wrote a strongly-worded
<a href="net/threats/hkk-to-grady.html#REPLY">reply</a>
to Helena's bullying letter.<p>

Daniel Davidson is a student at San Francisco State University in
California.  Because of <a href="net/threats/hkk-to-davidson">Helena's
complaint</a>, SFSU's director of computing services, John
True, filed a <a href="net/threats/true-to-davidson">disciplinary
charge</a> against Davidson.  Davidson was required to appear
at a disciplinary hearing on Friday, March 31.  He explained
his predicament in a <a href="net/threats/davidson-saga">series
of Usenet messages</a>.  Fortunately, Davidson was <a
href="net/threats/davidson-exon">exonerated of all charges</a>.  This
was partly due to the good work of Netizens throughout the world, who
sent numerous e-mails and faxes to San Francisco State University
officials explaining why Helena's groundless complaint should not be a
cause for punitive action by the University.  One of the best such
letters was sent by <a href="net/threats/tober-to-true">Bruce
Tober</a>, a reporter for the UK magazine 
<a href="http://www.atlas.co.uk/paragon/ict1.html"><i>Internet and Comms
Today</i></a>.<p>

Bob "Sloth" Bingham received an <a href="net/threats/stu-to-sloth">ominous
e-mail note</a> from a known Scientologist, informing
him that <a href="http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/sci_index.html">his 
Web page</a> had been "reported" to the Church's Office of
Special Affairs (intelligence unit).<p>

Not all the harassment has come from lawyers.  The Church's private
investigator, Eugene Ingram, <a href="net/threats/jeff-eugene">visited
Jeff Jacobsen</a>, and also dropped in on Jeff's sister and his
neighbor's 13-year-old son.  Private investigators <a
href="net/threats/jeff-pi-5.1.95">again lurked near Jeff's house on
May 1st</a>.  Someone called the long distance phone companies of both
<a href="net/threats/jeff-phone">Jeff Jacobsen</a> and <a
href="net/threats/homer-phone">Homer Smith</a>, impersonating each of
them to try to obtain logs of their long-distance calls.  A <a
href="net/threats/hunt-cop">policeman visited Martin Hunt</a>, asking
about messages he allegedly posted to
<i>alt.religion.scientology</i>.<p>

Last November, Arnie Lerma received both an
<a href="net/threats/lerma-fax">unnnounced visit and a
threatening anonymous fax.</a><p>

In Oklahoma, <a href="net/threats/tarla">TarlaStar</a> got a phone call from
someone falsely claiming to represent her Internet Service Provider.
A few days later, two Church of Scientology representatives posted her
real first and last name, her address, her phone number, and her
husband's name to <i>alt.religion.scientology</i>.<p>

On April 15, two Scientologists paid Grady Ward an <a
href="net/threats/grady-visit">unannounced personal visit</a>.  This
link contains both Grady's story and a counter-story from
Scientologist "Chris Miller", who seems to have some kind of inside
connection with Scientology's Office of Special Affairs.<p>

<a name="GRADY-INGRAM">
On May 8</a>, Grady's publisher received a
<a href="net/threats/grady-ingram">threatening and 
slanderous phone call</a>
from a man identifying himself as Gene Ingram, who is a private
investigator for the Church of Scientology.  On May 10, a very
inquisitive stranger, calling himself "Jack Hoff",
<a href="net/threats/grady-mom">visited 
Grady's 74-year-old mother in Tacoma, Washington.</a>. Grady's mom
later identified Mr. "Hoff" positively as Eugene Ingram, with
help from <a href=
"ftp://ftp.primenet.com/users/c/cultxpt/ingram.gif">this photo</a>,
taken by Jeff Jacobsen.  As a result, the Tacoma
Police Department has filed criminal case #95-1530374 against
Ingram, on the charge of criminal impersonation.<p>

Gary Reibert, who had only posted two messages to alt.religion.scientology,
experienced <a href="net/threats/reibert">a variety of disturbing
events</a>: his car was tailed, someone phoned him to do a survey in which
"not participating is not an option", and somone else impersonated him
in a phone call to his gas company, falsely reporting damage to his line.<p>

Finally, someone claming to be both a Scientologist and an MIT alumnus
sent <a href=
"http://www.mit.edu:8008/menelaus/web-request/1432">this complaint</a>
to the MIT webmaster.  (Unfortunately, a bug in
MIT's comment gateway truncated the message.)  The webmaster sent
him <a href="http://www.mit.edu:8008/menelaus/web-request/1481">this
reply.</a><p>

Jim Lippard has created a web page containing
<a href="http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/pis.html">pictures
of Eugene Ingram and other Scientology private investigators</a>.
The page also contains the details of the warrant for Ingram's
arrest in Tampa, Florida, on charges of impersonating a police officer.

