1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ⇑ Latest ↑ Later Earlier ↓ Earliest ⇓ Mar 23, 2000
The gospel of the web / Nick Ryan on the holy wars fought in cyberspace between religious movements and their critics — The Guardian (UK)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Nick Ryan Source:
The Guardian (UK) Nick Ryan on the holy wars fought in cyberspace between religious movements and their critics Religion in the UK: special report August 12 1995 was a Saturday much like any other in the urban sprawl of Arlington, Virginia. Except that an alert went out over email and on Usenet groups to say that 10 people - including two federal marshals, two computer technicians, one a former FBI agent, and several attorneys - were raiding the home of former Scientologist Arnaldo Lerma. ...
Sep 21, 1999
Underground hero calls it a day — The Guardian (UK)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Duncan Campbell Source:
The Guardian (UK) The man credited with being the father of the American underground press is to close the paper that smashed taboos and helped start the hippie movement more than 40 years ago. Paul Krassner, once described by the FBI as a "raving, unconfined nut", says that social change and the arrival of the internet means the Realist is no longer needed. He has decided that his newspaper, which covered and exposed scandals from the Kennedy assassination to the Monica Lewinsky case with ...
Sep 16, 1999
Gibbering clones the future of Usenet? — The Australian
Type: Press
Author(s):
Daniel Rutter Source:
The Australian Imagine, if you will, a public forum where anybody can stand on a soapbox and speak, and everyone can listen to any of the speakers they choose. What you're imagining is, more or less, Usenet. Usenet is an enormous collection of publicly accessible fora where you can post and read messages about more or less everything anyone talks about. Some postings are brilliant, some are less brilliant, some are inane, some are utterly unfathomable. But everyone with Internet access can have ...
Sep 1, 1999
Virtual Book Burning — Wired
Type: Press
Author(s):
Mike Romano Source:
Wired When A Piece of Blue Sky , a book critical of the Church of Scientology, suddenly disappeared from Amazon.com's online catalog early this year, newsgroups such as alt.religion.scientology buzzed with conspiracy theories. Then, in June, Amazon.co.uk, the online bookseller's British division, expunged a controversial book, The Committee , which implicates David Trimble, head of the Ulster Unionist Party, in atrocities against Catholics. Amazon's decision to remove two books from its online list demonstrates the perils of balancing a billion-dollar book business with a ...
Jul 22, 1999
Copyright -- or wrong? — Salon
Type: Press
Author(s):
Janelle Brown Source:
Salon The Church of Scientology takes up a new weapon — the Digital Millennium Copyright Act — in its ongoing battle with critics. Susan Mullaney is not a fan of the Church of Scientology. A longtime poster to the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, she spends much of her energy online exposing what she feels are the Church of Scientology's repressive activities. Her two-year-old Web site contains a library of short audio excerpts from L. Ron Hubbard speeches and a "secret" Scientology questionnaire, as ...
May 25, 1999
Scientology book an open issue — Wired
Type: Press
Author(s):
Polly Sprenger Source:
Wired A book removed from Amazon's site because of alleged legal troubles is now among the top 150 books sold by the online bookstore. The book, a controversial exposé of the Church of Scientology, languished deep in Amazon's list of 4.5 million titles before being dropped in February. A Wired News report on that decision prompted Amazon to reinstate the book late last week. The book jumped to No. 700 before hitting a high of 148 on Tuesday. Author Jon Atack, reached ...
May 21, 1999
Amazon reverses decision on book ban — ZDNet
Type: Press
Author(s):
Charles Cooper Source:
ZDNet After absorbing withering criticism for its decision to stop selling a book critical of Scientology, Amazon.com has reversed itself. The move to withdraw the book, "A Piece of Blue Sky," comes a day after a report published in Wired News triggered a rash of postings on Internet newsgroups. The book, a critical examination of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was pulled by Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) in February after an injunction against its distribution in the United Kingdom. The courts had ...
