F I D O N E W S -- Vol.12 No.43 (23-Oct-1995) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS | | _ | +1-519-570-4176 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editors: | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Sylvia 1:221/194 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Sylvia max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of fidonews or the internet gateway faq | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== 1. Editorial..................................................... 1 2. Articles...................................................... 2 To Freedom!................................................. 3 Ribald Orgy On Harbour Ferry................................ 4 Gentlemen................................................... 6 Furthuring the Win95 saga,.................................. 10 Scientology "church" at war with the world.................. 11 First of all ............................................... 17 Response to Mr Robert Hoerner............................... 17 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 18 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== FidoNews 12-43 Page: 2 23 Oct 1995 The Geographical Problem Revisited In last week's editorial, I ranted at some length about the restrictions of policy four's geographical section. While I still feel that it is more of a problem than a solution, the week's reading of echos has made me reconsider the other side of the coin. While the following hypothetical examples are extreme, they are meant to be. The issue *is* polarized; the examples are meant to demonstrate the extremes that have resulted in that polarization. Case one: A net in a metropolitan area is run by a small clique that is rude and obnoxious. The mail feeds may be unreliable, or perhaps the powers that be jus take a dislike to certain individuals. For whatever reason, a sysop within the net is extremely unhappy, and decides that they would rather pay the LD charges to a neighbouring city, and join that net instead. The *C structure of the local net files a policy complaint, attempting to force the sysop to stay within the local net. Case two: A net in a metroploitan area is run by a small clique that is rude and obnoxious, but also ambitious. They see Fidonet as their claim to fame, and a big net as Prestigious. Or perhaps as a way to justify their T1 line or satelite feed. Together with a few like minded individuals in other cities, they attempt to build an empire spanning a huge area. They actively solicite new sysops in neighbouring nets, and prey on newcomers that want to join Fidonet. Unfortunately, their ambition outweighs both their technical ability and their management ability. Fidonet starts losing members in that entire area because grunt sysops, particularly new ones, have no idea that turf wars are underway, and see only a screwed up network with unreliable feeds, lost mail, and obnoxious people running it. The *C structure of another net in the same area files a policy complaint based on the geographical rule, in an attempt to stop the abuse. In the latter case, the geographical rule is the solution; in the former, it is the problem. Instead of argueing about the geographical rule, perhaps we should be attempting to find a solution to both sorts of problems. As editor of this newsletter, I can assure you that I have seen instances that fit both examples in some fashion or another. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== FidoNews 12-43 Page: 3 23 Oct 1995 To Freedom! To Freedom! By Jimmy Hankins, sysop of the silent scream bbs at 1:147/27 jimmyla@delta.profile.net I thought I'd babble in here about something near and dear to my heart. I'll try not to make it sound like the "obvious and only final solution to all Fidonet's problems" (grin). As the editor pointed out in a recent Fnews, one of the main solutions to Fidonet costs seems to have become it's biggest problem. IMHO, ownership and control of local net/region/zones has created a power structure that while supposed to be benign and somewhat interested in "democracy", has created a power structure that more and more often interferes with node level actions for the benefit of the *C structure. A case in point is the recent decision by Bob Satti, the Z1C, that use of ACR is excessively annoying. After much discussion in a regional conference, it became obvious (IMHO) that the decision was based on making it possible for the Z1C and the entire *C structure to use CID blocking without interference. I don't use ACR. I'm not even aware of whether it's available in my calling area yet. But I debated against this decision based on the fact (IMHO) that it went against policy. