Will this be a new Google foot bullet for the cult? Help spread the word and assist convincing the people at The Wayback Machine to reconcider.

-------------------------------------------------------- To: XXXXX <XXXXX@archive.org>

Subject: Re: Blocked Site Error www.xenu.net
Cc: ahl@xenu.net, info@archive.org, wayback@archive.org

To Archive Support at the Wayback Machine,

Many people are very eager to learn what sites the Cult of Scientology managed to trick you into removing from the Wayback Machine. Please try to get and send me this list and if possible the actual request from the cult so that we know on what grounds sites are picked out or removed from the Wayback Machine. It is valuable to know what is censored from your service.

Secondly, I do not like that it says on your site that my sites are removed based on a request from me. This is not true and I don't want you to spread that rumor.

Please remove that claim immediately and reconsider the false request from the "Church" of Scientology.

I would also suggest, for your own protection, that you change your routines when third parties request you remove sites from your service. Consider informing the owner of the site in question so that they are aware of the accusations made against them or their site.

I urge you to update yourselves on the controversy surrounding this cult and their repeated attempts to monitor and silence all criticism on the Internet. Please read some of the following links to avoid the Wayback Machine also being dragged into a negative media frenzy like Google did:

AP: Legal protection turns service providers into speech police http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49699,00.html LAW.COM: The Google Way http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1023826492846 INFOANARCHY: Google Does the Right Thing (Finally) http://www.infoanarchy.org/story/2002/4/13/1258/31858 BBC: Scientology Church fights Google http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1949879.stm SLASHDOT: Google vs. DMCA and Scientology http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/22/130223.shtml?tid=153 LINUX JOURNAL: Google Begins Making DMCA Takedowns Public http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5997 WIRED: Google Yanks Anti-Church Sites http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51233,00.html TECH CENTRAL STATION: Whacking Google

http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-040402B SCEPTIC.COM: SCIENTOLOGY v. the INTERNET http://www.skeptic.com/03.3.jl-jj-scientology.html QUILL: Scientology from inside out (1993) http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/young-quill.html THESIS: Hubbard's policy and practice in media and public relations http://www.xenu.net/archive/thesis/cisar-home.html TIME MAGAZINE: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (1991) http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/time910605.html

Quotes from Herald Tribune:

"With its Chilling Effects partnership, Google is subtly making the point that the right to link is important to its business and to the health of the Web, said David Post, a law professor at Temple University who specializes in Internet issues.

"This is an example where copyright law is being used in conflict with free connectivity and free expression on the Net," he said. Post said Google's situation highlighted the need for more awareness of copyright issues, including pending legislation that is more restrictive than the 1998 law. The copyright controversy has had an interesting side effect for Operation Clambake. The Google software judges the importance of a page in part by looking at how many other pages link to it. Scientology's complaint set off a flurry of linking to the critics' site, pushing it up two spots to No.

2 in the search results for "Scientology" - just below the church's official site."

Quotes from Mercury News:

"The notice and takedown provision is ripe for abuse," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a University of Wisconsin professor critical of modern copyright laws. "It gives the accused no real due process."

"Andreas Heldal-Lund, who runs the Scientology criticism site in question, says the effect is to strip the Internet of its value as a democratic medium where the strong and the meek can be equally heard."

"Search engines and links provide information in context; they enhance the Internet's richness of ideas. As such, they warrant full free-speech protections.

"But a tussle between the Church of Scientology and Google has exposed a First Amendment vulnerability. A poorly worded copyright-protection law is putting dissent and speech on the Internet at some risk."

Quote from The New York Times:

"The site in question, Operation Clambake (www.xenu.net), is based in Norway, beyond the reach of the United States copyright act. The site portrays the church as a greedy cult that exploits its members and harasses critics. Andreas Heldal-Lund, the site's owner, says the posting of church materials, including some internal documents and pictures of church leaders, is allowable under the "fair use" provisions of internationally recognized copyright law.

"When Google responded to the church's complaint by removing the links to the Scientology material, techies and free-speech advocates accused Google of censoring its search results. Google also briefly removed the link to Operation Clambake's home page but soon restored it, saying the removal had been a mistake."

