1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act – the DMCA — was enacted to protect rights-holders
from infringment online. It allows for massive civil and punishing criminal penalties against
infringers and those who abet them.
This awful, draconian law has not been used to safeguard copyright, however. Instead,
the DMCA is used as a club to threaten competitors (i.e., Vivendi's Blizzard gaming division
suing the open-source hackers who implemented their own version of the Blizzard gameserver),
to stop innovation (i.e., the action against the people who wrote the Linux DVD player, DeCSS),
and, of course, to silence critics.
The Church of Scientology, notorious for its campaigns to silence former Church members who
speak out against the Church's practices has served a DMCA notice on Google. They have forced Google
to remove from its database links to materials that the Church claims are infringing.
The implications are staggering. Any yahoo (no pun intended) can now have other people's
materials removed from any search tool, just by writing a spurious poison-pen letter.
Sez Google: "We removed certain specific URLs in response to a notification
submitted by the Religious Technology Center and Bridge Publications
under section 512(c)(3) of the the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
(DMCA). Had we not removed these URLs, we would be subject to a claim
for copyright infringement, regardless of its merits." (emphasis mine).
Here are the allegedly infringing links:
www.xenu.net/
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/index.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop1.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop2.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop3.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop4.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop5.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop6.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/ clan-images.html
www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/lisas_case_sup.html
www.xenu.net/archive/events/
www.xenu.net/archive/events/lisa_mcpherson/
www.xenu.net/archive/disk/
www.xenu.net/archive/disk/enemy/
www.xenu.net/archive/disk/enemy/da.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/disk/enemy/targets.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/disk/archive/grd_chrt.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/disk/OTIII/
www.xenu.net/archive/hubbandcw/
www.xenu.net/archive/greece/
www.xenu.net/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630511.html
www.xenu.net/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630714.html
www.xenu.net/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-610619.html
www.xenu.net/archive/enemy_names/
www.xenu.net/archive/enemy_names/dead_agenting.html
www.xenu.net/archive/enemy_names/targets.html
www.xenu.net/archive/tonelevel.html
www.xenu.net/archive/grade_chart.html
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenusw.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenunl.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenufr.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenufi.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuno.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuge.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuaf.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuru-k.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuheb.htm
www.xenu.net/archive/so/
www.clambake.org/
www.clambake.org/ archive/photoalbum/
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/index.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop1.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop2.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop3.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop4.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop5.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop6.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/ clan-images.html
www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/lisas_case_sup.html
www.clambake.org/archive/events/
www.clambake.org/archive/events/lisa_mcpherson/
www.clambake.org/archive/disk/
www.clambake.org/archive/disk/enemy/
www.clambake.org/archive/disk/enemy/da.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/disk/enemy/targets.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/disk/archive/grd_chrt.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/disk/OTIII/
www.clambake.org/archive/hubbandcw/
www.clambake.org/archive/greece/
www.clambake.org/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630511.html
www.clambake.org/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630714.html
www.clambake.org/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-610619.html
www.clambake.org/archive/enemy_names/
www.clambake.org/archive/enemy_names/dead_agenting.html
www.clambake.org/archive/enemy_names/targets.html
www.clambake.org/archive/tonelevel.html
www.clambake.org/archive/grade_chart.html
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenusw.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenunl.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenufr.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenufi.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuno.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuge.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuaf.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuru-k.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuheb.htm
www.clambake.org/archive/so/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/index.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop1.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop2.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop3.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop4.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop5.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop6.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/ clan-images.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/photoalbum/lisas_case_sup.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/events/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/events/lisa_mcpherson/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/disk/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/disk/enemy/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/disk/enemy/da.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/disk/enemy/targets.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/disk/archive/grd_chrt.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/disk/OTIII/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/hubbandcw/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/greece/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630511.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630714.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-610619.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/enemy_names/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/enemy_names/dead_agenting.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/enemy_names/targets.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/tonelevel.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/grade_chart.html
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenusw.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenunl.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenufr.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenufi.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenuno.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenuge.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenuaf.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenuru-k.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/leaflet/xenuheb.htm
home.kvalito.no/~xenu/archive/so/