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not about to quit Fidonet, or go on an anti-Z1C and *C structure tirade. I think Bob is the best ZC in Fidonet, and I still like and respect my own local NC who sides with him on this (grin). But it's becoming clear (IMHO), that even with the best of intentions, the benign dictatorship is becoming more and more of a burden to the node. So is the standard "throw the old bums out and get new bums" rhetoric going to fly any farther this time than it ever has? No. My feeling is that this is mainly because there is no serious competition to Fidonet. The smaller hobby nets don't have the node membership, and the internet doesn't seem to be slowing the growth of Fidonet down at all. Fidonet has it's own appeal. For me, it's the echomail conferences and their offline ease of use. I can't stand Usenet's message structure. And as far as it "becoming more popular as people grow use to it", uh yeah, just like WWIV, I'm sure. (grin) So, how to compete with Fidonet? It occurs to me that there is already a distribution network in place that grows exponentially every day. Hundreds, if not thousands of Fidonet nodes already have access to a means of distributing mail packets internationally at the cost of a local phone call. How about; FIDONET2. A democratic network based on a *C structure elected from the node level up. And distributed through the Internet by email-attach. Think about it. It's not really a new idea. Fidonet was started by a bunch of sysops combining 2 technologies to create a hobby network: computers and telephones. This would just stretch the concept a baby step up to include the most widely available distribution backbone in the world. One that more and more of us are hooked up to every day. INDEPENDENT OF ANY INPUT, CONTROL OR INTERFERENCE BY THE FidoNews 12-43 Page: 4 23 Oct 1995 PRESENT *C STRUCTURE. The potential for anarchy is with us again. At the node level. We will NEVER bring democracy to Fidonet by trying to bring down the powers that be. But there is a tried and true method that has recently become available to the common node. Immigration to the new (electronic) world. And before anybody starts yelling "cost!", Internet access is hovering at $1-$2 an hour, and still falling. How long would it take for an automatic logon to your local provider to grab email and logoff? We have the technology. Let's build the bionic node. And don't yell at me. I'm just an idea man. Besides, after all this "CRP" stuff, I think it would be fun to watch "power-mongering" *C's turn into competing and "best service" oriented internet providers. Please attach an "IMHO" to any assumption I make in the above where I might have missed it, and you feel it's necessary. To freedom! (grin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ribald Orgy On Harbour Ferry Dear Editorbeings, This article, provided with a catchy title, is submitted by Charles Herriot of 1:163/110 who lured Doc Logger to the keyboard with the usual slugbait. Logger was deliriously raving about squirrel irruptions but was successfully sedated by a litre of Wild Turkey and a fistful of reds. Roll da flic Sylvia.... Dear Reverend Visage, I am somewhat overcome by the irony of several events which have taken place recently in the Excited States. The first was O.J.'s acquittal, and the second was Farrikan's outlandish statements about Jews. It would seem that both issues will have a tendency to polarize opinion along racial lines and cause a retrograde movement away from tolerance. I am also concerned that the crucifixion of Mark Furhman masked a real issue. There is no doubt that Furhman's language was loaded with the catchwords of racism and intolerance. But the question that nags at me is this: Was he speaking a sort of truth with respect to the levels of barbarism *he* encountered when dealing with a specific race? This is a touchy subject and I am trying to approach it with a great deal of delicacy, but just what are the crime statistics in Los Angeles? Is there a correlation between race and criminal charges? Here in the frozen tundra we are far too politically correct to even keep such statistics. I am trying to frame this in the perspective that a law enforcement officer must face on a daily basis. Undoubtedly, there is an animus which must develop between the police and various races who feel that they are more likely to be stopped and questioned than the persons of lesser colour. But are they being victimized by the police FidoNews 12-43 Page: 5 23 Oct 1995 or is the real problem the activities of their brethren which creates the profile? I must have missed the CNN coverage of whites running amok and rioting after the OJ verdict was announced. My problem with this issue isn't one of whether even asking the questions is racist; but rather with the common misconception that irresponsibility is acceptable in our society. Criminals are no longer criminal, it seems, when they can assert that they were only charged by virtue of their economic status, their education or their race. Criminals, in a strange perversion of meaning, become victims... claiming absolution because "society" has made them downtrodden. As to Farrikan, I would dearly love to know who constitutes his constituency. Surely his views would be embraced by every poor white trash whose cross-burning adventures were diminished by the American Civil Liberties Union. Does Farrikan think the ACLU was founded by Baptists? Does he think it was Catholic missionaries who went into the south and employed the power of the law to franchise black voters? On local matters, Region 12 continues to bubble with the stew of infantile behaviour. A new legion of