The Church of Scientology was founded in the early 1950s by pulp science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and it's been run by his successor, David Miscavige, since 1987. But for the past year or so the public face of Scientology has been a man named Tommy Davis. Son of Hollywood actress (and longtime Scientologist) Anne Archer, Davis has a stylish mop coif and boyish (not to say Tom Cruise-ish) good looks that have been put before the media's cameras every time ...

The Church of Scientology fired the latest salvo in the information war with its detractors Monday, launching a YouTube channel and touting "its commitment to open communication." But the notoriously secretive (and litigious) organization doesn’t appear to truly be embracing the kind of openness that makes the internet such a philosophical free-for-all: The Church of Scientology YouTube channel doesn’t allow users to post comments, and the option to embed videos is disabled for certain clips. The channel was launched to "share ...

Threat Level is running a poll where you can track and vote on the most shameful and/or disturbing Wikipedia edits found with Virgil Griffith’s new Wikipedia search tool. For those that missed the story, Griffith created a tool that unmasks the anonymous edits made to Wikipedia pages. The long and short of it is that corporations, celebrities and other egomaniacs concerned with negative Wikipedia entries can no longer hide behind the anonymous edits. Here’s an excerpt from John Borland’s full story ...

20 million kids can't get enough - and neither can advertisers. How a virtual animal kingdom became a product placement paradise. Every day after school, 11-year-old Tyler Gagen hurries home down the country roads of Hastings, Minnesota, to play with Buddy. "He likes hot dogs and cake," Tyler says of his pet. "I haven't brought him to the grooming parlor yet, but I will. He gets the royal treatment!" Tyler also cares for a half-Siamese tomcat, Arctic, and two cocker spaniels, ...

WASHINGTON – A California jury has convicted Keith Henson, a prominent critic of Scientology, of terrorizing the group through Usenet posts and by picketing one of its offices. Henson, a computer engineer who has been involved in prior legal skirmishes with Scientology, was found guilty on Thursday of interfering with Scientologists' civil rights and now faces a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to $5,000. The charges revolved around posts Henson made in the alt.religion.scientology ...

Dave Touretzky might seem like an unlikely champion of free expression. The 41-year-old researcher at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh spends his evenings investigating how the brains of rats record and process location information. "My primary research interest is understanding how space is represented in the rodent brain," says Touretzky, who regularly works until 2 a.m. What that translates into is computer simulations, occasional surgery on hapless members of the species rattus norvegicus, and programming a squat ...

The geek-culture destination Slashdot.org said on Friday that it deleted a post in response to legal threats from the Church of Scientology. Scientology's notoriously litigious team of attack attorneys successfully pressured the site's editors into erasing a discussion board message, which allegedly contained copyrighted material. "While Slashdot is an open forum and we encourage free discussion and sharing of ideas, our lawyers have advised us that, considering all the details of this case, the comment should come down," co-founder Rob "CmdrTaco" ...

BERLIN – A Microsoft spokesman called reports that the software maker has turned over its closely guarded Windows 2000 source code to the German government "just a rumor," but would not deny that the company has disclosed technical secrets in a probe of the operating system. "I can't confirm that we're sharing [the source code]," said Microsoft Germany's Thomas Baumgärtner after German news organizations reported this month that the company had offered federal authorities the opportunity to inspect its source code. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Depending on whom you ask, last week's verdict in Religious Technology Center v. Keith Henson is either a vote for intellectual property rights or a vote against freedom of information. But regardless of whom you ask, Henson is in an unenviable position: He faces a US$75,000 fine for violating the Church of Scientology's copyright. And this Friday, the Palo Alto, California, electrical engineer must tell the judge in the case why he should not be held in contempt of court for ...

When computers are seized because they contain allegedly stolen intellectual property, and police pierce the security anonymous remailers,the days of the Net as a cozy, cocktail party are over. Welcome to a flame war with real bullets. When computers are seized because they contain allegedly stolen intellectual property, or the security of anonymous remailers is pierced by police, alt.scientology.war the days of the Internet as a cozy, private, intellectual cocktail party are over. Welcome to mortal combat between two alien cultures ...