<nettime> Google Gagged

["Mark Dery" <markdery {AT} mindspring.com>]

onlinejournalism.com -- Daily E-mail Edition

The Web version of this report can be found at
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onlinejournalism.com news briefs for March 22, 2002

Scientologists gag Google http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/24533.html
=========
North America, General News March 22, 2002, 13:12 gmt / 05:12 pst
The <http://www.scientology.org/home.html>Church of Scientology (CoS)
persuaded Web search service <http://www.google.com>Google to delete links
from its database directing users to certain pages maintained by a CoS
critic, <http://www.theregister.co.uk>The Register reported. The church
convinced Google that it was liable for copyright infringement under the
<http://www.educause.edu/issues/dmca.html>Digital Millenium Copyright Act
(DMCA) because it had links to <http://www.xenu.net>Xenu.net pages that
mirror excerpts from sacred texts considered by CoS as its intellectual
property. According to The Register, the DMCA is ambiguous. Fair use
"ensures that we may [...] quote a passage from CoS scripture and ridicule
it, but not re-publish it," The Register wrote. "But there is no pre-defined
limit to how much copyrighted text may be reproduced for purposes of
analysis, criticism, satire or argumentation."

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