From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tilman Hausherr is a German citizen living in
Berlin, Germany. Hausherr is well-known among critics of Scientology for his frequent
Usenet posts and for maintaining a website critical of Scientology. Hausherr is also the author of
a software utility, Xenu's Link Sleuth, which was
praised in a 2002 PC
Magazine article covering 70 web builder utilities.[1]
Coined
"Sporgery"
Hausherr is credited with coining the term "Sporgery" in the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology,
to which he is a regular contributor.[2][3]
"Sporgery" refers to internet attacks that not only spam a forum
with offensive posts but also misrepresent regular users by forging
their names to the spam posts. The term is a blending of the words
"spam"
and "forgery".[3][4]
Website
Hausherr's website contains a large section critical of
Scientology, including the "Scientology celebrities FAQ", as well
as the "FAQ: Scientology in Germany" (2001).[5][6] He has
also contributed updates on the activities of the Church of
Scientology to the magazine Berliner Dialog, published
until 2005 by the non-profit organization Dialog Zentrum
Berlin e.V.[7]
Hausherr was quoted in Religion Online as stating on his
Web site: "Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a
serious threat to the community, medically, morally and
socially."[8]
In 1998, attorneys representing the Church of Scientology sent a
letter to Hausherr, telling him to remove altered Scientology
images from his Web site.[9]
Hausherr had parodied copyright-protected images belonging to the
Church including changing the Scientology "S" to a dollar sign, as well as
elongating the nose of the president of the organization, an image
intended to evoke comparison to Pinocchio.[9]
In the course of the dispute Compuserve, which was
hosting the pages and altered images, blocked his website for terms
of service violations.[10]
Hausherr defended his site, saying "It's just a page making fun of
Scientology--it's a form of art. Parodies are allowed under German
and U.S. law."[9]
References
- ^
"70 assists for a winning site.(WEB BUILDER'S TOOLKIT)", PC Magazine, April
23, 2002.
- ^
Attack of the Robotic
Poets, ZDNet, by Kevin Poulsen, May
06, 1999.
- ^ a
b
Højsgaard, Morten T.; Margit Warburg
(2005). Religion and Cyberspace. Routledge. p. 111.
ISBN
0415357675.
- ^
Rutter, Daniel (1999-09-16). "Gibbering clones the future of Usenet?"
(Reprint with annotation). Australian IT.
http://www.dansdata.com/sporge.htm. Retrieved
2007-03-16.
- ^
Kent, Stephen A. (September 2003).
"Scientology and the European
Human Rights Debate: A Reply to Leisa Goodman, J. Gordon Melton,
and the European Rehabilitation Project Force Study".
Marburg Journal of Religion 8 (1). http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/kent3.html.
- ^
Hexham, Irving; Karla Poewe (April
1999). "“Verfassungsfeindlich”:
Church, State, And New Religions In Germany". Nova
Religio 2 (2): 208–227. doi:10.1525/nr.1999.2.2.208. http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/papers/irving/Verfas.htm.
Hudson, David., Scientology's
"Holocaust" : Is Hollywood on the wrong side in Germany's
"Church" vs. state furor?, Salon.com, February 25, 1997
- ^
Berliner Dialog Article by
Tilman Hausherr, "Helnwein und Scientology"
- ^
Dawson, Lorne L.; Douglas E. Cowan
(2004). Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet.
Routledge. p. 261. ISBN
0415970229.
- ^ a
b
c
Macavinta, Courtney (January 29, 1998).
"Scientologists in trademark
disputes" (in English). CNET
News. http://news.com.com/Scientologists+in+trademark+disputes/2100-1023_3-207618.html.
- ^
Zehnder, Matthias W. (1998). "Extremismus im Internet"
(in German). Birkhäuser Verlag. http://www.mediaculture-online.de/fileadmin/bibliothek/zehnder_extremismus/zehnder_extremismus.html.
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