A long-simmering dispute over digital copyrights between the Church of Scientology and its critics has boiled over in recent weeks after video clips turned up on the Internet from a 2004 interview by the church’s most famous member, actor Tom Cruise.
When Scientology officials complained the clips were copyrighted and requested their removal from YouTube and other websites, a shadowy organization of online troublemakers sprang into action.
The group known as “Anonymous” posted an eerie video on the Internet featuring a computer-generated voice announcing a campaign to destroy the church and calling for worldwide protests Feb. 10.
It was all for laughs, said a member who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But things are now getting serious. A series of cyber attacks the group claimed responsibility for slowed access to church websites and apparently shut down the main one, www.scientology.org, one day last month.
As of Friday, suspicious white powder was mailed to 23 church locations in Southern California, forcing 60 people to be cleared from buildings in Tustin and causing police to close part of busy Brand Boulevard in Glendale for two hours. Preliminary tests by the LAPD determined the powder was cornstarch and wheat germ.
While I’m happy to see Scientology exposed for the brainwashing it is, what the perpetrators of these attacks are doing is very wrong and will ultimately prove counter productive. At the very least they risk Scientologists winning sympathy from the wider community.
Don’t fight evil with evil but fight evil with good.
As I mentioned in a comment on an earlier and related post, illegal forms of protest can not be condoned. Beyond that however, while I think everyone in this country has a right to be a fool if they wish, others have an equal right to point out that they are fools.
Scientology is one of the greatest frauds in history. I salute all those who (by legal means) seek to expose this massive scam for what it is.