geographic imperialists have set out on a crusade to demand that *their* nodes confirm to the rules of strict topographical nicety. I haven't quite sorted out which faction is claiming the rights of conquest and to be truthful, my eyes have started to glaze over whenever I read endless arguments about the scriptural purity of Peefour. What amazes me the most is that none of the combatants ever seem to notice that they are battling over *ownership* of something they cannot own... which is the right of an individual sysop to make choices. The same collection of mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers continually bollox up the flow of mail in their vainglorious attempts to exert control. Most of these morons don't read or write messages other than their grapeshot expended over PeeFour inanities. As a good and decent gesture, Visage, these people should all be sent to The Dallas Hinton Home for Cloacally Impaired Sysops. This is turning into a rather longish epistle and I do hope I am not keeping you from your Glenlivet, but there is one last issue which has confounded me. I see, each day, and in numerous appearances, the words: "No Fear." I understand that it is the marketing slogan for a company that sells thirty five cents worth of rubber and plastic to gullible folks who pay hundreds for silly footwear, but it has also taken on a larger meaning as a kind of anthem for a generation. I'm a little long in the tooth and can't tell exactly which generation it is... perhaps the GenXers. I can predict the appearance of the "No Fear" slogan with uncanny success. Whenever I hear the heavy thumping of a car FidoNews 12-43 Page: 6 23 Oct 1995 stereo that sounds like an elephant's heart on Amyls, I know that soon I will be confronted by a small car driven by a young male wearing a backwards baseball cap... and the car will be emblazoned with "No Fear." What the hell do they mean: "No Fear." Gawd, I come from a generation who practiced hiding under the school desks in case Kennedy and Kruschev's games of bluff poker got out of hand and they unleashed a few megatons of nuclear bombs at each other. Fear? Hell, when that nuclear air raid siren went off and we were cowering under our desks I promised to marry Ruthie MacGregor... and if you'd ever met Ruthie, you'd know just how hysterically terrified you'd have to be to make *that* kinda promise. So what kind of fear don't they have that causes them to loudly proclaim their deficiency? I mean, are they crazy? They don't and won't have jobs, they need to wear a suit of rubber just to have sex, their whole generation was feel-gooded through a placebo for an education, and the social safety nets have gotten mean spirited and ugly. Their mommas are going to be doing their laundry til hell freezes over or until they finally get turfed out of the house. Is "No Fear" really an ironic way of stating exactly the opposite? I need to know this Visage, because if they really and truly have no fear, then it can only mean one thing: It means that the street pharmaceuticals have gotten a helluva lot better since the 60s and we need to look into this, for purely scientific purposes of course. I could write all night Visage, but your secretary has become unreasonable again. She claims that your absence has caused severe stress in her working environment and this has really nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I have thoughtfully saved on carpet cleaning expenses by using a few well-placed charges of napalm. As the civilized and humane people that we are, we ought to lock her in a vault with three thousand BARDROOM echo messages ... messages that make Spam comparatively appetizing. Regards, Doc Logger, Furlang Giant Clam Symphonic Orchestra, Furlang Island, South Pacific ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gentlemen From:The Terminator (1:2805/1) Please instruct Bob Satti to restore 1:14/609 and 1:2805/1 to the FidoNet nodelist. On Wednesday, 16 August 1995 at 01:08 CDT, I appealed a decision made by Will Wright, Network FidoNews 12-43 Page: 7 23 Oct 1995 Coordinator of 1:2805, to Tim Pearson, Regional Coordinator of 1:14 (see attached documents). Policy 4.07 clearly states: 9.7 Right to a Speedy Decision A coordinator is required to render a final decision and notify the parties involved within 30 days of the receipt of the complaint or appeal. I made repeated attempts to contact Pearson, all to no avail. After 30 days I appealed to Satti. The appeal was dated Saturday, 16 September 1995 at 16:35 CDT. Thirty days have now passed with absolutely no word from Satti. More than sixty days have passed since Pearson received my first appeal. This is inexcusable. Since there is no International Coordinator, I am appealing directly to the Zone Coordination Council. It is interesting to note that Satti has replaced Regional Coordinators in Zone 1 for denying nodes a level of appeal. Since there is no IC, I have been denied THREE levels of appeal. It would certainly be appropriate to remove Satti from his position for denying multiple levels of appeal. Sincerely yours, Brent R. Hamm, 1:2805/1 Network Echo Coordinator (67) Sat 16 Sep 95 16:35 By: The Terminator To: Bob Satti, Basic'ly