Windows 2000 to be banned in Germany? 355
tjansen writes "The German Site Heise reports in this article that Windows 2000 may be banned in Germany. The reason is the included deframentation software Diskeeper that is written by the Scientology-owned company Executive Software. Many state agencies and companies have policies that they are not allowed to use services from a company that is related to Scientology. " A good number of you will probably need to use The Babelfish.Update: 12/03 11:28 by H :Check out the English translation.
Seriously (Score:1)
Good old Bablefish (Score:4)
Ah. Good. Things are much clearer now.
Redmond will quickly work around this one by removing the offending program. Good thing the guys didn't write IE 4.0. The Germans never would have gotten win98.
--
I just can't see this happening (Score:2)
If this really is an issue, then the diskeeper softwear would be fairly easy to remove (if it's not, maybe there should be an Anti-Trust suit about that one!)
I've used their product on NT4, and I believe that it is almost identical to the one on 2000. It's just a single program, people - it's pretty easy to remove it and make it a free download from the US MS site.
In a way, this isn't surprising (Score:5)
This -could- be interesting, though, as Microsoft is likely to drop support for ALL other versions of Windows, in order to force people to upgrade.
If Windows 2000 is banned, even if only in Government departments, that will essentially force the de-Microsofting of the German Government. And that could spell some interesting times for *BSD and Linux vendors.
the Psycho company. (Score:1)
Gotta love that translation. The Psycho (note the capital "P") company.
Now, I'm don't love the church of Scientology, but can someone explain this to me? And what is up with the references to "sparkling wine"?
To summarise... (Score:2)
Thats one in the eye for M$ but I can never see this standing up!
Clue vacuum (Score:2)
They are serious... (Score:5)
--
It's a "Bann", not a "Verbot" (Score:3)
MS will support NT & 98 for four years (Score:3)
Why does it always have to be me defending MS from all the FUD on /.
I don't like MS, and it kills my Karma. :-(
Oh well.. if someone said something wrong about Linux, I'd do the same thing.
WTO will jump on them... (Score:3)
Of course, I'm sure there are some Linux contributors who are scientologists, but I guess the regulation concerns companies.
BTW, what does Win2000 need a defragmentor for? I thought disk fragmentation was cracked long before journalling and b-trees hit the agenda.
Re:the Psycho company. (Score:1)
In German you use the spelling Sekt both for the Wine and for the religious sect
Re:It's a "Bann", not a "Verbot" (Score:4)
Regards,
January
P.S. No, I'm not using babelfish. I just speak German and live in Germany.
Re:Seriously (Score:1)
Not many people know this, but
Earthlink is owned by Scientology.
I guess Germans aren't supposed to use
Earthlink (or their acquired mindspring)
either...
If you hate Scientology as much as I do,
you should switch providers and vote with
your wallet.
Law (Score:1)
I laughed. I cried. (Score:1)
Another of my favorites is...Harald bear, catholic representative for sparkling wines and world looking questions. I'm glad someone represents these noteworthy causes! You think Mr. Bear can give us some good tips on champagne futures? I missed out on the RH IPO!
Eric
Re:FIRST POST (Score:1)
Alex.
Re:It's a "Bann", not a "Verbot" (Score:1)
Eric
Not Germany is banning!!! It's the Catholic churc! (Score:2)
Actually I personally ban Windows at all - from my personal computers. Although I still have to use that OS at work. But that's another story
Bright Blessings
Mika
Re:It's a "Bann", not a "Verbot" (Score:1)
Re:the Psycho company. (Score:2)
> Die Verbindung zwischen dem Psycho-Konzern und
> dem Softwareriesen ist Sektenbeauftragten der
> großen Kirchen ein Dorn im Auge.
Now the german word for "sparkling wine" is "Sekt", as opposed to german "Sekte" (note the additional "e") which means "sect".
The mentioned "Sektenbeauftragen" are people who observe said sects. In this case, they are employees of the (catholic/protestant) church.
So sorry, no alcohol this time. Just religion (which - as we now - is opium for the masses, not a bad deal, huh?).
CMBurns, german by nature.
too good to be true? (Score:1)
Sounds too good to be true. Unfortunately.
OTOH, Germany is funding open source software (GPG).
Re:FIRST POST (Score:1)
Why not specify "Fair Use" conditions that automatically assign a special category to "first post" and the use of profanity. And enforce it.
