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NOW magazine article on CoS spam attack

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Ron Newman

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Jul 5, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/5/96
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NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
You can read it at

http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html

Ted Mayett

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Jul 5, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/5/96
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In <4rj4ms$g...@orion.cybercom.net> Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net>
writes:

I just read the article. I found it to be great.
I would suggest it to newbies to this NG.
It covers the spam and more.

--
Ted Mayett
Scientology(tm) is a dangerous cult.
If you are new to this NG realize the dangers of posting here.
This link offers a bit of explanation.
http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/scientology/harass/timeline-95.html

Dan McKinnon

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Jul 5, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/5/96
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Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net> wrote:

>NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
>Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
>You can read it at

> http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html


Oh, %&&%, thanks Ron! <G>

I saw it lying on the bottom of the newstand at my corner
store, and left it there.

NOW is _very_ leftwing, and like any extreme organization,
does not let reason get in the way of its wranting, err, writing! <G>

It has pages upon pages of "escort service" ads at the back.

But I want to see that article - I'm curious about who wrote
it, as I seem to be the only person from Toronto posting at this time.

Dan


Tilman Hausherr

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Jul 5, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/5/96
to

In <4rj4ms$g...@orion.cybercom.net>, Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net>
wrote:

>NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
>Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
>You can read it at
>
> http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html
>
>

Netscape does not convert pages with tables into a text. Is there anyone
who uses a browers which can do this ?

Tilman


Herne the Hunter

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Jul 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/6/96
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

> From: da...@interlog.com (Dan McKinnon)
> Subject: Re: NOW magazine article on CoS spam attack
> Date: Fri, 05 Jul 1996 17:43:34 GMT
> Message-ID: <4rjk7h$1...@news.interlog.com>
> References: <4rj4ms$g...@orion.cybercom.net>
> Reply-To: da...@interlog.com

> Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net> wrote:

>> NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
>> Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
>> You can read it at

>> http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html


> Oh, %&&%, thanks Ron! <G>

Agreed! Just read the article--it's an excellent introduction to the
current situation here with the Co$ spammers.

> I saw it lying on the bottom of the newstand at my corner
> store, and left it there.

Too bad... you might wish to go back and pick it up.

> NOW is _very_ leftwing, and like any extreme organization,
> does not let reason get in the way of its wranting, err, writing! <G>

The magazine's politics are irrelevant--what is important is that they
have printed a fair assessment of the situation here, which will
undoubtedly be read by many people not on the net. For those who read
it who _are_ on the net, many may find themselves coming here (i.e.
a.r.s.) to see what it's all about.

> It has pages upon pages of "escort service" ads at the back.

Again irrelevant!

> But I want to see that article - I'm curious about who wrote
> it, as I seem to be the only person from Toronto posting at this time.

BTW, the article's author is: Colman Jones.

> Dan

Herne the Hunter ARSCC I/C Security
<He...@nym.jpunix.com> <alt.anonymous.messages> <He...@alpha.c2.org>
2048/83279729 1995/08/10 4B A1 27 D0 A7 A2 5A 59 91 9D 2F AF 7F 04 A1 7C
PGP Public Key available on keyservers


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Herne the Hunter

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Jul 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/6/96
to

Rav 1

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Jul 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/6/96
to

Tilman Hausherr wrote:
>
> In <4rj4ms$g...@orion.cybercom.net>, Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net>

> wrote:
>
> >NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
> >Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
> >You can read it at
> >
> > http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html
> >
> >
>
> Netscape does not convert pages with tables into a text. Is there anyone
> who uses a browers which can do this ?
>
> Tilman

I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann? Why ask for help this
way. So tell us about your grandfathers wartime experiences.

Rav

Ted Mayett

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Jul 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/6/96
to

In <31DE03...@student.uq.edu.au> Rav 1 <s14...@student.uq.edu.au>
writes:
>

>> >NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
>> >Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on
alt.religion.scientology. You can read it at
>> >
>> > http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html
>> >

>


>I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann?

Where did you teach this?
Why did you not delete the URL when responding?
Have you ever had a lobotomy?

Bernie

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Jul 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/6/96
to

Ron Newman wrote:
>
> NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
> Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
> You can read it at
>
> http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html

At last a direct link to the article, and not to a loose-end home page, and
%&&% wow waz a niz article, with loads of links to related subject. A
perfect entry point for ars newbies.

--
Bernie

*In a Japanese hotel:
*You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.