Manager (1:153/6) Re: C:\FDX\PC\PC.ARJ St: Pvt File Local Kill Direct @MSGID: 1:2805/1@fidonet 81909189 @PID: FM 2.12.SW UNREG @FLAGS DIR * Original to: Bob Satti (1:153/6) cc: Tim Pearson Dear Mr. Satti: Please instruct Tim Pearson to restore 1:14/609 and 1:2805/1 to the FidoNet NODELIST. On Wednesday, 16 August 1995 at 01:08 CDT, I appealed a decision made by Will Wright (supporting documents are attached). Policy 4.07 clearly states: 9.7 Right to a Speedy Decision A coordinator is required to render a final decision and notify the parties involved within 30 days of the receipt of the complaint or appeal. I have repeatedly attempted to contact Mr. Pearson by routed FidoNews 12-43 Page: 8 23 Oct 1995 netmail, direct netmail, InterNet e-mail and by voicemail. I have provided him with my voice number and with my toll-free 800 number. I even asked the NEC of Net 284 to contact him on my behalf. I have received no communication from Mr. Pearson whatsoever. Since 30 days have passed without Mr. Pearson making a decision, I should be immediately returned to the FidoNet NODELIST. Additionally, you may consider this an appeal of any unrevealed decisions that have been rendered against me. Finally, I would like to remind you that if you should choose to ignore Policy 4.07, I would be unable to appeal your decision because there is no FidoNet International Coordinator. Respectfully yours, Brent R. Hamm, 1:2805/1 Network Echo Coordinator (116) Wed 16 Aug 95 1:08 By: Brent Hamm To: Tim Pearson, LANStar (1:286/703) Re: Are we having fun yet? St: Pvt Hold Local Kill @MSGID: 1:2805/1@fidonet 72011f4b @PID: FM 2.12.SW UNREG * Original to: Tim Pearson (1:286/703) cc: Bob Satti (1:153/6), Jason Steck, Will Wright Dear Mr. Pearson: This is an appeal of a decision made by Will Wright, NC of 2805, on 13 August 1995. Mr. Wright's decision was made without hearing my side of the story and with no investigation whatsoever. I shall address the policy complaint by Jason Steck first. Mr. Steck claims that "It involves the public cross-posting of of private netmail, a probable violation of FidoNet policy regarding in-transit mail." This is ludicrous. The messages in question were not "in-transit." I sincerely doubt if anyone in Region 17 would ever route netmail through Moberly. Mr. Steck then goes on to state, "But in these two cross-posts from netmail, Mr. Hamm publicly publishes Dallas Hinton's unlisted phone number in an attempt to provoke harassment against him via the telephone syhstem (this I am fairly certain is a crime) and then proceeds to publicly publish dates when Dallas Hinton will be out of town in a clear attempt to FidoNews 12-43 Page: 9 23 Oct 1995 facilitate burglary or other crimes against Dallas Hinton." In the first sentence, Mr. Steck again claims that the messages are cross-posts of "netmail" without providing any corroborating evidence that the messages are indeed "netmail." Admittedly, I do not know the origin of the messages in question. They mysteriously appeared in my inbound. I naturally assumed that they were echomail messages. In any event, I don't even know if information contained within them is true. Neither does Mr. Steck. Neither does Mr. Wright. Mr. Steck then goes on to assign various motivations to the cross-postings, again without producing any corroborating evidence. If you examine the messages, you can clearly see that I didn't add anything to them. Had Mr. Steck contacted me as required by Section 9.1, I would have gladly told him why the messages were cross-posted. Bob Satti, Zone 1 Coordinator, had appointed Dallas Hinton, a node in Region 17, as interim Regional Coordinator of Region 13. When I discovered that the first message contained both of their InterNet addresses as well as Mr. Hinton's phone number, I promptly posted them in as many echoes as I could find in order that the nodes in Region 13 who were upset over an out-of-region coordinator being appointed for them could reach Messrs. Satti and Hinton to express their concern. As for the second message, I believe that the members of Region 13 were entitled to know that their recently appointed RC had decided to go on vacation just as soon as he had been appointed. Mr. Steck's complaint should have been immediately dismissed because he did not follow the procedure set forth in Section 9.1 which clearly states: The first step in any dispute between sysops is for the sysops to attempt to communicate directly, at least by netmail, preferably by voice. Any complaint made that has skipped this basic step will be dismissed out of hand. Mr. Steck made no attempt to communicate. The complaint should have been dismissed. Section 9.1 further states, "Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed." Mr. Steck is too easily annoyed. Assuming that information contained within the messages is accurate, and none of us knows if it is, Mr. Steck is not the "aggrieved" party and cannot file a complaint. I find it interesting that Mr. Steck didn't seem to mind when Allen Taylor at 1:231/45 posted my voice number in FN_SYSOP even though my feed had been cut and I had no way to respond. Also, it is important to note that Steve Winter has been allowed to post unlisted