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How the digital millenium copyright act is used by the Church of

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/07/22/scientology/index.html

Copyright -- or wrong? The Church of Scientology takes up a new weapon in its ongoing battle with critics, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

- - - - - - - - - - - - By Janelle Brown

July 22, 1999 | Susan Mullaney is not a fan of the Church of Scientology. A longtime poster to the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, she spends much of her energy online exposing what she feels are the Church of Scientology's repressive activities. Her two-year-old Web site contains a library of short audio excerpts from L. Ron Hubbard speeches and a "secret" Scientology questionnaire, as well as her biting commentary about this material -- the usage of which she claims falls well within legal "fair use" boundaries. [ ... ]

"Because I am not a resident of the U.S.A. and because I have no inclination to fight the case in court, I agreed to remove the page," Chong explained in February. "This legislation is a new weapon in the Church of Scientology arsenal, and I am sure the Church of Scientology will use it to close down as many sites as possible."

Mullaney and Chong are angry that they were presumed guilty until proven innocent: Their Internet service providers removed their Web sites before the Church of Scientology proved a copyright violation. This, they complain, is thanks to the stringent guidelines of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

[ ... ]

Kristian

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