If anyone want to read this junk, they can change their filter limits. The rest of us shouldn't have to put up with it.
Re:I just can't see this happening (Score:1)
Maybe I would prefere it they didn't ship this tool with Window 2000, I don't think my manager will appeaciate me loosing 2 more days!
Re:POST NUMBER NOTIFICATION. (Score:1)
number of Anonymous posts from a certain IP Address within a Topic? (Similar to the Poll system) Only registered users may post as they wish.
Sebastian
Is the "Natalie Portman" AC from the Co$? (Score:4)
So I wonder if this loon with the "Natalie Portman" posts has been hatted to disrupt Slashdot?
Re:Is the "Natalie Portman" AC from the Co$? (Score:1)
Eric
Re:They are serious... (Score:2)
More important is the fact that this warning was issued by the catholic church and not by state officials. They tend to exaggerate a little when it comes to CoS. I'm not a fan of CoS, but the big churches in germany tend to be quite hypocritical of "their competitors".
Though we have laws that fight antidemocratic groups by cutting on their rights, this is always done cautiously and the dangers that come from the goup have to be quite clear. Based on that I would not expect real consequences on the findings here. The danger of CoS infiltrating the world by means of a disk defragmentization program seem a little too far fetched.
If MS wasn't concerned, nobody had cared at all.
Re:Good old Bablefish (Score:5)
Re:Enough!!! (Score:1)
No... (Score:3)
The whole Natalie Portman thing got moved to Slashdot because Segfault.org stopped allowing people to post messages. I was a frequent Segfault reader, and Natalie Portman was a very common topic over there. The Natalie Portman/Statue/Mae Ling whatever/etc... people just moved over here to Slashdot.
Re:the Psycho company. (Score:3)
by the german "Verfassungsschutz" and aswered this with a public relations campaign [uni-wuerzburg.de], even drawing parallels [uni-wuerzburg.de] to the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich.
Good new GPLtrans (Score:3)
Maybe it's time to advertise the use of the GPLtrans [slashdot.org] engine instead of Babelfish
Unfortunately, their German translation unit is under maintainance for a few days. Too many words [...] and MySQL isn't responding
correctly, the web site [grmbl.com] says.
I for one hope that GPLtrans will be mentioned next time a non-English article is referenced on Slashdot.
Kk.
Diskeeper (OT) (Score:1)
You know you're in trouble when they threw out the fairly useful interface in version 4 in favor of hooking into the Microsoft Management Console.
The program also seems to run in real-mode priority regardless of what you tell it. My machine took 20 minutes to repaint the screen so I could shut the d*mn thing down.
User Interface Hell... and it locks up your computer. I never had trouble with DK until version 5 and have just switched back to 4, no useful functionality lost either.
Hrm, an interesting alliance. (Score:1)
Bad Mojo
Paranoia (Score:2)
The Scientology issue may sound odd, but as the government has found that they have been trying to infiltrate the state agencies to gain power and thus they have been considered a risk to the country's security, the decision not to use Windows 2000 would just be a side-effect of the politics of avoiding such threats.
According to c't 25 the story is... (Score:2)
Re:MS will support NT & 98 for four years (Score:2)
Don't try to tell me that they'll "support" 98 and NT by releasing all of their applications for the next four years in 98/NT versions as well.
Help, we're under attack by a herd of clams! (Score:1)
Years ago, they tried the same kind of shenanigans against the alt.religion.scientology board, which is a forum for scientology criticists. First they tried to shut down discussions by forge-cancelling any critical article, and when that didn't work any longer, they tried swamping the board with meaningless rubbish.
Ich bin ein Deutschlander (Score:2)
Does this mean that GNU/Linux will be banned in the US of A, since Richard Stallman is obviously a communist...
On a serious note, though, this amounts to state censorship, and should not be tolerated - I'm surprised that this doesn't contravene some EU directive. Perhaps if the defragger had some pop-up instructing the user to join the Church of Scientology, then it might be justifiable. Also, do the German government intend to ban all John Travolta (or any other star related to the Scientologist) films?
If you want to ban W2K, I can think of far better reasons.
Re:POST NUMBER NOTIFICATION. (Score:1)
You have also convinced me that Scientologists and M$ actually deserve each other.
