I don't think it's been banned yet either - I found this recent article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7133867.stm
FEB 10TH: Day of action against Scientology
- Thread starter Alpine Trooper
- Start date
Shadylookin
master debater
i'm not against the protests you should be able to protest whatever you want no matter how asinine I'm against the hacking
Ball Lightning
www.sporedum.net
I think Scientology is stupid and now a Anonymous group on YouTube has named the 10th of Feb an international day of protest against Scientology.
Link
Anonymous internet users who have previously crashed Church of Scientology websites have named February 10 as a worldwide day of protest in a bid to "destroy" the controversial religion.
The group - called Anonymous - which includes skilled computer hackers, has posted a message on YouTube declaring war on Scientology, accusing it of trying to censor the internet and conducting "campaigns of misinformation".
The apparent catalyst for the attack was YouTube's decision to remove a video of Hollywood star Tom Cruise - one of Scientology's most high-profile recruits - espousing the religion's virtues after the church asked that it be pulled.
"Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed, for the good of your followers, for the good of mankind, and for our own enjoyment," the statement says.
"We shall proceed to expel you from the internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form," it continues.
The message, read by a computerised voice and set against a grey cityscape, finishes with the ominous statement: "We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
Last week several major Scientology websites crashed in the United States and Britain. The FBI was asked to investigate after envelopes of white powder were sent to 19 Scientology churches in the Los Angeles area.
While Scientology websites now appear to be functioning normally, Anonymous, which has warned "that it does not expect its campaign to be completed in a short time frame", may yet be saving its largest attack for February 10.
New videos claiming to be from Anonymous have been posted on YouTube, naming February 10 as an international day of protest against Scientology.
Named Project Chanology, the protests are being organised through Facebook groups and online chat rooms, with official Scientology websites and even its buildings being touted as targets.
Protests are organised for cities including Sydney, New York, Los Angles, London, Vancouver and Stockholm.
A former hacker turned security analyst for government departments and large companies told The Age Anonymous was not an organised group of hackers, but a mass of people - probably young men - joining message board groups and targeting organisations they saw as impeding free speech and expression.
"They are anonymous message boards, which means they can post anything without fear of reprisal," the analyst, who asked not to be named, said.
"They'll do something like all join a Ku Klux Klan website at once and stuff it up."
Given nature of the organisation, the action planed for February 10 could involve just "a few kids in glasses showing up and asking stupid questions" - or "really radical elements".
"You can't pin it on a person or a group of people. You've thousands of people engaged to do anything they can against Scientology.
"But what you may well get is the Church of Scientology using this to encourage authorities to go after the concept of anonymity on the internet."
A spokeswoman for Scientology in Australia said authorities were dealing with the threats.
The spokeswoman said the church wanted the Tom Cruise video removed from YouTube because it was a pirated version of footage that Scientology held copyright over.
"The pirated and edited excerpts of Mr Cruise were contained in an official church event in 2004, an event attended by 5,000 Scientologists and their guests.
"Having presented these selective and out-of-context excerpts with the intent of creating both controversy and ridicule, nevertheless resulted in people searching for and visiting Church of Scientology websites.
"Those wishing to find out the Church of Scientology's views and to gain context of the video have the right to search official church websites if they so desire."
YouTube LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
Link
Anonymous internet users who have previously crashed Church of Scientology websites have named February 10 as a worldwide day of protest in a bid to "destroy" the controversial religion.
The group - called Anonymous - which includes skilled computer hackers, has posted a message on YouTube declaring war on Scientology, accusing it of trying to censor the internet and conducting "campaigns of misinformation".
The apparent catalyst for the attack was YouTube's decision to remove a video of Hollywood star Tom Cruise - one of Scientology's most high-profile recruits - espousing the religion's virtues after the church asked that it be pulled.
"Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed, for the good of your followers, for the good of mankind, and for our own enjoyment," the statement says.
"We shall proceed to expel you from the internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form," it continues.
The message, read by a computerised voice and set against a grey cityscape, finishes with the ominous statement: "We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
Last week several major Scientology websites crashed in the United States and Britain. The FBI was asked to investigate after envelopes of white powder were sent to 19 Scientology churches in the Los Angeles area.