Lance S. Buckley

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Jul 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/6/96
to

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article <31dd5426...@news.snafu.de>
til...@berlin.snafu.de "Tilman Hausherr" writes:


] Netscape does not convert pages with tables into a text. Is there anyone


] who uses a browers which can do this ?

You have to be sneaky :)

First open the nutscrape mail windows and "quote document".
Then select all the mail text (which is vanilla ASCII. Paste
into another file for mailing. Tada! It keeps the formatting of
things like tables and stuff quite well usually.


Oh Rav, the difference between an expert and a fuckwit is an
expert knows when to ask questions and when to keep his mouth
shut. Guess you should have kept quiet huh?

Oh BTW, what sex and age are you today? Just curious.

Lance.

- --
"We would only destroy people who attempt to harm Scientology"
Jaques Lederer/Vollet, alledged ex-head of B1(UK)
[ SP4 : GGBC #26 : ARSCC(UK) J&D ]
My Other Hat's A Fedora

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Dan McKinnon

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Jul 7, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/7/96
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Herne the Hunter <he...@nym.jpunix.com> wrote:

>> I saw it lying on the bottom of the newstand at my corner
>> store, and left it there.

>Too bad... you might wish to go back and pick it up.

I did! <G>

>> NOW is _very_ leftwing, and like any extreme organization,
>> does not let reason get in the way of its wranting, err, writing! <G>

>The magazine's politics are irrelevant

That isn't true - er, wait - in Canada, leftwing tends to mean
small -l "liberal", and while they may support the New Democratic Party,
I used "extreme " to refer more to a prejudice in term of expecting
unreasonably extreme solutions to be taken (such as we should all ride
bicycles), and slanting stories toward these. All very
Politically-Correct, too, of course! Right-wing publications such as the
Toronto Sun tabloid do this too, and I despise that also.

I think that anybody that labels themself, limits themself in how
much they can see, or are willing to assimilate - it figuratively causes
them to put hands over their hands and ears when facts tend to attack
one of their cherished beliefs. And to distort , and pick and choose,
such facts as they can to fit their case.

We all do it, and we should fight it, IMNSHO.

Sorry I couldn't fit that into a two-word description. <G>

So I was basically worried that NOW would put some kind of a
slant on the situation here, instead of being neutral. That didn't
happen this wasn't a slanted piece, although I doubt CO$ wuld say so!
<G>. AS you say later, it should result in more readers of this
newsgroup.



--what is important is that they
>have printed a fair assessment of the situation here,

_That_ I agree with! <G> Ron Newman is prominent in it, and I've mailed
him a few copies.

which will
>undoubtedly be read by many people not on the net. For those who read
>it who _are_ on the net, many may find themselves coming here (i.e.
>a.r.s.) to see what it's all about.

Which I also agree is A GOOD THING (tm).

>> It has pages upon pages of "escort service" ads at the back.

>Again irrelevant!

I'm split on that - the ads are there because of a
certain demography of the readership, which is not representative of
the _whole_ population - mostly they are younger,
alternative-entertainment, liberal type. And people looking for sex
ads! <G> And I'll admit a guilty secret - I occassionally grab the
paper for the Companion (Not commercial sex) ads, OK!? <G>

My real point in all this is that I would like to have
seen the article in a more general _daily_ newspaper, although they are
all, unfortunately polarized. But I aree that any exposure is better
than none, especially as this piece was reasonably well done.



>> But I want to see that article - I'm curious about who wrote
>> it, as I seem to be the only person from Toronto posting at this time.

>BTW, the article's author is: Colman Jones.

So I see, not familiar to me, but I would try reading
other articles by him - say, what's _your_ real name, Herne! <G>

Anybody who wants to flame me about NOW, or any other part of
this, let's take it private Email , this is not the place for a debate
on politics of the left and right, etc. Once in private Email, I will
say that I am not interested in taking it further myself, at the moment,
no time for such an effort.

I did want to respond because I realize I may have unfairly
put off people against reading the article, and I was wrong. It was my
prejudice against prejudice that made me do it! <G>.

>Herne the Hunter ARSCC I/C Security

Dan

Secret ARSCC investigator of ARSCC Security Staff Loyalty


CeeGee

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Jul 7, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/7/96
to

Rav 1 <s14...@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:

>Tilman Hausherr wrote:
>>
>> In <4rj4ms$g...@orion.cybercom.net>, Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net>

>> wrote:
>>
>> >NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
>> >Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
>> >You can read it at
>> >
>> > http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html
>> >
>> >
>>

>> Netscape does not convert pages with tables into a text. Is there anyone
>> who uses a browers which can do this ?
>>

>> Tilman

>I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann? Why ask for help this
>way. So tell us about your grandfathers wartime experiences.

