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Mock them using another name
L.A. Times ^ | October 19, 2005 | Scott Martelle

Posted on 10/19/2005 10:45:54 AM PDT by Millee

Some things just aren't funny — at least to the Church of Scientology.

A New Zealand-based website that says it is devoted to "exposing Tom Cruise's moronic behavior in his relentless crusade to promote the Church of Scientology" has been ordered by church lawyers to stop using the domain name www.scienTOMogy.info.he reason: Web surfers might confuse it with the real thing.

The site states that it has no connection with the Church of Scientologists and offers a link to the Scientology home page. Then it post links to a series of videos of Cruise talking about Scientology, including a sci-fi video parody of the actor's infamous May television appearance on "Oprah," in which he appears to electrocute her.

"The site is purely satirical and is for entertainment, and consists of links to other sites — it contains no fact nor claims to do so and is completely non-commercial," the website said.

The creator of the website could not be reached by press time Tuesday. Church of Scientology attorney Helena Kobrin, a partner in Moxon & Kobrin law firm, said the letter was intended to protect the Scientology name.

"You can't use someone else's trademarks to promote your own agenda," Kobrin said, adding that organizations routinely defend the integrity of their trademarks and copyrights. "Changing one letter is the trick of the infringer to try to get around the law, but the law makes it very clear that you can't do that."

The scienTOMogy.info website has posted an exchange with Moxon & Kobrin lawyer Ava M. Paquette, which began in September, in which Paquette warned that the Church of Scientology owns the trademark to the word Scientology.

"The fact that you have changed one letter ('m' instead of 'l') does not protect you from trademark infringement," Paquette wrote before pointing out that infringing on a trademark could lead to a $100,000 fine. Paquette then demanded that the domain name be transferred to the Church of Scientology.

The website responded that it was using the name legally.

The letter isn't the first time Scientology lawyers have claimed that websites had violated its trademark. San Francisco anti-Scientology activist Kristi Wachter received a similar letter from Kobrin four years ago after she registered the domain name www.truthaboutscientology.com.

Wachter said Tuesday that, after an exchange of letters, the Scientology lawyers appeared to drop the issue. But a few weeks ago, she said, her Web host was forced to temporarily remove more than 600 pages from her site after Scientology lawyers accused her of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Act. When no formal legal challenge was filed after four weeks, the pages were restored.

"I decided not to spend any further time on it because I decided she was just trying to intimidate me, or distract me," Wachter said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: 2crazy; 4xenu; tomcruise
Cults have no sense of humor.
1 posted on 10/19/2005 10:46:02 AM PDT by Millee
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To: Millee

Especially ISLAMIC ones...............


2 posted on 10/19/2005 10:57:48 AM PDT by Red Badger (In life, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you settle for...........)
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To: Red Badger

The Church of, er, something or other was actually the impetus behind the development of the Mixmaster and Cyberpunk remailing/mail2news technology.

You can't sue if you don't know who is attacking you.


3 posted on 10/19/2005 11:10:45 AM PDT by proxy_user
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To: Millee

4 posted on 10/19/2005 11:22:55 AM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: Millee

5 posted on 10/19/2005 11:27:41 AM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: Millee

6 posted on 10/19/2005 11:29:29 AM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: orionblamblam
Image hosted by Photobucket.com
7 posted on 10/19/2005 11:34:38 AM PDT by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL (Undocumented border patrol agent.)
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To: Millee

Scientology was invented so the Jehovah's Witnesses would have someone to laugh at.


8 posted on 10/19/2005 11:45:16 AM PDT by rock58seg (My votes for Pres. Bush, the best candidate available, have not helped us, conservatively speaking.)
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To: orionblamblam

This is hysterical.

http://www.scientomogy.info/videos/tomkills.wmv


9 posted on 10/19/2005 11:48:27 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: orionblamblam

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


10 posted on 10/19/2005 12:14:36 PM PDT by jdm
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To: RummyChick

Server appears to be overloaded. BTTT for later.


11 posted on 10/19/2005 12:15:23 PM PDT by jdm
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To: jdm

Yes I can't even get into the site right now. I wanted to watch the one on the bottom about psychiatry.

The site should be a boon for those on this site that mock Tom. The poster should have put Cruise in the subject line so people would know what this was about. There are a lot of people that think Cruise is off his rocker on Free Republic.


12 posted on 10/19/2005 12:24:46 PM PDT by RummyChick
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To: jdm

That link was for the Tom Kills Oprah spoof. I did a search and it is all over the web.

http://tcruiseko.ytmnd.com/


13 posted on 10/19/2005 12:32:17 PM PDT by RummyChick
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To: jdm

Just can't get enough animated GIFs of Tom going nuts...


14 posted on 10/19/2005 1:26:16 PM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: orionblamblam

I have yet to see an animated picture of any kind wherein he appears sane.


15 posted on 10/19/2005 4:13:30 PM PDT by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: Millee

In my opinion ol Tom's as straight as a corkscrew.


16 posted on 10/19/2005 4:14:14 PM PDT by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: Red Badger

These guys aren't real nice either. I know a few rattlesnakes were left in some guy's mailbox, and I think one or two dissenters were found dead under unusual circumstances.


17 posted on 10/19/2005 4:17:14 PM PDT by geopyg (Ever Vigilant, Never Fearful)
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To: Millee
Web surfers might confuse it with the real thing.

I'm so confused! Is this the wacky cult site? Or is it the wacky cult parody site? I just can't tell... The "M"s and "L"s all look alike... amm mook amike... Oh, what ever.

18 posted on 10/19/2005 4:19:14 PM PDT by Redcloak (We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singin' "whiskey for my men and beer for my horses!")
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To: Millee

Not that one.

Your LRH reference is HCOPL 'Jokers and Degraders'..


19 posted on 10/19/2005 4:24:24 PM PDT by null and void (As a former member of that, um, organization I will answer any FReepers questions about Scientology)
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