voice numbers with impunity for well over a year. Why hasn't Mr. Steck chosen to file a complaint against him? Mr. Steck is too easily annoyed. His complaint should have been FidoNews 12-43 Page: 10 23 Oct 1995 dismissed. I shall now address Mr. Wright's decision. Mr. Wright's decision violated Section 9.1 which states, "Also, in any dispute both sides are examined, and action could be taken against either or both parties." Mr. Wright made his decision without examining my side. In fact, his decision was made before I had a chance to respond to Mr. Steck's complaint. Section 9.1 further states that, "Investigation and response to complaints requires time which coordinators would prefer to spend doing more constructive activities," which indicates that coordinators are required to investigate complaints. Mr. Wright performed no such investigation. Section 3.8 states that, "Decisions must be made on technical grounds." No technical grounds were given. Mr. Steck made no attempt to communicate and is too easily annoyed. His complaint should have been dismissed out of hand. The only portion of Policy 4.07 which Mr. Wright quoted was Section 2.1.6.1 which pertains only to "in-transit netmail." It has not been proven that the messages were netmail and the messages were clearly not "in-transit." Mr. Wright makes several references to opinions, warnings, requests, claims, and "netmail from other people." These are all immaterial. Complaints must be judged solely on the basis of Policy 4.07. Accordingly, Mr. Wright's decision should be reversed and he should be immediately removed as Network Coordinator of 2805 since he has clearly illustrated that he does not comprehend Policy 4.07. Respectfully yours, Brent R. Hamm, 1:2805/1 Network Echo Coordinator ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Furthuring the Win95 saga, From:Greg Moore(1:221/1202) You know they've done a brilliant marketing job when you go out and buy a product the day it comes out, find it has major bugs, but somehow you're still happy to have it. :-) Cheers, Greg FidoNews 12-43 Page: 11 23 Oct 1995 Scientology "church" at war with the world Fredric L. Rice The Skeptic Tank 1:102/890.0 (818) 335-9601 As most of you probably know, the "Church" of Scientology has been attacking Bulletin Board Systems and Internet users around the world trying to stiffle critics of their church. Though this isn't at all new, what _is_ new is the _number_ of attacks against critics in the past four months, the _type_ of facts critics are now presenting to the world, and the specifics of the _methodology_ the church has adopted of late to curb critics around the world from speaking out. The intimidation factor includes the vandalizing of people's cars (such as the Twenty / Twenty television crew's cars in their parking lot due to an exposure they televised) to the cutting of people's car's break lines to photographing critics, knocking on people's doors, and demanding to know "Who do you work for?!" (They're told that critics all work for some mysterious cabal of psychologists, strange as it may sound.) Their operatives' criminal histories also extend to evading arrest and avoiding process servers. David Miscavige, for instance, is wanted for impersonating an officer in the state of Florida and a reward is being offered for any process server who can locate him to serve him with a subponea (contact me for information on the reward.) For the past five years or so I've been accumulating all the information on the Scientology church I could find, deleting all of the church's secret "scriptures" from the huge mass of court documents, court affidavits, newspaper reports, television and radio interview transcripts, and FBI reports of the past criminal activities of the church's operatives. The list of files grows daily and I have made an effort to delete anything which isn't actually informative. Though the church has focused their attacks upon BBSs like mine for decades, their focus has been changed to the Internet and major magazine and newspaper publications like Time and The Washington Post which have been sued simply because the facts offered are embarrassing to the church. It is felt by the church that knowledge of their "religion," their "scriptures," and criminal activities of the past and present will and have adversely impacted upon their revenues by alerting potential "wogs" from signing-up for their very expensive courses or from taking their "free personality test" which results in all applicants who pass a "wallet biopsy" from being discovered to be infested with invisible "thetans," the cure of which demands hundreds of thousands of dollars to get and thus end up "clear." Thetans are the fragmented remains of beings which lived some 74 trillion years ago (to hell with cosmology and science, yes) who were once citizens of the Galactic Empire until Xenu shipped them FidoNews 12-43 Page: 12 23 Oct 1995 all off to Earth, chained them to a volcano (which is why there's a volcano on the book "Dianetics") which Xenu then blew to pieces with hydrogen bombs. The fragmented thetans attach themselves to humans these days and contribute to the negative "reactive mind" where only L. Ron