>Rav

Man, do these couple of lines speak volumes or what!

depRAVed 1, it is the moron who DOESN'T ask questions, or ask for
help. Speaking of which, I'm pleasantly surprised that you left the
URL for the "NOW" article in your post. Why? Does that nasty old
subconcious of yours want to "blow"? -)

What does Tilman's grandfather have to do with anything here? Did you
know him? Was he a highly decorated critic during the war?

Let's pretend that I were to ask you, if you or anybody in your family
has ever had anything to do with the abortion of a human fetus, simply
and solely, because it was female. Or the murder of a female infant,
for exactly the same reason. Would you wonder what the relevance is to
a.r.s.?

At any rate, I hope you and your whole gang of personalities/genders
keep on posting! Your contributions are greater than you'll ever know,
and I for one, appreciate them!

CeeGee


Martin G. V. Hunt

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Jul 7, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/7/96
to

Rav 1 (s14...@student.uq.edu.au) writes:
> Tilman Hausherr wrote:
>>
>> In <4rj4ms$g...@orion.cybercom.net>, Ron Newman <rne...@cybercom.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >NOW magazine, a Toronto weekly, has published a long article on the
>> >Church of Scientology's recent spam attack on alt.religion.scientology.
>> >You can read it at
>> >
>> > http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Netscape does not convert pages with tables into a text. Is there anyone
>> who uses a browers which can do this ?
>>
>> Tilman
>
>
>
> I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann? Why ask for help this
> way. So tell us about your grandfathers wartime experiences.
>
> Rav

Andrew! Welcome back!

--
Cogito, ergo sum.
"FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public
relations. This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or
handling of an SP." -HCOPL 21 Oct. 1968: "Cancellation of Fair Game."

Cornelius Krasel

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Jul 7, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/7/96
to

Tilman Hausherr (til...@berlin.snafu.de) wrote:
> > http://www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html
>
> Netscape does not convert pages with tables into a text. Is there anyone
> who uses a browers which can do this ?

Lynx (my favourite web browser anyways) did this to the text (version 2.5
can now handle tables, however, I didn't find a table in the text :-):


Feature



_________________________________________________________________

How to Clean Up Those Nasty Spams

By COLMAN JONES

The Internet has its ways of dealing with spam artists, those users
who flood newsgroups either to push their own message or silence
someone else's.

Rather than wait for Big Brother government to step in and protect
them from saboteurs, netizens are developing their own self-defence
tools.

Spamming first came to public attention when a small Arizona law firm
outraged the Net community in 1994 by sending out thousands of
identical copies of their advertisement randomly to hundreds of
newsgroups, a technique known as horizontal spamming (vertical
spamming concentrates on a specific bulletin board or newsgroup, with
a posting of a huge number of separate messages in a very short period
of time).

The lawyers' Internet service providers collapsed under the weight of
electronic complaints directed at it by angry Net users, and tossed
the firm off its computers. Since then, a whole series of illegal
pyramid schemes (such as the infamous MAKE.MONEY.FAST scam), ads for
1-900 phone sex lines and magazine subscriptions have plagued the Net.

The intensity of the largest-ever massive spam attack - on
alt.religion.scientology - is prompting readers of the newsgroup and
anti-spam experts to devise new ways to deal with this onslaught of
data. Indeed, most Net veterans feel the only way to respond to
hi-tech propaganda is to employ the same technology to counter it.

But as anti-right researcher Chip Berlet notes, "The technology hasn't
gotten to the point where there is a sub-routine written into the
programming that catches these things and stops them from completely
overloading a conference." Berlet is currently designing a scanning
program that analyzes messaging systems to try to detect when they
come under attack by repetitive postings of extraneous junk.

Auto-cancelling

In the meantime, automatic message cancelling programs, known as
cancelbots, have been developed and let loose by computer-savvy
netizens, the most renowned an anonymous entity known only as the
Cancelmoose. When excessive crossposting of a message is discovered by
a cancelbot, the articles are deleted from the system.

But the activities of the spam cancellers are not carried out in
secret. The latest measures being taken are regularly announced and
debated in newsgroups like news.admin.net-abuse.announce and
news.admin. net-abuse.misc, which exist specifically to foster public
discussions about Internet abuse.