Operating systems... (Score:1)
I guess you can see this is another bad
thing that happens when you start bundling
too much stuff together with OS... if Microsoft
had sticked to only making OSen and not bundling
everything into it, they would not have run
into all this hassle...
Internet Explorer, Stacker, this defragging
software... the list goes on.
Seems like the old saying of sticking
to your corebusiness still holds some truth....?
New "tech" banned due to Scientology? (Score:2)
Deosyne
Re:Hrm, an interesting alliance. (Score:1)
Cults... (Score:1)
This is a legacy I think from the Anti-Nazi laws everybody made Germany pass after WWII. But if it allows somebody to halt the march of such an enigmatic (and law bashing...) cult then they can't be that bad!
While we're on, could we ban Mormon's as well?
CAN SOMEBODY STOP THESE MORONS? (Score:1)
Shut the heck up, people, and comment on what's going on, or at least post nude pics of NP here *grins*
Seriously, if you want to babble on like that, get a life, and get a list, they're free at Onelist [onelist.com], you know... that way you're not getting on any
Do good for once!
Adding to Germany's paranoia (Score:1)
??????
I mean it could happen, couldn't it?
Both Good and Bad .. (Score:2)
First, i don't like the idea of banning neither religions, free speech or programs made by people / companies that has a certain belief. I have this nagging feeling when I hear about germans banning nazism. Of course, nazism is a Bad Thing(tm), but on the other hand.. it should be *legal* to have certain kind of opinions, and it should be legal to meet other people with the same opinions.
The same thing applies to Scientology. Its a Bad Thing(tm), but on the other hand, I think its bad banning them, and I think its absurd to ban Windows 2000 just because a tiny little program inside it, is made by a company funded by clams. (Clams, slang for "scientologists").
But, when we think about OUR goals, that is, killing of microsoft, scientology, nazism, and so forth
But, on the whole, I really think it stinks that they ban win2000, just because of some clams. Even though I don't like clams.. except for dinner.. I think
Can Slashdot stand up to the clams? (Score:2)
All this and more....
Re:Seriously (Score:3)
See some of these links to understand some of the views
Re:They are serious... (Score:3)
Finally, a CORRECT usage of a Nazi reference.
In German-speaking countries, there is legislation against some kinds of groups that are aimed at undermining the democratic system.
Scientology belongs into this category, as do extreme right and extreme left groups. The only difference is Scientology's ability to buy ads in US newspapers signed by Hollywood "stars" to lie about "a new Holocaust" in Germany.
Tranlation (Score:3)
A component of Windows 2000 was made by a scientology company. The defragmentation program "Diskeeper" is scheduled to be shipped in February as a standard part of the NT successor.
It is being developed by the firm "Executive Software" of the confessing [?] scientologist Craig Jensen, as has been reported in c't issue 25/99. The connection between the psycho trust and the software giant is a thorn in the side of the large churches.
"This will not be interesting to the Catholic Church alone, but also to the states, the Verfassungsschutz [one branch of the secret service] as well as the German industry", Harald Baer, catholic commissary for sects and wold outlook issues [Weltanschauung issues], commented to the German press agency (dpa). According to Ursula Caberta, leader of the Scientology working group of the Hamburg interior authority, Executive Software is one of the leading businesses in the Scientology organization WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises). [She says] WISE is "the decisive branch of Scientology in order to infiltrate and spy on the economy". In the states of Bavaria and Hamburg, there have been resolutions according to which authorities, in particular in the area of information technology, are not allowed to buy services from scientology businesses. (em)
(cp/c't)
Re:Seriously -- No doubt! (Score:1)
Check out this link: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/
This page belongs to a good friend of mine, and she's been crusading against scientology for quite a while now. Not to mention that Scientology is trying to shut this down as well.
bans distro. (Score:2)
said "this is a direct attack on the freedom of the people to choose what they wish, we should fight this at all costs".
When contains GNU/Linux, this would be the story. The Spokeman would no doubt be Eric, Bruce or Richard and we'd all be telling each other to hold back the mindless mail bombings to whoever's government is offending.
But this times its Microsoft, so it doesn't matter. Good on !
Surely there is something wrong here. Yes, I know its MS. Yes, I know its scientology but this a stupid reason to suggest not using something, let alone banning it.
