This one has been getting a lot of attention.

Google has murdered the AdSense account run by one of the web’s most influential anti-Scientology sites.

Yesterday, the search giant cut off all ads served to Enturbulation, a fledgling site dedicated to promoting activism against the Church of Scientology and all its related organizations. This could have something do with the nature of the ads Google was serving. Many of the Google-driven ads funding the anti-Scientology site were paid for by the Church of Scientology.

“While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers,” read Google’s letter to Enturbulation, a kind of home base for the now famous Anonymous movement. “Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.”

This isn’t going over well.  Uninvolved websites are taking issue with Google’s decision, and a lot of previously uninterested people are as well.  If Scientology did indeed pressure Google then a lot of Googlewatchers are now watching Scientology; and they’re not impressed at what’s being done to their favourite company.

Tampa Bay Online:

No major incidents or arrests have occurred at any of the protests, police said.

A church spokeswoman has labeled the protests acts of religious bigotry.

The funny part, however, starts with the comments:

The Souther Poverty Law Center has labeled Anonymous as one of 888 Hate Groups they are tracking as of 2008.

Which is a lie, the Southern Poverty Law Center doesn’t mention anything of the sort.  Unless the poster postulated the Souther Poverty Law Center (without an N) into existence.

Lying about your critics is a hallmark of the Fair Game policy.

The Village Voice had an article about the Fair Gaming of Anonymii earlier this week.  I just wanted to repost a comment on that article that was just brought to my attention:

Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman just admitted that they have no factual basis to send these letters to the individuals addressed therein. They also admitted that they have sent out multiple letters of this nature. I hope they get paid enough so that they don’t care that they are going to be sanctioned.

It may be just my 15 years in law talking, but you the New York Bar simply will not allow attorneys operating in this state to send out spam mail alleging series crimes with no factual support, with the obvious intention to stop people from excessing [sic] their right to free speech. I note that counsel is on notice of the COS’s past conduct in terms of its felonious fabrication of threats against itself. Counsel, I’m about to help some friends and eat your lunch.

Excellent stuff.

From the Village Voice:

When Queens resident Mike Vitale was outed as a member of Anonymous by the Church of Scientology last month, he specifically asked Church members if they planned to prove his criticisms correct by declaring him “fair game” and subjecting him to the threats and intimidation that are said to be inherent in that Church policy. Would they threaten him or show up at his house?

Well, they did—or, at least, their lawyers did.

You can read the letter here: page one, page two.

First the pics: http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?p=320081

Now the vids:

During a miniraid in Perth, a member of the public was upset about Anonymous wearing masks… until he saw Scientologists taking photographs!

Another contributor to News Blaze speaks out.  Part two in a series of unknown length.

She [a Scientologist] produced photocopies of some of our messages to the private group and said that we must stop going to that site and we must stop talking to a particular person (a family member who was on that group). We told her “no, we’re going to communicate with anyone we choose.”

Soon after that we were informed that we had been “declared suppressive” by the “church.” And, as night follows day, the disconnections came rolling in: long time friends, my employer, our contractor on our house renovation. We are very happy to be out of that ridiculous cult. They truly are nuts.

Don’t fuck with Dawn.

The new Scientology Channel, a paid channel (good to know where those fixed donations are going) is up and running and cheerfully spreading the CoS propaganda unfettered by bothersome rules about opening a new account after having your first one banned.

For what it’s worth, Youtube hasn’t responded to my previous query… so I sent another one to abuse@youtube.com. If I don’t get a response I’ll assume it was lost and just have to send it again, and again, and again.

Hello,

I am enquiring about your new Account Restoration Fee.

It seems you’ve allowed ChurchofScientology to keep their account even though their secondary AnonymousFacts account was suspended from your service.

A spokesperson for the Church of Scientology states here that they are responsible for the AnonymousFacts account: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152008/gossip/pagesix/toms_church_counterattacks_101990.htm

Ryan Benno from Valencia, Calif., is shown, as well as Jonathan Brown from Tarzana, Calif., who is making a goofy face in his photo, and Sean Carasov from Los Angeles. None of the men in the videos could be reached for comment.

A spokesperson for the Church of Scientology said, “We absolutely made the videos.”

“We have researchers that have found these men. When you get death threats and bomb threats directly going after the church, we don’t take it lightly.”

From your own ToS agreement:

When a user has posting privileges temporarily disabled on one account, for the duration of the suspension that user is also prohibited from posting material to YouTube using any other account. Attempts to circumvent this rule may result in immediate termination without warning of all accounts.

A user whose account has been terminated is prohibited from accessing, possessing or creating any other YouTube accounts.

I would like to help others get accounts restored, but I’d like to know how much you charge for service re-instatement. I am interested in knowing which ToS violations committed on your servers by users are easily excused by the writing of a cheque.

a) How much is your new “Account Restoration Fee”?

b) Does this new policy apply to individuals or to businesses only?

c) Are all infractions wiped clean with payment, or only specific ones (such as harassment and bullying)?

d) Are payments a flat fee, or are they to be sustained daily/weekly/monthly for the existence of the fee-paying account?

I look forward to your prompt reply.

Thank you for your time,

Now that the Cult has its own Youtube page, I decided to ask Youtube to clarify a new point of their policy.

Previously the church of scientology was banned for ToS violations. One of their videos was located at ?v=XCB0HkaH0oU

The Church of Scientology now has a paid account at youtube.com/ChurchofScientology

How much is YouTube’s account restoration fee? I am interested in starting a collection to restore xenutv1 and would like to know my target.

I will keep you abreast of any developments.

“It seems like a pretty ridiculous charge, and I am very surprised that it’s going forward,” says Housh’s Braintree lawyer, Michael D. Dlott. “I spoke to a police officer who was at each of the rallies, and his take on it was that the harassment charge wouldn’t hold up, and my feeling is that this is just a free speech/right to assembly issue.”

While their masks have prevented other Anonymous members from being similarly charged, Dlott says it was his client’s trip to Boston City Hall that blew his cover.

“The Church of Scientology is known to be litigious, and that’s part of the reason why this group wears masks,” Dlott says. “But because [Housh] was the one who filed the papers necessary to conduct the demonstration, the [church] went downtown, got his name and filed the charges against him.”

Let’s see: peaceful protest, no arrests, cops reporting good behaviour… so the cult files charges (that’ll likely be thrown out) in an attempt to intimidate.  Another case of Fail Game.