The preemptive strike against the a.r.s. spammers seems to have worked
- for now - as the numbers of repetitive messages appear to have
dwindled in the past few weeks. Still, cancelbots haven't eliminated
the problem of spam, but the hope is that if spammers know their
messages will be erased before most people see them, it will strip
away their incentive to continue.

In addition, individual users have resources at their disposal to deal
with an unwanted barrage of data which, in the case of a.r.s., has
become so predictable that it's not all that hard to route around it.
The more sophisticated newsgroup-reading software can filter out
specified addresses, so one can simply program one's own computer to
dispense with unwanted messages.

_________________________________________________________________

Freedom Flames Out on the 'Net

Who launched the largest-ever sabotage of the Internet?

By COLMAN JONES

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 more messages than usual - a lot more. Newman grows
increasingly edgy. His hard drive starts to fill up with an
ever-increasing mountain of data, most of it canned reprints from a
leading Scientology text.

What he and hundreds of others logging onto the group are experiencing
is a "spam," in which someone posts dozens or even hundreds of
messages to the same newsgroup, or the same message to different
newsgroups. But this is no ordinary spam. Little does he realize it at
the time, but Newman has just witnessed the start of what some are
calling the biggest traffic jam in the history of the Net.

For weeks afterwards, this popular computer bulletin board is swamped
daily by a mountain of pro-Scientology articles (nearly 28,000 at last
count), posted by automatic computer programs in an apparent attempt
to drown out criticism of the church.

Newman and other critics of Scientology suspect the culprit is the
church itself. For their part, representatives of the church say they
have no idea who's behind it, but they certainly don't appear to
object to what's going on.

Harrowing episode

Whoever is responsible, this harrowing episode in online harassment -
the most extreme example of Net abuse to date - serves as a reminder
that state intrusion is only one kind of threat to cyberspace. An
increasing amount of cybermeddling is now being perpetrated by
vigilante-style citizen groups who, quite outside the jurisdiction of
any law, take matters into their own hands through spamming and mass
e-mail attacks.

And the implications are startling. Besides the technological
curtailment of free speech, a skirmish like this one has the potential
to completely disrupt the online operation not only of individual
users, but also of entire networks overloaded by traffic their
circuits were never designed to handle.

"It is a misuse of a common resource," says Newman, who has assembled
what is probably the most comprehensive Web site documenting the
church's online activities. Scientology supporters, he says, have gone
too far this time.

***

Perhaps it's no accident that the Net's most atrocious spamming
incident deleted discussion of an organization claiming a membership
of 8 million.

The Church of Scientology (CoS), a well known New Age religion founded
in the early 1950s, is based on the philosophy of the late science
fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

The organization has been haunted by accusations from ex-members who
claim that church officials subvert the independence of members
through techniques of humiliation, starvation, imprisonment and worse.
The church denies all such allegations.

Discussions of these issues were standard fare on the newsgroup that
faced its first major spamming on May 19, when the regular
participants on a.r.s. were joined by a new visitor, "Chris Maple"
(chrismpl @a.crl.com), who posted a few excerpts from the CoS's What
Is Scientology? handbook to the newsgroup.

It wasn't many at first, but within a few days the smattering of
messages grew to unbelievable proportions, as hundreds, then thousands
of similar messages started pouring in. The messages were originally
sent by e-mail and then forwarded to the newsgroup through a computer
at Yale University.

Once Yale officials discovered the spam, they blocked postings from
the Chris Maple address.

Great lines

But soon other spammers began to appear, posting the same or similar
material, one usually starting up within a few minutes of another
ending. Text from prior messages was often quoted in full, followed
only with a single line, such as "Great!"

With thousands of repeated messages posted each day, this spam attack
soon mushroomed out of control, with an estimated 20,000 messages - or
over 50 megabytes of data, the equivalent of 3,000 NOW news features -
posted over nine days. On May 24, Yale restricted posting to a.r.s.
altogether.

The spammers soon found other ways to infiltrate the group, sending
signals to computers as far away as New Zealand and Estonia. It soon
became obvious that these were not just idle posts of cult propaganda,
but an all-out assault on the newsgroup itself, with thousands of
copies of identical messages being sent to millions of computers
around the world.

The problem with the a.r.s. activity, Newman says, is "solely the
volume, not the content. When you dump in several thousand messages a
day, it's like jamming a radio station. It disrupts at several levels
- people who are reading the group, as well as the middlemen, i.e.
everybody in between the sender and receiver, who is storing and
forwarding the news, because it takes up their disk space and
bandwidth."