Hubbard's "technology" can reach and "cure." If this sounds like a LSD-induced fantasy, that's because it is. Hubbard was a heavy drug user who eventually committed suicide as his paranoia and hallucinations intruded into his wakeful life. He claims to have created the United States Air Force and to have personally sunk two Japaneese submarines off the coast of Oregon. It was found that he lied; it was, it seems, further drug-induced hallucinations which eventually he considered real. "Scriptures" which contain this information (and a lot of other like-minded nonsense such as talking to plants and animals and controlling people's mind using "tone" -- it gets even more silly when Hubbard talks about spaceships that look like 747s) have been introduced into court documents as evidence in litigation launched by ex-scientologists. Since this information is public, it's been available on Internet for years. Due to the attacks on Internet Users and even their Service Providers, however, this information is available from hundreds of web pages all over the world, prompting the huge increase in criminal activities of the church which then results in even more Internet web pages being created and old ones being updated. (Such as a forged bomb threat by an as-yet-unknown Scientologist leveled at a vocal, sometimes rabid (and quite entertaining!) critic in alt.religion.scientology who called himself "henry." That cost henry his job, and Internet access and will doubtless drive him to sue the church for their criminal actions against him.) The church is trying to sue anyone who makes such court documents available, claiming that their "scriptures" are copywritten and not public (which is the only reason why I don't keep them.) The fact that anyone can go down to a court house and photocopy the documents for a fee of one dollar a page hasn't escaped the church. They have members stand in front of court buildings before they open and check-out the documents, sitting with them all day so no one else can read them or have them copied. (Most religions don't act like this, you know. They usually want to reach as many people as they can with their scriptures. Not the Church of Scientology, though. In fact, this is an abuse of the legal system that needs to be addressed with time limits or perhaps with a lottery if more than one person desires the court documents at a time.) Even though nearly every court case against critics finds in favor of the defendant and the church ends up paying huge amounts in monetary settlements, (some of which are over 2 million dollars) the church appears to learn nothing from their activites and, it is suggested by organized cult watchers, eventually the heads of the church will be "excommunicated" for mishandleing critics to the point where all revenues cease. (The church calls excommunicating their leaders "SUPPRESSIVE PERSON DECLARE AND FidoNews 12-43 Page: 13 23 Oct 1995 EXPULSION.") Until then, however, the church continues to attack individuals around cyberspace as well as within the media simply for offering the world Scientology's own words in full context. If you're interested in all the ugly details, a list of the files I've accumulated, examined, and retained so far may be FileRequested using the magic file name of COS from my system. In addition, my system has been archiving _all_ issues of the Computer Underground Digest and the following issues contain articles on the cult's attacks on people's freedom of speech. As the church continues to attack Internet and people's freedom of speech, no doubt the number of CuDs which cover the story will increase. CUD706.TXT EFF Open Letter to Church of Scientology CUD714.TXT The Finnish police have gotten a search&seizure warrant on my home and the anon.penet.fi server CUD721.TXT Religious Technology vs. Netcom-on-Line, Judge Ronald Whyte presiding -- 2/21/95 hearing at Federal Court in San Jose (10:00-11:00) CUD725.TXT Background on Church of Scientology and the Net CUD740.TXT Church of Scientology and the Nets Church of Scientology v. the Net (background) CUD753.TXT The Church of Scientology is vigorously litigating to force a bulletin-board operator to entirely prohibit all access to a COS critic CUD768.TXT The Church of Scientology. Perhaps modeling their behavior on that of America Online, the keepers of the flame of L. Ron Hubbard have forged cancellations of Internet messages they don't like, tried to remove an entire Usenet discussion group devoted to critical examination of Scientology, threatened operators of anonymous remailing services in order to discourage anonymous criticism of Scientology, instigated a raid on an anonymous remailing service in Finland, and sought to intimidate Scientology critic Dennis Elrlich, his Internet access provider, and Netcom by suing them on extremely dubious grounds of copyright violation. CUD769.TXT WASHINGTON POST SUED FOR VIOLATING SCIENTOLOGY COPYRIGHTS CUD770.TXT Church of Scientology Sues Washington Post CUD776.TXT Report on the September 15, 1995 hearing in the case of RTC v. Lerma; US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria, VA FidoNews 12-43 Page: 14 23 Oct 1995 CUD778.TXT Church of Scientology: Sit Back & Watch the Show: Reports of CoS' setbacks in its case against Lerma are swiftly making the rounds on the Net. At the risk of sounding overly melodramatic... The loss of freedom of expression and speech affects all of us in cyberspace, whether we're totally uninterested in the criminal actions of Scientologists or not. I can't imagine how a church or business can think that adopting nearly fascist tactics to try to curb a huge number of citizen's rights to free speech is in any way ethically or morally acceptable. Certainly the courts have overwhelmingly found that it's _not_ Constitutionally acceptable. The debate isn't about copywrites, anti-religious hate mongering, or even about the criminal activities of the church. It's about MONEY and the bilking of the ignorant, the gullible, and the superstitious. It's about the squelching of individual freedoms and Constitutional rights to speak out against tyranny and fraud. It's about opening one's mouth and denouncing pseudo-science and mind control. If you read a Scientologist trying to claim otherwise, let me leave you with an extract from one of their own training courses. Their mendacity is _learned_. This is an _extract_ from a "TR" -- a "Training Routine" which is a course that the Church of Scientology offers to those who are willing to pay the huge costs. It teaches how to lie successfully. Title: INTELLIGENCE SPECIALIST TRAINING ROUTINE - TR L Purpose: To train the student to give a false statement with good TR-1. To train the student to outflow false data effectively. Position: Same as TR-1. Commands: Part 1 "Tell me a lie". Command given by coach. Part 2 interview type 2 WC by coach. Training Stress: In Part 1 coach gives command, student originates a falsehood. Coach flunks for out TR 1 or TR 0. In Part 2 coach asks questions of the student on his background or a subject. Student gives untrue data of a plausible sort that the student backs up with further explanatory data upon the coach asking further questions. The coach flunks for out TR 0 and TR 1, and for student fumbling on question answers. The student should be coached on a gradient until he/she can lie facilely. The rest of the training has been deleted so that no possibility FidoNews 12-43 Page: 15 23 Oct 1995 of copywrite violation is possible under the provisions of "fair use." It goes on to provide an example of a student lying to a "coach" with the coach acting in a confrontational and aggressive manor. The student is required to appear truthful and not be caught in a contradiction. You can bet that any Scientologist you're likely to see on the television or quoted in a newspaper has been through the course and passed. They wouldn't let him or her speak otherwise. I encourage everyone to download the files from my system before there's a knock on my door and they try to shut me up like all the others. I also sggest that some of the WEB sites be reviewed for photographs of operatives -- some of whom are running from the law and might show up in your area. -=- For WEB pages covering the issues -=- Ron Newman: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/ scientology/home.html David Dennis: http://www.amazing.com/scientology/ Modemac: http://www.tiac.net/users/modemac/cos.html Jim Lippard: http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/pis.html Skeptic Magazine: http://www.skeptic.com/03.3.jl-jj- scientology.html EFF: http://www.eff.org/pub/Censorship/ CoS_v_the_Net/ Bob "Sloth" Bingham: http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/sci_index.html http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/organized.html Tilman Hausherr: http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/ Dave Touretzky: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/ Daniel Tobias: http://www.webcom.com/~dtobias/sosueme.html Jessie Blalock: http://www.clark.net/pub/jcblal/jcbcos.html Jerod Pore: http://www.well.com/user/jerod23/clam.html Martin L Poulter: http://mail.bris.ac.uk/~plmlp Jonas Flygare: http://www.algonet.se/~flax/scientology.html Scott Goehring: http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~sgoehrin/ scientology/ Discord: http://www.tezcat.com/~tina/scn-index.shtml Teodor Vaananen http://www.algonet.se/~teodor/cult/welcome. htm Steve A: http://www.demon.co.uk/castle/scientology. html Felipe (XS4ALL) http://www.xs4all.nl/~felipe/cos/ Sirilyan: http://www.io.com/~sirilyan/inwo/cos.html CNN: http://www.cnn.com/US/scientology/index.html Cornelius Krasel: http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/ CoS/ David C. Smith: http://starbase.neosoft.com/~dcs/scieno1. html Brett Achorn: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~achorn/cos/cos. html Mark Allen: http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~mallen/scam.html Steve Marinick: http://www.primenet.com/~stevem/scieno_java. html FidoNews 12-43 Page: 16 23 Oct 1995 Taneli Huuskonen: http://www.helsinki.fi/~huuskone/ot-levels. txt Bruce Scott: http://www.ipp-garching.mpg.de/~bds/COS/COS. html Samuel Kaplin: http://www.skypoint.com/members/skaplin Maureen Garde: http://superlink.net/user/mgarde/opinions. html Chaos: http://sunbird.sat.net/~lazarus/cos.html Don