Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!rnewman From: rnewman@media.mit.edu (Ron Newman) Subject: (fwd) Elizabeth McCoy tries to stop CoS harassment of Net Message-ID: <1995Feb25.081715.2873@news.media.mit.edu> Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: MIT Media Laboratory Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 08:17:15 GMT Lines: 66 Elizabeth McCoy sent me this e-mail and suggested that I forward it to the newsgroup. She is a Scientologist (as is her mother), but she's also a strong supporter of the EFF. As you'll see below, Elizabeth opposes the Church's harassment of the Net and is trying her best to convince other people in the Church to listen to what the EFF is saying. I doubt it's going to work, but I'm glad she's trying. ------- Forwarded Messages From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: To: rnewman@media.mit.edu Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 11:47:19 -0500 (EST) Feel free to forward this one -- I'm a little swamped by the newsgroup at the moment. ($50 this month in service provider charges...) I talked to an official rep of the Church in Austin, Tx the other evening. She's been talking to my mom (who I've been ranting to occasionally), and she wanted to get some things straight (neither she nor my mom are entirely computer-literate, so you can imagine the garbling that would have produced!). She asked me about why I was upset by the suit involving Netcom, and I told her (and explained about Cubby vs. Compuserve), and I told her about other faux pas that have been done, reducing net.credibility and irking me something fierce. And I told her that they really really should get in contact with the EFF so that they can get an ally who actually understands net.culture and all that good stuff. I admit to getting a bit of a headache, trying to explain, over the phone, exactly what the relation between Dennis, Support.com, and Netcom was, not to mention remailers and how they work ("Okay, they send *private Email* to the thing, and the program turns around and posts it publically with an anon. address."), and the correct way to deal with copyright violations from such sources. (One word: "Politely.") On the other hand, it's possible I did some good. And not *once* during that conversation was I instructed not to post, or even told that posting was bad. I will admit that she did hint that she didn't think it was worth hanging around in this "snakepit" (boas, I hope -- I like boas), because "loyalist" postings generally just "encouraged bashing." I pointed out several very good reasons for why I should take the time, and why I thought it was good and necessary to take the time to do so, and weather the slings and arrows of the opposing side , and all that good stuff. And I pointed out some places where their practices re: the net could be improved. So who knows. Maybe the slow process of growth from "clueless newbie" to "net.savvy" that we all go through has finally begun, eh? Stars above, but I hope so. - --emccoy@jade.mv.net -- Ron Newman MIT Media Laboratory rnewman@media.mit.edu -------------------