Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2002, Page 57
client see a Scientology practitioner if the client has personal problems beyond the scope of
Sterling Management.
Promoting Hubbard
There are many other ways Hubbard‘s principles are at work at Sterling Management. For
instance, the company actively promotes Hubbard, and uses the same language and
organizational structure as the church. And while a person doesn‘t have to be a
Scientologist to work at Sterling, it might help. All of Sterling Management‘s executives, and
most of its 30-person staff, are Scientologists, Wilson said. ―If they‘ve had a lot of training
in Scientology, it makes them very good executives. They have an one-upmanship on that.‖
(Marshall Allen, Los Angeles Times, Internet, 3/29/ 02)
Scientology Conflict with Critical Website Raises Freedom Issues
Google Inc., the company behind the popular Web search engine, has been playing a
complicated game recently that involves the Church of Scientology and a controversial
copyright law. Legal specialists say the episode highlights problems with the law, which can
make companies or individuals liable for linking to sites they do not control. And it has
turned Google, whose business is built around a database of 2 billion Web pages, into a
quiet campaigner for the freedom to link.
Background
The church first sent a complaint to Google in March saying that its search results for
―Scientology‖ included links to copyrighted church material that appeared on a Web site
critical of the church. Under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which was
intended to make it easier for copyright holders to fight piracy, the complaint meant that
Google was required to remove those links quickly or risk being sued for contributing to
copyright infringement.
The site in question, Operation Clambake (www.xenu.net), is based in Norway, beyond the
reach of the U.S. copyright act. The site portrays the church as a greedy cult that exploits
its members and harasses critics. Andreas Heldal-Lund, the site‘s owner, says that the
posting of church materials, including some internal documents and pictures of church
leaders, is allowable under the ―fair use‖ provisions of internationally recognized copyright
law.
When Google responded to the church‘s complaint by removing the links to the Scientology
material, techies and free-speech advocates accused Google of censoring its search results.
Google also briefly removed the link to Operation Clambake‘s home page, but soon restored
it, saying the removal had been a mistake.
New Policy
At that point, according to Matthew Cutts, a software engineer at Google, it started
developing a better way to handle such complaints. ―We respond very quickly to challenges,
and not just technical challenges but also these sort of interesting, delicate situations,‖
Cutts said.
Under Google‘s new policy, when it receives a complaint that causes it to remove links from
its index, it will give a copy of the complaint to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
(chillingeffects.org). Chilling Effects is a project of a civil liberties advocacy group called the
Electronic Frontier Foundation and several law schools. It offers information about Internet
rights issues.
Cutts said Google started linking to chillingeffects.org early this month but made no
announcement, so it took a while for word to go around online. Meanwhile, Scientology sent
client see a Scientology practitioner if the client has personal problems beyond the scope of
Sterling Management.
Promoting Hubbard
There are many other ways Hubbard‘s principles are at work at Sterling Management. For
instance, the company actively promotes Hubbard, and uses the same language and
organizational structure as the church. And while a person doesn‘t have to be a
Scientologist to work at Sterling, it might help. All of Sterling Management‘s executives, and
most of its 30-person staff, are Scientologists, Wilson said. ―If they‘ve had a lot of training
in Scientology, it makes them very good executives. They have an one-upmanship on that.‖
(Marshall Allen, Los Angeles Times, Internet, 3/29/ 02)
Scientology Conflict with Critical Website Raises Freedom Issues
Google Inc., the company behind the popular Web search engine, has been playing a
complicated game recently that involves the Church of Scientology and a controversial
copyright law. Legal specialists say the episode highlights problems with the law, which can
make companies or individuals liable for linking to sites they do not control. And it has
turned Google, whose business is built around a database of 2 billion Web pages, into a
quiet campaigner for the freedom to link.
Background
The church first sent a complaint to Google in March saying that its search results for
―Scientology‖ included links to copyrighted church material that appeared on a Web site
critical of the church. Under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which was
intended to make it easier for copyright holders to fight piracy, the complaint meant that
Google was required to remove those links quickly or risk being sued for contributing to
copyright infringement.
The site in question, Operation Clambake (www.xenu.net), is based in Norway, beyond the
reach of the U.S. copyright act. The site portrays the church as a greedy cult that exploits
its members and harasses critics. Andreas Heldal-Lund, the site‘s owner, says that the
posting of church materials, including some internal documents and pictures of church
leaders, is allowable under the ―fair use‖ provisions of internationally recognized copyright
law.
When Google responded to the church‘s complaint by removing the links to the Scientology
material, techies and free-speech advocates accused Google of censoring its search results.
Google also briefly removed the link to Operation Clambake‘s home page, but soon restored
it, saying the removal had been a mistake.
New Policy
At that point, according to Matthew Cutts, a software engineer at Google, it started
developing a better way to handle such complaints. ―We respond very quickly to challenges,
and not just technical challenges but also these sort of interesting, delicate situations,‖
Cutts said.
Under Google‘s new policy, when it receives a complaint that causes it to remove links from
its index, it will give a copy of the complaint to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
(chillingeffects.org). Chilling Effects is a project of a civil liberties advocacy group called the
Electronic Frontier Foundation and several law schools. It offers information about Internet
rights issues.
Cutts said Google started linking to chillingeffects.org early this month but made no
announcement, so it took a while for word to go around online. Meanwhile, Scientology sent