We'd not let anyone suggest not using GNU/Linux just because Linus and the TLA crew[*] converted to some minority, much less becuase line 5329 of Perl was bug fixed by a member.
Phill
* ESR, RMS, ETC.
About using the right means to fight wrong (Score:1)
ESR has it right, even though I don't totally with him - Microsoft should be taken down by natural forces (ie. market). Let's ignore the fact (ie. MHO) that it wouldn't be possible without the intervention of the DOJ for now, since it's not really relevant.
Windows 2000 banned in Germany ? Fine with me. Doing it because of scientology is simply clouding the issue - the only good reason to do it would be because Microsoft and its products are bad for your health. Any other reason will allow Microsoft to be victimized and gain symphaty.
Like I said, I don't like to be on the same side with Microsoft, but for the sake of doing the right thing, I'll do it.
Translation (Score:1)
A component of Windows 2000 comes from a scientology-company. The defragmentation program "Diskeeper" is intended to be marketed as an integral part of the NT-successor. It was developed by Executive Software, a company of the confessing Scientologist Craig Jensen. The connection from the Pseudo-company [Scientology] to Microsoft bothers representatives of the big Churches concerned with sects.
"Apart from the catholic Church also all German states, the office responsible for defending the constitution, and the german industy, will take an interest in this." comments Harald Baer, catholic representative for sects [...]. According to Ursula Caberta, head of the "workgroup scientology" of Hamburgs interior office, Executive Software belongs to the leading businesses of the WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises) Scientology organisation: "WISE is the main branch of Scientology for undermining and spying out the economy." In the german states Bayern and Hamburg resulitions exist, saying that official authorities may not buy services from Scientology-companies, especially in the Information Technology sector.
Re:Ich bin ein Deutschlander (Score:1)
Wether scientology is should be labeled as a criminal organization is the whole point, but it is another discussion.
A quick and dirty translation (Score:2)
A component of Windows 2000 comes from a Scientology company. The defragmentation software "Diskeeper" is to be shipped in February as a fixed component of the NT successor. It is developed by the company "Executive software" of the admitting Scientology member Craig Jensen, as c't reported in the issue 25/99. The connection between the psycho company and the software giant is a thorn in the eye of large church sect-observers.
"That will not only interest the catholic church, but also all provices, the Verfassungsschutz [German equivalent to the FBI], and the German industry" comments Harald Baer, catholic official for sects and Weltanschauung-questions, to the german press agency dpa. Accoring to Ursula Caberta, head of the Scientology working-group of the Hamburg office for internal affairs, "Executive Software" is among the leading companies of the Scientology-organisation WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises).
WISE is the "crucial lever of Scientology to infiltrate and spy the economy". The states of Bavaria and Hamburg have existing resolutions which forbid offices the aquisition of services form Scientology-companies, esp. in the field of information technology.
They won't release security fixes (Score:2)
> after they stop shipping. It is in their
> standard support agreement.
Well since two years ago, it has not been possible to get a copy of Win 3.1 which has had all known security holes patched, and Win 3.1 stopped shipping only two years before that. I think "not fixing root exploits" is not the same as "supporting".
Didn't MS claim to have lost some of the Win 3.x source code last year? That was less than four years after they stopped shipping it. How they're supposed to "support" a product to which they don't even have the source code, I don't know.
Re:They are serious... (Score:1)
Translation of German news text (Score:5)
--
Windows 2000 threatened by ban
One component of the Windows 2000 software is coming from a Scientology enterprise. The defragmentation program "Diskeeper" is going to be released in February as integral part of the
NT successor. It was developed by Executive Software, an enterprise belonging to the confessing scientologist Craig Jensen, as C't magazine reports in issue 25/99. The connection
between Scientology and the software giant is not liked by the Sektenbeauftragter (person responsible to review the activities of sects) of the large churches.
"This is going to interest not only the Catholic church but also the Bundesländer (states ), the Verfassungsschutz (government institution that supervises activities that are against the German constitution) and the German industry", comments
Harald Baer, Catholic representative for sects and philosophy of life [that's a straight translation] in response to DPA [a news agency].
According to Ursula Caberta, who leads the study group Scientology of Hamburg's Innenbehoerde [an institution of the City of Hamburg], Executive Software belongs to the leading enterprises of the Scientology organization WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises). WISE, according to Caberta, "is the crucial arm of Scientology to infiltrate and spy on trade and industry". In Bayern and Hamburg [German states, Hamburg is a city state] there are laws that forbid public institutions, especially on the information technology sector, to buy services from Scientology enterprises.
