Editing Scientology and the Internet (section)

== Raids and lawsuits ==
Shortly after the initial legal announcements and ''rmgroup'' attempt, representatives of Scientology followed through with a series of [[lawsuit]]s against various participants on the newsgroup, including Dennis Erlich, in ''[[Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc.]]''

The first raid took place on February 13, 1995.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.spaink.net/cos/rnewman/erlich/home.html|title=The Church of Scientology vs. Dennis Erlich, Tom Klemesrud & Netcom|website=www.spaink.net}}</ref> Accompanied by Scientology lawyers, federal marshals made several raids on the homes of individuals who were accused of posting Scientology's copyrighted materials to the newsgroup. Raids took place against [[Arnaldo Lerma]] in Virginia,<ref name="gospeloftheweb">{{cite news | first = Nick | last = Ryan | title = The Gospel of the Web | url = https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2000/mar/23/religion.internet |newspaper = [[The Guardian]]; Technology | date = 2000-03-23 | access-date = 2007-10-12 | location=London}}</ref> [[Lawrence A. Wollersheim]] and Robert Penny of [[FACTNet]] in Colorado, and Dennis Erlich in California. Internationally, raids took place against [[Karin Spaink]] in The Netherlands and [[Zenon Panoussis]] in Sweden.{{r|rinder|page=153}}

In addition to filing lawsuits against individuals, Scientology also sued the ''[[Washington Post]]'' for reprinting one paragraph of the OT writings in a newspaper article, as well as several [[Internet service provider]]s, including [[Netcom (USA)|Netcom]], Tom Klemesrud, and [[XS4ALL]]. It also regularly demanded the deletion of material from the [[Deja News]] archive.

Participants in ''alt.religion.scientology'' began using quotes from OT III in particular to publicize the online battle over the secret documents.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/ | title = The XENU Leaflet | publisher = Operation Clambake | format = download in various formats | first=Roland |last=Rashleigh-Berry}}</ref> The story of [[Xenu]] was subsequently quoted in many publications, including news reports on [[CNN]]<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.cnn.com/US/9508/scientology/ | title = Church of Scientology protects secrets on the Internet |date=August 26, 1995 | publisher = [[CNN]] }}</ref> and ''[[60 Minutes]]''.<ref>[[Lesley Stahl]], ''[[60 Minutes]]'', (December 28, 1997) "The Cult Awareness Network". [[CBS News]].</ref> It became the most famous reference to the OT levels, to the point where many Internet users who were not intimately familiar with Scientology had heard the story of Xenu, and immediately associated the name with Scientology. The initial strikes against Scientology's critics settled down into a series of legal battles that raged through the courts. The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] provided legal assistance to defendant Tom Klemesrud and his attorney Richard Horning helped find Dennis Erlich ''pro bono'' defense.  Daily reports of the latest happenings were posted to ''alt.religion.scientology.''

In the wake of the Scientologist actions, the [[Penet remailer]], which had been the most popular [[anonymous remailer]] in the world until the Scientology "war" took place, was shut down. [[Johan Helsingius]], operator of the remailer, stated that the legal protections afforded him in his country (Finland) were too thin to protect the anonymity of his users and he decided to close down the remailer as a result.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/anon/penet.html |title=The Church of Scientology vs. Anon.penet.fi |access-date=2016-02-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207122638/http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/anon/penet.html |archive-date=2008-12-07 }}</ref><ref name=stalking>{{cite web | first = Alan | last = Prendergast | title = Stalking the Net | url = http://www.westword.com/1995-10-04/news/stalking-the-net/full | work = [[Westword|Denver Westword News]] | publisher = [[Village Voice Media]] | date = 1995-10-04 | access-date = 2008-01-30 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | first = Sabine | last = Helmers | title = A Brief History of anon.penet.fi | url = http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/sep/helmers.html | publisher = CMC Magazine | date = 1997-09-01 | access-date = 2008-01-30 }}</ref>