Editing Scientology and the Internet (section)

== alt.religion.scientology ==
Scott Goehring set up the [[newsgroup]] ''[[alt.religion.scientology]]'' in 1991, partly as a joke, partly for the purpose of informing the public about Scientology.<ref name="Net.Wars"/> Debate over the pros and cons of Scientology waxed and waned on the newsgroup through the first three years of its existence, and [[Flaming (Internet)|flame wars]] flared up commonly, as they did on some other newsgroups.{{r|alt.scientology.war}}

The online battle is generally regarded as having begun with the arrival of [[Dennis Erlich]] to ''alt.religion.scientology'' in late July 1994. A former high-ranking official in the Scientology organization who had been personally affiliated with L. Ron Hubbard, he caused a number of regular participants in the newsgroup to sit up and take notice.<ref name="Net.Wars"/>{{Rp|4, 6}}{{r|alt.scientology.war}}

=== The Xenu revelation ===
On December 24, 1994, the first of a large number of anonymous messages was posted to ''alt.religion.scientology'', containing the text of the "secret" writings of Scientology known as the ''[[Operating Thetan|OT Levels]]'' (OT stands for "Operating Thetan"). Included among these postings was [[Xenu|OT III]] (''Operating Thetan Level Three''), which gave L. Ron Hubbard's description of the "[[Xenu]] story". 

The Xenu story had been published in the Robert Kaufman book ''[[Inside Scientology: How I Joined Scientology and Became Superhuman]]'' in 1972, in ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'' in 1977, and several times in the 1980s in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'';<ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/msg/d24819df480c74bb?hl=en&dmode=source The Un-Funny Truth about ARS] alt.religion.scientology, 3 September 2010</ref> nevertheless, this action brought on the actions of lawyers representing Scientology, who contacted various newsgroup participants and posted warnings demanding that the unauthorized distribution of the OT writings cease. The lawyers described the documents as "copyrighted, [[trademark]]ed, unpublished trade secrets", and the distribution of the materials as a violation of [[copyright law]] and [[trademark law]].<ref>{{cite web | first = Alan | last = Prendergast | title = Hunting rabbits, serving spam: The net under siege | url = https://www.westword.com/news/hunting-rabbits-serving-spam-the-net-under-siege-5055579 | work = [[Westword|Denver Westword]] | publisher = [[Village Voice Media]] | date = 1995-10-04 | access-date = 2008-03-08 }}</ref>

The first postings of the ''OT'' documents were done through an [[anonymous remailer]], and the identity of the person who made them available on the newsgroup was never discovered.  However, Dennis Erlich posted replies to these messages on the newsgroup, and his replies contained the entire text of the original messages (including the disputed materials).  Scientology's lawyers therefore approached him, declaring that Erlich had re-published the copyrighted works in his newsgroup messages.  Erlich's reply to this was to deny their requests to remove his postings from the newsgroup.

=== Attempt to remove ''alt.religion.scientology'' ===
On January 11, 1995, Scientology lawyer [[Helena Kobrin]] attempted to shut down the [[Usenet]] [[newsgroup|discussion group]] ''alt.religion.scientology'' by sending a control message instructing Usenet servers to delete the group on the grounds that:

<blockquote>(1) It was started with a forged message; (2) not discussed on [[Control message|alt.config]]; (3) it has the name "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion; (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning these illegal practices.<ref name="Net.Wars">{{cite book | last = Grossman | first = Wendy | title = Net.Wars | url = https://archive.org/details/netwars00gros/page/77 | access-date = 2006-06-11 | publisher = New York University Press | location = New York | isbn = 0-8147-3103-1 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/netwars00gros/page/77 77–78] | chapter = Copyright Terrorists | chapter-url = http://www.nyupress.org/netwars/textonly/pages/chapter06/ch06_.html | date = October 1997 | url-access = registration }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/usenet/rmgroup |title=Rmgroup message from Helena K. Kobrin |date=11 January 1995|access-date=2005-09-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050824091341/http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/usenet/rmgroup |archive-date=2005-08-24 }}</ref></blockquote>

In practice, this [[rmgroup message]] had little effect,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/usenet/rmgroup.html |title=The Church of Scientology tries to shut down alt.religion.scientology |access-date=2016-02-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120172417/http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/usenet/rmgroup.html |archive-date=2008-01-20 }}</ref> since most Usenet servers are configured to disregard such messages when applied to groups that receive substantial traffic, and [[newgroup message]]s were quickly issued for those servers that did not do so. However, the issuance of the message resulted in increased public criticism of Scientology by [[free-speech]] advocates.