May 20, 1999
Amazon Drops Controversial Book — Wired
Type: Press
Author(s):
Polly Sprenger Source:
Wired Amazon.com has removed a controversial book from its listings, a book well known for angering the Church of Scientology. A Piece of Blue Sky , by UK writer Jon Atack, is an exposé of the Scientology movement from its creation in 1959 until the death of founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1986. The book disappeared from Amazon's site only recently. On alt.religion.scientology newsgroups, participants are questioning Amazon's decision, angrily pointing out that it is still legal to sell the book in United ...
May 20, 1999
Amazon to restore Scientology title — CNET
Type: Press
Author(s):
Troy Wolverton Source:
CNET Responding to customer criticism, Amazon.com today said it will restore a book critical of Scientology to its list of available titles. Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said Amazon removed Jon Atack's A Piece of Blue Sky from its virtual bookshelves in February after being advised that sales of the book were subject to a cease-and-desist order in the United Kingdom. Curry said the order stemmed from a ruling barring distribution of the book in that country because of defamatory language. Amazon has ...
Mar 30, 1999
Scientologists settle legal battle — CNET
Type: Press
Author(s):
Courtney Macavinta Source:
CNET The Church of Scientology International has settled a long-standing legal battle to repossess about 2,000 unpublished and copyrighted documents and keep them from being accessed by computer users in the future. Under a settlement reached in a U.S. district court earlier this month, a Colorado-based nonprofit group called FACTNet is permanently enjoined to pay the church $1 million if FACTNet is found guilty of future violations of church copyrights. FACTNet, started by former Scientologist Lawrence Wollersheim, also promised to return all ...
Mar 29, 1999
Abroad: Critics public and private keep pressure on Scientology — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Lucy Morgan Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Scientology leaders say they want peace. They say they want to stay out of court. But with both foes at home and foes abroad, that goal may be elusive. The spiritual home of the Church of Scientology is in Clearwater, but for many years now its leaders have had worldwide ambitions. But as disciples have carried L. Ron Hubbard's teachings away from America's shore, the reception has been almost universally chilly at best – and at times openly hostile. At one ...
Tag(s):
Anti-psychiatry •
Bankruptcy •
Bonnie Woods •
Canada •
Casey Hill •
Church of Scientology of Toronto •
Copyright, trademark, patent •
Death •
Denmark •
Detox •
France •
Fraud, lie, deceit, misrepresentation •
Germany •
Greece •
Hard sell •
Heber C. Jentzsch •
Infiltration •
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) •
Italy •
Karin Spaink •
Lawsuit •
Legal •
Lucy Morgan •
Medical claims •
Membership •
Mental illness •
Michael J. "Mike" Rinder •
Monique E. Yingling •
Nazi labelling •
Netherlands •
Office of Special Affairs (OSA) (formerly, Guardian's Office) •
Oxford Capacity Analysis (aka, "free Scientology personality test" aka "U-Test" aka "Pape Test") •
Patrice Vic •
Private investigator(s) •
Purification Rundown ("Purif") •
Recruitment •
Refunds •
Richard Woods •
Russia •
Silencing criticism, censorship •
Spain •
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) •
Suicide •
Sweden •
Switzerland •
UK Charity Commission •
United Kingdom (UK) •
Xenu (Operating Thetan level 3, OT 3, Wall of Fire) •
Zenon Panoussis Mar 29, 1999
Internet is battleground in foes' war of information — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Lucy Morgan Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Around the clock, from Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and every corner of the United States, the critics of Scientology discuss the controversial organization and its practices. A court decision in Sweden is quickly posted to the news group, followed quickly by a full translation. Daily transcripts of a trial in Northern California are up before daybreak the next day, and news accounts from all over the world are quickly translated and reproduced. Many of those who post messages to the central ...