CO$ Attack on /. not working (Score:3)
That must drive the CO$ weenies crazy. I remember when they successfully ruined alt.religion.scientology by spamming the group with so many messages that any real discussion was lost.
Scientology is an evil organization that is willing to go to any lengths to further its greedy interests. I'm not talking about protesting, or organizing church dinners here--death threats against "enemy" newspaper reporters, collecting damaging information about their own members for use as blackmail in the event that they testify against the cult, attempting to shut down, harass, and bankrupt critics... the list goes on.
I don't blame the German govt. for not wanting to run any software written by Scientology. Given their thug like behavior in every other area, why would you trust their code? They probably did build some backdoors into it.
[Country] bans [Vendor's] [OS] distro. (Score:1)
[Spokesman] said "this is a direct attack on the freedom of the people to choose what they wish, we should fight this at all costs".
When [OS] contains GNU/Linux, this would be the story. The Spokeman would no doubt be Eric, Bruce or Richard and we'd all be telling each other to hold back the mindless mail bombings to whoever's government is offending.
But this times its Microsoft, so it doesn't matter. Good on [Country]!
Surely there is something wrong here. Yes, I know its MS. Yes, I know its scientology but this a stupid reason to suggest not using something, let alone banning it.
We'd not let anyone suggest not using GNU/Linux just because Linus and the TLA crew[*] converted to some minority, much less becuase line 5329 of Perl was bug fixed by a [cult minority of the week] member.
Phill
* ESR, RMS, ETC.
Re:Is the "Natalie Portman" AC from the Co$? (Score:1)
The worst offenders are always a small minority of users. Vandals are usually punk kids with a difficult home life or psychologically aberrant adults, neither of which exist in large enough quantities to matter. If you can keep shutting them down from their ISPs, only the truly obsessed wackos will continue to find new ISPs to abuse. The more noise you can get from these freaks, the easier it is to get a lock on the individual doing it. Then targets of abuse have more options to pursue.
Defending the Democracy Does Matter (Score:2)
In Germany (and Austria AFAIK) there are tough, constitutional rules [bundestag.de] intended to defend democracy and a lawful state. This means groups that aim t undermne the democratic order, like right-wing extremists or extreme communists are banned, and so are references to Nazism etc.
Co$ is suspected to be a group that intends to destroy the democratic order as defined by the constitution, as these intentions are expressed in their writings.
Those constitutional principles, based on General Human Rights, are definitely more important than WTO regulations.
SET YOUR THRESHOLD LEVEL TO 1 (Score:1)
Re:Both Good and Bad .. (Score:1)
There is an easy solution.... (Score:1)
It should be noted that Windows 2000 is still quite a ways from being shipped for overseas editions. The North American edition (for US/Canadian use) will ship on February 17, 2000; the versions for European users will probably not ship for at least a month after that.
There's still time to substitute a different disk defragmenter (or remove it altogether) to comply with German laws. For example, doesn't Symantec make a version of Norton Utilities for Windows NT? This means the German version of Windows 2000 will use Symantec's disk defragmenter instead of Diskkeeper.
Compuserve Germany (Score:1)
For those who doesn't know, German law said that the people who owned the Internet providers were personally responsible for everything that the customers put on the Internet, which lead to the Compuserve boss being sentenced to jail for, I believe, pedophelia (since Compuserve Germany hadn't monitored all Internet traffic in and out and stopped a customer from distributing nude pictures of children)!
I believe the ban will never be a reality. Good thing too. I have no love for Scientology, but this is absurd.
************************************************ ***
Clarification: church ban not German law (Score:1)
defragmentation thing:
It is the German catholic church which is opposing
Windows 2000 because of that piece of software
This has nothing to do with German government or
German laws (not yet
As so often, IMHO moral and business are often
pretty close together. Among moral considerations,
churches see Scientology as competition for the
souls and the purses of their faithful.
The church ban [newadvent.org]
was often used in former times to fight against
individuals which were not in line
with religious (or political) ideas of those at
the top of the catholic church.
More famous people banned were Martin Luther (in 1521),
who later translated the bible from Latin into a
living language and queen Elisabeth I of England (in 1570).