While Scientology websites now appear to be functioning normally, Anonymous, which has warned "that it does not expect its campaign to be completed in a short time frame", may yet be saving its largest attack for February 10.
New videos claiming to be from Anonymous have been posted on YouTube, naming February 10 as an international day of protest against Scientology.
Named Project Chanology, the protests are being organised through Facebook groups and online chat rooms, with official Scientology websites and even its buildings being touted as targets.
Protests are organised for cities including Sydney, New York, Los Angles, London, Vancouver and Stockholm.
A former hacker turned security analyst for government departments and large companies told The Age Anonymous was not an organised group of hackers, but a mass of people - probably young men - joining message board groups and targeting organisations they saw as impeding free speech and expression.
"They are anonymous message boards, which means they can post anything without fear of reprisal," the analyst, who asked not to be named, said.
"They'll do something like all join a Ku Klux Klan website at once and stuff it up."
Given nature of the organisation, the action planed for February 10 could involve just "a few kids in glasses showing up and asking stupid questions" - or "really radical elements".
"You can't pin it on a person or a group of people. You've thousands of people engaged to do anything they can against Scientology.
"But what you may well get is the Church of Scientology using this to encourage authorities to go after the concept of anonymity on the internet."
A spokeswoman for Scientology in Australia said authorities were dealing with the threats.
The spokeswoman said the church wanted the Tom Cruise video removed from YouTube because it was a pirated version of footage that Scientology held copyright over.
"The pirated and edited excerpts of Mr Cruise were contained in an official church event in 2004, an event attended by 5,000 Scientologists and their guests.
"Having presented these selective and out-of-context excerpts with the intent of creating both controversy and ridicule, nevertheless resulted in people searching for and visiting Church of Scientology websites.
"Those wishing to find out the Church of Scientology's views and to gain context of the video have the right to search official church websites if they so desire."
YouTube LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
philippe
FYI, I chase trains.
dupe thread in ot.
nivi
Call me Ishmael
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
Oh yeah I'm told there were 60-90 people at the Sydney one.
GoodEnoughForMe
n.m.s.s.
Local News is Aus.
I thought it would be a complete phail but apprently some protests look reasonably well prepared.
I thought it would be a complete phail but apprently some protests look reasonably well prepared.
Erik Mesoy
Core Tester / Intern
GoodEnoughForMe
n.m.s.s.
Apparently Boston had a couple hundred and so did New York. Their saying London may have had as many as 300-400 show up.
I'm not sure if this is intended as a joke, or what, but see http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=939&Focus=21095 , http://www.flickr.com/photos/victan/sets/72157603883434477/ and http://www.news.com.au/technology/gallery/0,23607,5029503-5007151,00.html for some more pics. Rather amusingly (or sadly), news.com.au had to blur out one of the billboards for fear of legal threats - the sign said "CULT" (it was on their front page, but the pic's not there anymore).
(And I note there are few if any "fat spotty geeks" as claimed earlier. Quite a few girls too - probably more of a proportion than on this forum...)
Whatever their numbers, it's still achieved some mainstream media coverage, and it's more numbers protesting against scientology (it's not like protests against scientology are anything new, they just haven't received the media coverage before).
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
Please. Protesters in general are as loony as the thing they're protesting. The anti-war protests I saw in Seattle in 2003? WHEW WEE every nut job had crawled out of the woodwork!
In what way?
From what I've seen in the mainstream media so far, being "nerds" doesn't seem to be an issue - plus if anything, I'd say it's more likely for them to be brushed off as not a real threat. (It's only here that them being "nerds" is drawing such criticism, which as I say I find rather odd given the rather nerdish nature of this site.)
The bigger issue is the association with "hackers", which of course isn't helped by the DoS attacks. I also fear that the CoS will play the "hatred against religion" sympathy card, as it's all too easy for people to hide behind religion. (All the more reason to emphasis why they are a cult, and different to other religions.)
Aramazd
Deity
Why is this in the Sci/Tech forum?
Emperor2
Capitalist Missionary
Oh, boy, you done it now! Xenu gona get you!
Just kidding, I'm not a scientologist, although I don't really have anything against it.
Just kidding, I'm not a scientologist, although I don't really have anything against it.