Lindsay: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~lindsay/ scientology/ Goofy: http://www.stack.urc.tue.nl/~goofy/Co$.html 50 Gt. Conspiracies: http://www.webcom.com/~conspire/ -=- BOOKS -=- 1. Cooper, Paulette--The Scandal Of Scientology [henry] http://nyx10.cs.du.edu:8001/~anon2c9e/ scandal.txt 2. Wakefield, Margery--The Road to Xenu [Steve A] http://www.demon.co.uk/castle/xenu.html -=- F.A.C.T. Net -=- New home: http://www.lightlink.com/factnet1/ FACTNET kit: http://www.prysm.com/~cuthulu/ (courtesy of cuthulu) FACTNET kit: http://www.xs4all.nl/~fonss (courtesy of fonss) FACTNET kit: http://www.cistron.nl/~newkid (courtesy of newkid) -=- LERMA CASE -=- Faegre & Benson: http://www.faegre.com -=- PRO-SCIENTOLOGY -=- Leisa Goodman: http://www.theta.com/goodman (semi-official Co$) Brian W: ftp://FTP.PCNET.COM/users/brianw (FTP) R E Brooks: http://www.crl.com:80/~rebrooks/ relighst.html -=- FISHMAN AFFIDAVIT -- There are over 50 sites for the Fishman affidavit because it contains the court documents which has the church's "scriptures." Two sites for the affidavit are: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/ClamBed.html FidoNews 12-43 Page: 17 23 Oct 1995 http://www.stack.urc.tue.nl/~goofy/Sneaky.FishDoc.html First of all ... Jeremy Guthrie First of all I would like to thank the editor for reposting a REVISED version of my letter. I am sorry for the first message. I was so frustrated I really didn't care how correct it came out so long as it came out quickly and with some form of point.(kind of like this last sentence 8) ) I will say I am surprised, I have gotten at least 50+ messages in regards to my posting. The unfortunate thing I will publicly state is that it has been copyrighted already. I have filed all of the appropriate papers to get the copyright. I do realize that doing this does hurt many people but I refuse to stand and sit while I'm being attacked. It was my strongest card I had left to play. It has tried served two purposes: 1) Make people realize that eventually, you'll step on a bug that makes a bigger splat than you can cover up. 2) Put some form of stygmatism on those in 238(not everyone in Net 238) who can't approach myself and show respect of some kind. I will still finish off the specifications but not under any form of schedule. I'm hoping I can achieve better results than 3.3m --->800K. If every thing does go well, I may release it later. Jeremy Guthrie jguthrie@coredcs.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Response to Mr Robert Hoerner by Fredrik Bennison 2:205/300, fredrik.bennison@rosebay.ct.se In FidoNews 1240, Mr Hoerner claims that the Policy addendum NC_ELECT was adopted in violation of Policy4. Mr Hoerner writes: "NC_ELECT describes some procedures about how to elect a network coordinator and claims to be an addition to policy 4. In policy 4 itself section 8, however, the way how to adopt any new policies is described. This was not the way this NC_ELECT has been adopted, not at all." I'd like to point out that P4 section 8 describes how a new version of FidoNet policy is ratified. NC_ELECT however is no new FidoNet Policy proposal, it is simply a Zone policy document as mentioned in section 1 of FidoNet Policy4. Robert Hoerner concludes his article by writing: FidoNews 12-43 Page: 18 23 Oct 1995 "I do not understand what this paper "NC_ELECT" has to do with democracy beyond the fact, that it has been "set in force" in a way, that could be described as: "democracy? democrazy!"." FidoNet Policy 4 does in no way describe how these local policy documents are ratified, the only restriction is that they must have the approval of the IC if they contradict FidoNet Policy 4. NC_ELECT _was_ democratically approved, a vote was held among all Region Coordinators in Zone 2 and a majority voted to accept the document. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar Tom Jennings "FidoNews" BBS FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS) more addresses: Don -- 1:221/192, don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Sylvia- 1:221/194, max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews 128 Church St. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 2S4 voice: (519) 570-3137 sylvia: (519) 579-8029 Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1995 Donald Tees. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use FidoNews 12-43 Page: 19 23 Oct 1995 in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the eds. OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above paper-mail address. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may freq GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message to fidofaq@gisatl.fidonet.org. No message or text or subject is necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch should now mail to fidonet@gisatl.fidonet.org rather than the previously listed address. SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it. "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission. ' ' disgreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or semethin to amuse ourselves,, and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings -- END -------------------------------------------------------------------