So if you should get banned by accident, you are
in prominent company
--
Reasonable assessment of threat not paranoia (Score:4)
- suppressing free speach through legal intimidation
- violating people's privacy through various means, legal and otherwise
- efforts to gain positions of trust and power
- willingness to use such positions to promote their own corporate
They are concerned that Scientology is engaged in a power grab of titanic proportions which poses a direct threat to their democracy, which the above pattern of behavior appears to underscore rather clearly. Having a corporation controlled by Scientologists in turn controlling a critical peice of software (such as, say, an integral component of an operating system running on 95% of all PCs) is, they feel, a grave concern.
OTOH if a scientologist contributes to Linux, the code is under the GPL. This takes control away from the Scientologists and puts it in the hands of the user. I doubt the German government would have any problem with that, though I suspect the hypothetical Scientologist contributing software of this kind might face immediate excommunication for giving away "intellectual" property which could have belonged to The Church.
Re:Translation of German news text (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What's totally awesome? (Score:2)
Actually I think the idea of MS teaming up with a scientology owned company is pretty ironic. Believe me MS' fud practices are amateurism compared to what scientology is capable of.
Some might claim that prohibiting an organization like scientology goes against free speech but does free speech include extortion practices?
Re:Diskeeper (OT) (Score:2)
More Microsoft bloat with no useful gain.
Official English Translation (Score:2)
Re:SET YOUR THRESHOLD LEVEL TO 1 (Score:2)
This news made my day (Score:3)
Many scientologists as individuals are decent honest people. Its unfortunate that they have made such a poor choice in remaining in the "church." I could go on all day long about them, but many others have already covered it and more eloquently than I could.
What is the difference between Scientology and Microsoft? One is an evil cult bent on world domination and the other was begun by L. Ron Hubbard.
They beat the IRS at their own game (Score:2)
Not really. They just
a) moved all their money off-shore, outside the jurisdiction of the IRS (hence legally being external to the Internal Revenue Service), and
b) then adopted tactics of the IRS by spreading misinformation, fear, intimidation and harrassment. Of course paying off a few IRS people helped too.
What you have to be scared of is your friends and loved ones being brainwashed by the cult.
Cheers
Some points from the full German article (Score:3)
The article contains some more details:
- Diskkeeper has of course access to the full harddisk.
- c't could find no obvious hints that the software is spying.
- Of course you can only be sure when you have the source.
- Microsoft, it seems, has the code.
- Microsoft's Recommendation (to uninstall Diskkeeper) is not working. The files will be restored by the `System File Protection' (SFP).
It will be worth to wait for the translation. It will contain some more background information.Re:They are serious... (Score:2)
Actually not. I cannot think of any user program that could access as much information as the disk defragmentization program. In fact, I never thought about this, but the disk defragmenter is the best place to put a trojan (system crashes or is abrutly powered down - and voila - you can modify W2000 kernel, any driver code, any registry entry, any directory access, any executable, any file on the system).
Re:Both Good and Bad .. (Score:2)
If you check, most religions say this in one way or another. The law is of man, the Law comes from a higher power. (Or in the case of Buddhism is just how the universe works.)
The german gov't finds the Orginization (the earthly part of the religion) to have done some very bad, bad things. I am already a little quesy with the idea, but I would have a major problem if they where saying that the beliefs of the religion should be banned.
As far as I know example, the german gov, doesn't have any problem with the squirels (the people who leave $cinetology, but keep practicing the "tech").
Just my 2 cents worth....
RobK (Buddhist)
Re:Good old Bablefish (Score:3)
Which just happens to be at http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/25/news1/
for those who care.
CmdrTaco watched by a private dick... (Score:3)
Slashdot | Posted by CmdrTaco on 1999-0-0
from the just-because-you're-paranoid dept.
About twenty minutes ago, a gang of three Scientology agents collected outside Taco Mansions. They tried to harass one of my visitors when they arrived, telling them that I was hosting child pornography and was a convicted felon. If anyone's in the XXX area just now, you might like to come and look, they're on the corner of XXX and XXX. I've posted PNG images of them *here*. I could use some backup on this one.
Cheers,
CmdrTaco.
No, I don't think the Co$ would be stupid enough to try that one. The Commander is far from powerless.