Indeed, small providers with limited computer disk space for
newsgroups have been straining to cope with the extra load, which
obviously takes a lot more time to download. And individual users
whose dial-ups charge by the hour or by the byte literally have to pay
more to access a.r.s., and some with slow connections are finding it
has now become too expensive to read the newsgroup.

But tracking down the a.r.s. spammers has been tricky because they
never remain in one place for long enough to trace them.
Pro-Scientology postings appear to be originating from forged or bogus
e-mail addresses, with spammers changing their Internet service
providers frequently, at times using anonymous remailers.

Despite the lack of a smoking gun, critics suspect church members are
ultimately behind this massive outpouring of Hubbard's writings.
E-mail leaked by former Scientologists indicates members and
supporters looked upon spamming as a propaganda tool as much as two
years ago.

A leaked 1994 document, written by then high-ranking Scientologist
Elaine Siegel, appears to support the suggestion that Scientology had
an official project to "handle" the newsgroup.

Seigel, a member of the church's office of special affairs, wrote, "If
you imagine 40 to 50 Scientologists posting on the Internet every few
days, we'll just run the SP's (Suppressive Persons, i.e. enemies of
Scientology) right off the system. It will be quite simple, actually."

Church spokesperson Debbie Blair acknowledges that Siegel wrote the
memo as an official communication to fellow Scientologists, but Blair
insists the plan was never church policy.

"It was never adopted, never implemented and never a plan of anyone
other than maybe Elaine Siegel."

Asked whether she thinks the postings of tens of thousands of
pro-Scientology messages is an abuse of the Net, Blair replies, "I
guess I'd have to say no, but I really need to qualify that. Anything
that is stifling free speech would be an abuse of the Net."

When I ask Blair whether church members are behind the spam, she says
she has no idea. "There are 8 million Scientologists," she tells me,
repeating an oft-quoted - but unverified - figure. Asked about the
church's position on the tactic, she says, "That spamming didn't just
start. When it was critical of us, against the church, no one cared.
When there's a volume of positive things, then people complain."

Similarly, a CoS statement Blair faxed to NOW defends members' rights
to free cyber-speech, while denying any organized effort to swamp the
Internet.

"It's only a few hypocrites that would complain," it says. "When they
express themselves... no matter how vile or hateful their postings
are, we acknowledge their right to say what they want.... There has
been so much false information on (the newsgroup) that no one should
complain about the truth being posted."

When asked about the church's unsuccessful attempt to shut the
newsgroup down by persuading system administrators not to carry it,
she says, "That's true. That was a mistake we made at the beginning.
We've grown a lot since then. We're not Microsoft. We're a church."

Perhaps the most interesting thing to be said about the church's
involvement stems from its failure to take legal action over the
potential violation of intellectual property rights in the course of
this spamming, rights it has vigorously pursued in the past.

Sacred writings

The church has always maintained that certain sacred writings by
Hubbard - writings that form the spiritual and economic backbone of
the religion - are trade secrets. The church has waged a long campaign
over the years to protect these secret texts, launching a series of
intellectual property suits as a result of copyrighted material being
posted on the Net. Most of this activity has taken place on the a.r.s.
newsgroup, where, late in 1994, a series of cancel commands were
forged by persons unknown, commands that made postings disappear from
a.r.s., sometimes accompanied by the statement "canceled because of
copyright infringement."

CoS has taken legal action against a variety of individuals and
organizations for publishing the secret tracts without authorization,
including the Washington Post, a variety of "apostate infringers" from
a.r.s. and several Internet service providers.

It even forced an anonymous remailing service (a third-party company
that hid the originator's address before relaying messages) in Finland
to come up with the name of a user posting secret texts on a.r.s. The
thousands of recent posts on a.r.s. consist of materials copyrighted
by the CoS, yet Church lawyers have yet to launch court proceedings.

Blair would not say whether the person or persons posting the spam
received permission from CoS to post the copyrighted sections, but
insists "There's always concern about copyright infringement." But
when I specifically ask Blair if the church is taking action against
the current spammers, she simply reiterates, "When there's copyright
infringement - regardless of who is doing it - we always take action.
It does not mean we always go to lawsuits."

Oddly enough, the episode has divided free speech advocates, who are
finding themselves at opposite sides of the fence on this issue. Some
see the spam as a threat to free speech, while others maintain that
CoS is simply stating its views just a bit more aggressively than its
detractors right now.