Jan 31, 1999
Scientology: A church and its foes / Ex-church member fight for right to speak out — Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Susan Thurston Source:
Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California) Tag(s):
Abortion •
Aron Mason •
Assault •
Bankruptcy •
Blackmail •
Confidential preclear (PC) folder •
Copyright, trademark, patent •
Daniel A. Leipold •
Destroying/hiding/falsifying evidences •
Disconnection •
Fraud, lie, deceit, misrepresentation •
Gold Base (also, "INT Base") @ Gilman Hot Springs •
Golden Era Productions •
Intimidation •
Jesse Prince •
Ken Hoden •
Kidnapping •
Lawsuit •
Membership •
Perjury •
Pregnancy •
Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California) •
Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) •
Release contract, form, waiver •
Religious Technology Center (RTC) •
Sea Organization (Sea Org, SO) •
Silencing criticism, censorship •
Susan Thurston Dec 14, 1998
Investigative Reports: Inside Scientology [Part 5 of 10] — Arts and Entertainment Channel
Type: TV
Source:
Arts and Entertainment Channel picture of LRH; pictures of books “L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?”, “Bare-Faced Messiah] VO: Scientology lost its founder in 1986. And the news that Hubbard was no longer sparked a flurry of unofficial biographies. Russell Miller walking down road; picture of LRH RUSSELL MILLER (voice of and on camera): I knew that there was some question mark over L. Ron Hubbard’s background. The church presents a picture of L. Ron Hubbard as being a very extraordinary individual, and was almost ...
Dec 14, 1998
Investigative Reports: Inside Scientology [Part 7 of 10] — Arts and Entertainment Channel
Type: TV
Source:
Arts and Entertainment Channel “Operation Clambake” web page VO: The ’90s brought with it a new challenge for the Church of Scientology in the form of the Internet. newspaper article titled “Showdown in Cyberspace”; David Gerard’s web page; web page that says “Why I hate Scientology” GRAHAM BERRY (voice of and on camera): The Internet has been a disaster for Scientology. Netizens, or people who spend a lot of time on the net, have a particular wild west attitude towards the First Amendment. They believe ...
Jul 15, 1998
A Web of their own — Salon
Type: Press
Author(s):
Janelle Brown Source:
Salon If you are a Scientologist, your church is hoping that you'll get online and build a Web site endorsing your religious beliefs. In fact, the Church of Scientology will give you a Web starter kit to do just that. It will even host your site for you, alongside those of thousands of fellow Scientology members. But if you want to visit alt.religion.scientology, the Web site of Operation Clambake or just about any page that mentions the word "Xenu," you're out of ...
Mar 4, 1998
Church, enemies wage war on Internet battlefield — Boston HeraldMore: rickross.com , apologeticsindex.org
Jan 29, 1998
Scientologists in trademark disputes — CNET
Type: Press
Author(s):
Courtney Macavinta Source:
CNET The Church of Scientology International is accusing two Web sites of trademark violation and is taking action to stop it. The church has threatened to see legal recourse against a Colorado Web site owner if he continues to run a site called "scientology-kills.net," which also sells T-shirts bearing the same phrase. In the second dispute, the church sent a letter to Tilman Hausherr of Berlin on Monday telling him to remove altered Scientology graphics from his CompuServe home page, which he ...
Dec 9, 1997
Gifts of cash fuel battle of principle / Hub man's aid to Scientology critics draws fire and rhetoric from church — Boston Globe
Dec 1, 1997
Distrust in Clearwater -- A special report.; Death of a Scientologist Heightens Suspicions in a Florida Town — New York TimesMore: link
Type: Press
Author(s):
Douglas Frantz Source:
New York Times CLEARWATER, Fla. — Late on a November afternoon two years ago, a 36-year-old Scientologist named Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor traffic accident. She was not injured, but she inexplicably stripped off her clothes and began to walk naked down the street. A paramedic rushed her into an ambulance and asked why she had taken off her clothes. Ms. McPherson replied: "I wanted help. I wanted help." She was taken to a nearby hospital for a psychiatric examination, but several ...
Dec 1, 1997
Religion's search for a home base — New York TimesMore: link
Type: Press
Author(s):
Douglas Frantz Source:
New York Times CLEARWATER, Fla. — In 1975, L. Ron Hubbard, the flamboyant founder of the Church of Scientology, was intent on finding a home base for his religion, which had come under criticism in several countries. The result was Operation Goldmine. Late that year, a dummy corporation paid $2.3 million in cash to buy the Fort Harrison Hotel, a historic building that was the symbolic heart of downtown Clearwater. The buyer was identified as the United Churches of Florida, an unknown organization. A ...