--
Here's part of the reason ...... (Score:3)
This is one of the main reasons that Germany is down on Scientology (that and some real estate scams by its members)
Re:Ich bin ein Deutschlander (Score:2)
This has nothing to do with state-censorship, because the government only forbids its own agencies to do business with Scientology-related companies, and even that only in Hamburg and Bavaria AFAIK. And it makes perfect sense, as we have seen with the latest User ID-transmitting follies of programs less relevant to system security. This defragger will probably not send your password files to the Internet, but it should at least be checked, especially when it was developed by a Scientology-controlled company and especially when you're a government agency.
I agree with my government on few things, but on this issue I'm pleasantly surprised how well they "get it" about Scientology and the US government doesn't.
As for John Travolta/the Cruises, I'd guess that they probably don't even know what Scientology is _really_ about. They're obviously kept around for image reasons ("Hey, they're rich and famous, so how can Scientology be a bad thing ?"), get the VIP treatment and don't have to submit to any interrogation or rundown tortures. (At least I haven't heard otherwise)
The only reason one might consider banning their films for is bad acting, but that's just IMHO.
And to the moderators: the above post got upped ? Please, that was mostly polemic !
Microsoft code reviews (Score:2)
Seriously, the Church of Scientology is a nasty group of people. I don't know how comfortable I am with a connection between them and the software platform virtually everyone has to use at some point.
D
----
ENGLISH VERSION OF ARTICLE... (Score:2)
Re:Both Good and Bad .. (Score:3)
A bunch of them have banned together and formed a free society (the name of which I can't remember), that persues LRH's ideas w/o the oppressive leadership of the {ahem} Church. (They even liken them selves to the heretics during the Spanish Inquisition.
I think there might be more info on xemu.net , but I can't be sure. [xenu.net]
RobK
Re:Both Good and Bad .. (Score:2)
These people don't need to be banned. Criminals belong into prisons.
Agreed, Criminals belong in prison. However, I was trying to point out that most people's beef is with the orginization, and that if you meet a $cientologist they are not ness. a criminal. Nor IMNSHO should believing in $cientology ness. be a crime... that's a little 1984ish
It goes like this in some people's minds
Some $cinetologist are Criminals
Tom is a $cientologist
___________________________
Tom is a criminal.
This is not true as any student of elementary logic will tell you.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It's a "Bann", better believe it. (Score:2)
I, for one, do believe that: when a user of xs4all in the Netherlands published a copy of the German forbidden radical-left magazine Radikal on his homepage, the German government instituted a ban to all of xs4all from Germany, which got widespread implementation, thereby also banning access to Dutch writer Karin Spainks anti-Scientology pages [xs4all.nl] one the same site. So I don't see why a ban on Windoze Y2K would not be similarly accepted and followed. xs4all sued, but I can't remember the outcome.
Scientologists writing GPLed software? (Score:2)
(This sounds like a non-tariff barrier, rather than a legitimate social concern. Unless the software is designed to convert people into Scientologists, or Nazis, or tree-huggers, I can't see any good reason to ban it.)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re:Microsoft code reviews (Score:2)
OK, I don't like the CoS's practices. But the fact that a software writer happens to be a Scientologist has no bearing on his program's utility. Do you seriously think that using a program written by a Scientologist's company will harm you in some way? Maybe it will give you Scientologist germs, and you might catch Scientology and turn into one yourself! Oh no! heh. If it's the best tool for the job, use it.
Re:Microsoft code reviews (Score:2)
But they do have an interesting record infiltrating various organizations, so the thought that a Scientology-sourced program might send confidential data to the Church would not be out of line.
I realize it sounds absurd, but crazier things have happened - check the history of this bizarre organization before dismissing it out of hand.
D
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GPLtrans isn't CLOSE to being finished (Score:2)
But that's no reason to be against it.. it's just that it needs a lot more work.
However, in addition, it uses a simply phrase-replacement algorithm that I don't hope to much hope in...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:They are serious... (Score:2)
DoH, of course! I'd forgotten about Sekt. Left my Langenscheidt somewhere else... Okay, I want the job of being in charge of "Sekt." Not the other one. Thanks... z
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Re:Here's part of the reason ...... (Score:2)
Actually, the Soviet Union had a fairly liberal constitution (as does the People's Republic of China). However, it (obviously) was not followed in practice.