Quote from Financial Times (April 2 2002):

"Finally this week, apart from charging for Internet surfing there is a nasty trend developing out there as far as what links you can include on your web pages. The large search engine Google recently removed a web site from the World Wide Web that was critical of the Church of Scientology.

"We can thank the US for this. Their draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is effectively being imposed on the whole planet and slowing eroding the premise that the WWW is a free global resource. Ironically the DMCA is also attacking what is supposedly one of the US's fundamental freedoms _ free speech and freedom of expression."

A lot more on the press coverage here: http://www.xenu.net/news/

---

I know Internet history and free speech are important to you and that is why I believe it is very important that your service is not being suspected of only being a censored version of the 'net. That was the trap Google almost fell into and it generated a lot of bad publicity for them. They solved this in a very smart way and I hope you at least consider doing something similar.

I await your urgent and positive reply.

Best wishes, Andreas Heldal-Lund # home.online.no/~heldal # www.xenu.net --------------------------------------------------------------- Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

-------------------------------------------[Haile Selassie]----

At 22:40 11.09.02, you wrote:

>hello,
>
>i have no news, but i can tell you that scientology contacted us at one time
>and that we excluded a number of sites at their request. i don't have access
>to this list, but your sites may have been excluded in that batch.
>
>archive support
>
>
>
>> From: "Andreas Heldal-Lund - www.xenu.net" <heldal@online.no>
>> Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 13:29:26 +0200
>> To: XXXXXXXXXX <XXXXXXXXx@archive.org>
>> Cc: wayback@archive.org
>> Subject: Re: Blocked Site Error www.xenu.net
>>
>> Hi XXXXXXX,
>>
>> I have still not heard back from you on this issue and my
>> site www.xenu.net is still totally removed from the Wayback
>> Machine. The same is happening to some pages under
>> www.entheta.net and www.entheta.org which I also run.
>>
>> I would really appreciate a reply from you on this since I
>> suspect that my sites being removed from archive.org might
>> be based on false requests from the cult og Scientology. They
>> have been trying every trick and scam to remove critics from
>> the internet and especially my sites.
>>
>> You are of course not obliged to save the history of my sites,
>> and I am in no position to request that you do. I still hope
>> you will consider the importanse of the fight against
>> Scientology as part of protecting free speech on Internet as
>> an important part of the history of the 'net and therefore
>> worthy of archiving. Anyway, I have an interest in finding
>> out if somone falsly has acted as me and requested my sites
>> removed, as it is claimed on your site.
>>
>> I repeate that I have, contratory to the claim on archive.org,
>> never requested that you remove any of the sites I run from
>> your server.
>>
>> Please reply and please keep up your important service.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Andreas Heldal-Lund # home.online.no/~heldal # www.xenu.net
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>> Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could
>> have acted, the indifference of those who should have known
>> better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered
>> most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
>> -------------------------------------------[Haile Selassie]----
>>
>> At 18:47 14.06.02, you wrote:
>>> hello,
>>>
>>> we'll look into this for you,
>>>
>>> archive support
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I am the site owner of http://www.xenu.net/ and was just now
>>>> made aware that the site is no longer on the Wayback Machine.
>>>> Your service is great and important, so I am obviousely
>>>> dissapointed. Therefore, big was my surprise when you display
>>>> the following error message:
>>>>
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Blocked Site Error.
>>>>
>>>> Per the request of the site owner, http://www.xenu.net/ is no
>>>> longer available in the Wayback Machine. Try another request
>>>> or click here to see if the page is available, live, on the
>>>> Web.
>>>> http://www.xenu.net/
>>>> See the FAQs for more info and help, or contact us.
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> There must be an error, since I am and have always been the
>>>> site owner and developer. And I have never requested that you
>>>> remove my site.
>>>>
>>>> Please let me know if this is caused by a misunderstanding and
>>>> when and if you will restore it.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for your great work.
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes,
>>>> Andreas Heldal-Lund, Postboks 131, N-4098 Tananger, Norway
>>>> Pho: +47 88 00 66 66 Fax: 90 32 35 46 E-mail: ahl@xenu.net
>>>> home.online.no/~heldal www.xenu.net www.hedning.no/hedning
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> "Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could
>>>> have acted, the indifference of those who should have known
>>>> better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered
>>>> most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
>>>> - Haile Selassie
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------

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