_Internet Underground_ story on Scientology spamming

[Ron Newman]

The following article appears in the August 1996 issue of
_Internet Underground_ magazine. I an posting this here with
permission from the author, Rob Bernstein <r...@mcs.net>.

The story was actually written over a month ago, but is only seeing
print now, because Internet Underground is a monthly with a long lead
time. Internet Underground has a web site at
http://www.underground-online.com/ .

The Internet's Unholy War
by Rob Bernstein

On May 19, a user operating under the assumed name "Chris Maple," posted
the first in a cannonade of vertical spam attacks, or mass postings, to the
already fire-heavy Usenet group alt.religion.scientology. The newsgroup has
been inciting fierce debate between Scientologists and anti-Church activists
who oppose the religion's practices since its creation in 1991, but
according to users who frequent the group, the mission behind this latest
round of attacks goes far beyond flaming: it's a movement to kill a.r.s.
once and for all.

Attempts by scientologists to shutdown the controversial newsgroup is
nothing new. In 1995, a Church lawyer, Helena Kobrin, sent a message to
Usenet system administrators demanding that the discussion group be deleted,
citing that the title of the newsgroup and users posting to the newsgroup
were infringing on Church trademarks and copyrights. For the most part,
sysadmins ignored the request to dump the newsgroup and discussion on a.r.s.
has continued on as usual, rough-and-tumble.

The recent mass spammings of Church material, however, presents a
greater threat to a.r.s. than past efforts by Scientology
enthusiasts. Keith Spurgeon, a New York University employee who
maintains "Scientology Materials Posting Attack" at
http://www.bway.net/~keith/spam/spam.htm believes that the Church may
be responsible for organizing the spamming attacks. "They've tried in
the past to stop discussion through lawsuits and by raiding people's
homes, and things like that have only tended to attract more people
into discussing Scientology. So they're going back to try it again
with bigger guns this time--they should realize that's it's
ineffectual and all it's doing is straining the resources of service
providers."

Feeling that very strain, Yale University, where the incendiary "Chris
Maple" posting had originated from, decided to block all postings to the
newsgroup via their mail-to-news gateway (the school's postmaster reported
886 attempts to send messages to a.r.s. through their gateway during the
28-hour period just after shutting down the link). Owners of the domain
names ars.org and ars.net, The American Rose Society and an Italian service
provider respectively, are also angered by the a.r.s. spamming and have
begun to complain about the forged spams which have been posted with their
domain names in the "From:" header.

In response to the accusations and the May 19 barrage of Scientology
material spammed onto the a.r.s. newsgroup, the Church's International
Public Affairs spokesperson, Debbie Blair told IU, "our position on the
multiple posts to alt.religion.scientology--or to any other newsgroup for
that matter--is simple. Anyone who wishes to express himself or herself is
free do so thanks to the United States Constitution." Blair also said of the
spams, and of those individuals combating them, "It's only a few
hypocrites that would complain. When they express themselves on
a.r.s. or anywhere else, no matter how vile and hateful their postings
are, we acknowledge their right to say what they want."

The Church did not take responsibility for the spamming, but open letters
to the Scientology community that have made their way onto the 'net indicate
that Church officials have considered using the tactic in the past (see the
Church of Scientology vs. The Net site at http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/
scientology/home.html).

Heated about the noise damage that the relentless spamming has caused to
a.r.s., Ron Newman, a programmer at New Frontiers Information Corp.,
suggests that ISPs exchange names of the abusers and develop a blacklist to
save other ISPs from victimization. Another outspoken contributor to a.r.s.,
Stephen Taylor, has posted a "remedy solution" that involves the employment
of a sorting bot that can separate out incoming posts.

Spamming isn't unusual on Usenet newsgroups, but abusers of
alt.religion.scientology are setting a particularly unhealthy precedent with
their attempts to quell open discussion, says Newman who also runs the
Church of Scientology vs. The Net homepage (see URL above). "I feel really
strongly about people's rights to speak freely," says Newman, "but without
these forums for open discussion, there's really no reason to have the 'net."

**************************************
Rob Bernstein
News Editor/Internet Underground
(708) 916-7222
**************************************

--
Ron Newman rne...@cybercom.net
Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html