<h2><A name="FACTnet">
Will Scientology force FACTnet to shut down?</a></h2>
Scientology has also threatened the FACTnet bulletin-board system
with numerous lawsuits, forcing them to remove their Web page.
This BBS contains a huge library documenting the activities
of Scientology and other religious cults.  FACTnet may have to
to shut down entirely in a few weeks, and they have issued
a <a href="FACTnet">general appeal to netizens</a> asking that
you download their files free of charge while they are
still available.<p>

<b>Update, April 21</b>: FACTnet seems to be back on the air, sort of.
Some anonymous person has created a "FACTnet Scientology WWW-Kit", which 
they are serving from 
<a href="http://xs4all.nl/~fonss">http://xs4all.nl/~fonss</a>.
Another netizen has reorganized the
FACTnet table of contents, which much improved readability:
see <a href=
"http://power.stu.rpi.edu/newfact.html">http://power.stu.rpi.edu/newfact.html</a>.
You can download your own copy of the
kit from <a href=
"http://xs4all.nl/~fonss/factkit.zip">http://xs4all.nl/~fonss/factkit.zip</a>.<p>

<b>Update, May 11</b>: FACTnet has put all of its text files, in
.zip format, onto its FTP site, <a href=
"ftp://ftp.rmii.com/pub2/factnet/">ftp://ftp.rmii.com/pub2/factnet/</a>.
<b>These files were scheduled to
disappear at the end of April, but seem to have been given a reprieve.
Still, they could vanish at any time. Get them now!</b>

<h2><A name="NON-NET">It's been going on for years...off the Net</A></h2>

Internet users are finding out something that writers and journalists
have known for years:  the Church of Scientology doesn't take
kindly to people who write negative things about it.  They've
<a href="harass-writers.txt">sued and harassed numerous writers of books</a>,
such as biographer Russell Miller, who described his courtroom experience
in a <a href="media/punch"><em>Punch</em> magazine</a> article in February 1988.
More recently, they've picketed and distributed defamatory leaflets
about writer Jon Atack, whose story is told in a 1994 
<a href="media/atack"><em>Evening Argus</em> article</a>.
<em>Los Angeles Times</em> writer Robert Welkos was followed by
private investigators and received unsolicited hand-delivered 
ads from funeral homes; you can read a first-person account in
<a href="media/quill-11.91">his <em>Quill</em> magazine article</a>.

<h2><A name="INFO">For more information...</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> on the Church of Scientology, check out all of the following:
  <ul>
  <li>the first-person accounts by three Netizens who joined the
      Church, then realized their mistake:
     <a href="1st-person/kim">Kim Baker</a> of South Africa,
     <a href="1st-person/jost">Patrick Jost</a>,
     and <a href="1st-person/chris">Chris</a> (last name unknown) 
       of San Diego State University.
  <li>My online archive of <a href="media/home.html">newspaper and magazine
       articles</a> about Scientology
  <li><a href=
     "http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/sci_index.html">Bob "Sloth" Bingham</a>'s,
     <a href=
     "http://mail.bris.ac.uk/~plmlp/scum.html">Martin Poulter</a>'s,
     <a href=
     "http://www.snafu.de/~tilman">Tilman Hausherr</a>'s,
     and <a href=
     "http://amazing.cinenet.net/scientology.html">David Dennis</a>'s
      web pages, which contain pointers to many
      other interesting documents.
  <li><a href=
       "http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/scientology/skeptic/access-faq/faq.html">Don
        Lindsay's Non-Scientologist FAQ</a>
   <li><a href=
"ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/scientology/new-reader-faq">Rod Keller's FAQ</a>
   <li><a href="http://amazing.cinenet.net/dict.html">Martin Hunt's
          guide</a> to the cult's strange vocabulary
   <li>the FTP sites of <a href=
        "ftp://ftp.primenet.com/users/c/cultxpt"> Jeff Jacobsen</a>,
         <a href=
         "ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/mo/modemac/FACTnet/">Modemac</a>, and
         <a href="ftp://ftp.rmii.com/pub2/FACTnet/">FACTnet</a>.
   <li>the Church's new 
       <a href="http://www.theta.com/goodman/">semi-official web page</a>,
       brought to you by Leisa Goodman, the Church's Media Relations director
   <li>a bibliography of <a href="biblio-50-69">magazine &amp; 
       newspaper articles</a> on Dianetics and Scientology, published 
       between 1950 and 1969.  (This list will expand.)
   </ul>
<li> on preserving free expression on the Net: browse the web sites of the
<a href="http://www.eff.org">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>,
and MIT's <a href=
"http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/safe/home.html">Student Association 
for Freedom of Expression</a> (SAFE).
</ul>

Return to <a href="../home.html">Ron Newman's home page</a>.<p>

<i>For an FTP-like list of available files,
   follow <a href="./">this link</a>.</i>
<hr>
<address>
<A href="../home.html">Ron Newman</A> 
&lt;<A href="mailto:rnewman@mit.edu">rnewman@mit.edu</A>&gt;
</address>
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