Nov 20, 1997
Detective on trail of TV pair — Daily Telegraph (UK)More: link
May 11, 1997
Battlefield Tilden — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)More: pqasb.pqarchiver.com
Type: Press
Author(s):
Mike Wilson Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) TILDEN, NEB. — In a no-stoplight town on the American plain, in a house where the King James Version lies open in the entryway, a woman unfolds her newspaper and begins to read. The headline in the Tilden Citizen announces, "New Park Groundbreaking Ceremony Held." A picture shows 13 people posed shoulder to shoulder, their grins as frozen as the February soil. The mayor, a construction foreman on his afternoon break, has the familiar job of holding the shovel. A banner ...
Mar 6, 1997
Nightmare on the Net — Denver Westword News
Type: Press
Author(s):
Alan Prendergast Source:
Denver Westword News A web of intrigue surrounds the high-stakes legal brawl between FACTnet and the Church of Scientology. Strange things happen around Lawrence Wollersheim. His businesses collapse. His Boulder apartment gets raided by federal marshals, his computers seized. When college students offer to help him rebuild his computer bulletin-board system, they receive threatening phone calls–anonymous voices urging them to stay away from Larry. A California judge who presided over a lawsuit in which Wollersheim was the plaintiff told reporters he'd encountered a lot ...
Dec 13, 1996
Close to the machine / The DAT, the net and the dead — L.A. Weekly (California)
Sep 6, 1996
Behind an Internet message service's close // Pressure from the Church of Scientology is blamed for the shutdown — New York TimesMore: link
Type: Press
Author(s):
Peter H. Lewis Source:
New York Times Pressure from the Church of Scientology International was at least partly responsible for the recent shutdown of a well-known Internet messaging service based in Helsinki, according to the Finnish operator of the service. The service, known by its Internet address, anon.penet.fi, was used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to send and receive electronic messages without divulging their true identities. It was the best known of a small, global network of special computers known as remailers, whose legitimate users include ...
Jul 4, 1996
Freedom Flames Out on the 'Net — NOW MagazineMore: nowtoronto.com , groups.google.com
Type: Press
Author(s):
Colman Jones Source:
NOW Magazine Ron Newman, a corporate Web page designer in Cambridge, Massachussetts, turns on his computer one day last month and signs on to the Net to check in on his favourite newsgroup, alt.religion.scientology, a.r.s. for short. But as his computer modem erupts into the now all-too-familiar squeal that marks the arrival online, Newman begins to sense that something's not quite right. Ordinarily, it takes only a few seconds to retrieve the day's new postings on this electronic bulletin board. Today there are ...
Jun 30, 1996
Shadow Boxing // The downside of Internet egalitarianism. — Slate Magazine
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Wright Source:
Slate Magazine The good news for Sky Dayton, 24-year-old chairman of one of the fastest-growing companies in the world, is that the Internet is a place where a smart young man can become a tycoon overnight. The bad news for Sky Dayton is that the Internet is a place where anyone with a home computer, a modem, and some animus can make your life miserable, and perhaps do real damage to your business. The bad news for the rest of us is the ...
May 29, 1996
Ominous new threat to free speech — Herald Sun (Australia)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Paul Gray Source:
Herald Sun (Australia) Free speech has come under renewed threat because of a little-noticed decision by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. In an ominous echo of moves to restrict free speech via racial hate laws, the ABA has ruled that radio station 3RRR breached acceptable standards on religious vilification. The unprecedented case centred on criticisms of the Church of Scientology by ex-Scientologist Cyril Vosper on 3RRR's
The Liars' Club program last year. Among other criticisms, Vosper likened Scientology to an extremist political regime and ...
Mar 5, 1996
Church of secrets // In the dark: Scientologists enlist the heavy hand of the law to quash attempts to scrutinise their beliefs — The Bulletin (Australia)More: link
Type: Press
Author(s):
David Millikan Source:
The Bulletin (Australia) YOU ARE PERHAPS SICK OF HEARING that Kate Ceberano, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, John Travolta and various other luminaries owe their glittering fame and wealth to Scientology. You may also have noticed that Scientology is taking ads on buses. The days of the kids with clipboards eyeballing you on the street to ask if you would like to do a personality test are fading. Scientology is moving to big business and the Internet. The Church of Scientology tends to live by ...
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