Muzzling dissent

Using spam to muzzle dissent on the Net is not limited to a.r.s.,
notes Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates,
an independent, not-for-profit research centre that monitors the
organizations, individuals and activities of the U.S. political right,
including on the Net.

Berlet helped set up the first Fight The Right bulletin board system
in 1985. He currently operates his own private electronic mailing
list, one he had to shut down temporarily after subscribers' mailboxes
began filling up with hundreds of messages from far-right zealots.

Berlet notes that using a massive onslaught of data to counter one's
enemies is used by groups all across the political spectrum, with
angry gay activists spamming Christian fundamentalists, and
antiracists mail-bombing neo-Nazis. He notes this new form of
technology "dramatically increases the ability of people who have
access to media. You want to protect that and guarantee that access,
but you also want to come up with some sanctions against people who in
fact abuse it."

There are currently no laws prohibiting spamming, Berlet notes, but
"There is a free speech violation when something is spammed out of
existence," he says.

Berlet doesn't think there's much difficulty in defining exactly what
constitutes spam, and how that can be distinguished from legitimate
mass expressions.

"If what you have is a spontaneous outpouring of messages - or even an
organized one, as part of a lobbying campaign - from many different
people, that's one thing. But the a.r.s. spammers are posting
mountains of garbage of L. Ron Hubbard's writing, wads of text that
are not germane to the discussion at hand - that's the difference."

_________________



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© 1996 NOW Communications Inc. NOW and NOW Magazine and the NOW design
are protected through trademark registration.

--
/* Cornelius Krasel, U Wuerzburg, Dept. of Pharmacology, Versbacher Str. 9 */
/* D-97078 Wuerzburg, Germany email: pha...@rzbox.uni-wuerzburg.de SP3 */
/* "Science is the game we play with God to find out what His rules are." */

David M. Cook

unread,
Jul 7, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/7/96
to

On Sat, 06 Jul 1996 17:12:02 +1100, Rav 1 <s14...@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:

>I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann?

And I tought I taw a puddy cat.

So, what? He's supposed to write his own web browser to read this one
site?

>Why ask for help this way.

Why be a dick this way?

Dave Cook


Bernie

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Jul 7, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/7/96
to

You seem to speak of the paper version of NOW, Dan. People like me, who
don't know the NOW paper magazine and only see the net article may not
care too much about the paper background, only judging from the article
by itself, although your input on the paper orientations is still
interesting. Also, I had the impression that the article was especially
written for the net, since it contained numerous links attached to
"normal" words or sentences (i.e. not as a usuall address reference).

--
Bernie

Dan McKinnon

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Jul 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/8/96
to

Bernie <be...@arcadis.be> wrote:

>You seem to speak of the paper version of NOW, Dan.

Right - I am familiar with it, and it coloured my expectations with
my own bias against the paper - I was operating (as we all do) with the
sum of knowledge I had, formed over twenty years or so of familiarity
with the paper! <G>

> Also, I had the impression that the article was especially
>written for the net, since it contained numerous links attached to
>"normal" words or sentences (i.e. not as a usuall address reference).

The article posted on the net was, I presume, _adapted_ for the net,
I haven't seen it. I'd be surprised if the actual body of the text was
different. The paper version has a sidebar with urls. (rnewman, Keith,
Marina, lippard, and the offical CO$ site are among those mentioned).

In this day and age I guess, one should not expect a net version and
a paper version to be identical. Obviously, though, there is now a
potential for misunderstanding between those who have read and
experienced different versions , and don't realize it. A net version can
be infinitely more rich with hypertext links, direct links to sites,
potentially multimedia...

I'm glad you brought this to my attention.

>Bernie

Dan


Cat Davidson-Hall

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Jul 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/8/96
to

In article <31DE03...@student.uq.edu.au>, Rav 1
<s14...@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:

> I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann? Why ask for help this
> way. So tell us about your grandfathers wartime experiences.


By the gods, you're an offensive little prat, aren't you? Into the
killfile with you, there's a good troll.

Don't forget to say 'hi' to the spam-clams.

PLONK!


Cat
SP4, KoX


--
"I've got to do something about my life, I can't believe this has happened
to me again. I'm thinking of starting a line of evil voodoo greeting cards."
- Meryn Cadell -

Steve A

unread,
Jul 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/8/96
to

Rav 1 <s14...@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:

>I tought you were a smart computer nerd Tilmann? Why ask for help this
>way. So tell us about your grandfathers wartime experiences.

Oh, fuck off, Ravina!
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