Subject: anniversary note
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science
From: dst@cs.cmu.edu (Dave Touretzky)
Message-ID: <3f2bf9f2$1@news2.lightlink.com>
Date: 2 Aug 2003 13:50:42 -0400

Eight yaers ago today, in Arlington, VA, Arnie Lerma posted the Fishman Declaration to an obscure Internet newsgroup called alt.religion.scientology. Arnie wrote something to the effect of "you'd better download this fast; the Scientologists will cancel my post in a few hours."

Three hundred miles away, in Pittsburgh, PA, an obscure computer scientist had just begun to read alt.religion.scientology. He read Arnie's post, and decided to turn the Fishman Declaration into a web page at Carnegie Mellon University, just to see what would happen.

The very first announcement of the "Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz" page is reproduced below:

    Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!news.moneng.me
    i.com!news.ecn.bgu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.

    com!news.sprintlink.net!cs.utexas.edu!convex!news.duke.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!simte
    l!lll-winken.llnl.gov!noc.near.net!das-news2.harvard.edu!casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu!d
    st
    From: dst+@DST.BOLTZ.CS.CMU.EDU (Dave Touretzky)
    Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
    Subject: Fishman web site
    Date: 3 Aug 1995 04:49:43 GMT
    Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, School of Computer Science
    Lines: 6
    Message-ID: <3vpkh7$e7u@casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu>

    NNTP-Posting-Host: dst.boltz.cs.cmu.edu
    Originator: dst@DST.BOLTZ.CS.CMU.EDU

    Here is a web site for the "Church of Scientology International vs. Fishman
    and Geertz" court filings.  Everything is nicely broken down into separate
    exhibits.

       http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/

All hell broke loose. Scientology cancelled the posting, and then faxed, phoned, and FedExed officials at Carnegie Mellon, demanding that the OT1 through OT7 documents contained on the web page be taken down. Meanwhile, any ARS posting that merely quoted the URL for the web page was also being cancelled. People were putting the URL in their sig files, and all their posts were hit with forged cancel messages. Other people downloaded the site, realizing that mirrors would be necessary.

What a long, strange trip it's been! Over the years, I've made some wonderful friends in the critic community. I've also seen some terrible things happen to good people. Scientology looks rather different now than it did in 1995. Lawsuits are less common. Xenu has become a household word. You never hear Scientology lawyers talk about "trade secrets" anymore. The Web has amassed a HUGE collection of material documenting Scientology's and L. Ron Hubbard's sordid histories, and ripping the mystery from "the tech". Every Internet-savvy person knows that Scientology is the enemey of free speech. And every anti-Scientology book ever published is now available online.

I can't imagine what the next eight years will hold. That's part of the appeal of being a critic. The battle with our favorite cult is truly the longest running, widest ranging real-life soap opera ever.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

If you'd like to read Helena Kobrin's very first legal threat to me (the first of dozens over the years), you can find it here:

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/kobrin.html

Thanks for the memories, Helena. We haven't given up on you. Keep in touch, and remember: it's never too late to blow.