Scientology Given Direct Access To eBay Database 684
An anonymous reader writes "The Church of Scientology can delete auctions from eBay with no supervision under the VeRO program, and has used this to delete all resale of the e-meters Scientologists use. This is to stop members from buying used units from ex-members instead of buying from the official (and very expensive) source. Given Scientology's record of fraud and abuse, should eBay give them this level of trust? Will this set a precedent for other companies that want to stop the aftermarket resale of their products?"
Don't tell Chef but (Score:5, Informative)
Off topic, yet... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/lonsdale1.html [xenu-directory.net]
That's pretty sad.
Re:Is this legal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't tell Chef but (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, there's a couple other things involved, from what I understand--there's a coarse and fine adjustment for the resistances. While the alleged 'science' behind using it for some kind of invisible alien ghost detection is kinda bogus, it would be useful for, say, testing a batch of resistors for variances--you could adjust the tolerances as required, and so long as the needle stayed on-scale, your resistor would be acceptable for the value in question.
I think I've heard of this access before though...haven't they had it for a while?
Definitely abusive, and I definitely won't be going anywhere near eBay for the forseeable future.
Re:easy answer -or- +5 insightful (Score:5, Informative)
Re:short answer (Score:5, Informative)
I especially love their section on how things won't be mistakenly removed:
Re:how direct an access is what bother me more (Score:5, Informative)
VERO Program (Score:4, Informative)
It's pretty obvious from the early comments that not many people RTFA. (Comments like, "I wonder who at eBay is high up the kook-chain in Scientology?" and all that.) This is an established EBay program called VERO that Scientology has joined, like a bunch of other manufacturers, and (big surprise) happens to be abusing.
Re:Curious (Score:5, Informative)
Well, if you RTFA, it has nothing to do with insider knowledge. Instead:
"The mechanism that permits the Church of Scientology (and others) such broad access and discretion is called the Verified Rights Owner ("VeRO") Program. Membership in VeRO is obtained simply by submitting a form to eBay explaining that you are an Intellectual Property rights holder. ... It should come as little surprise that VeRO members routinely overreach, as the cost of challenging a listing removal is almost always prohibitive. ... The VeRO Program makes a great deal of sense for some types of listings -- counterfeit Rolexes and Gucci handbags appear on eBay with such frequent regularity that those companies would be hard pressed to handle these trademark violations any other way."
eBay has more info about their VeRO program [ebay.com].
Basically, the original summary is misleading: lots of companies (e.g. copyright/trademark holders) have access to directly delete auctions on eBay. The Slyentologists are only one of many (but they're fun to pick on!).
Re:Is this legal? (Score:3, Informative)
a Partial list [ebay.com]
My guess is... (Score:5, Informative)
The Scientologists are just that scary.
a bit misleading (Score:4, Informative)
Interestingly people who are targeted by this can file a DMCA counter claim and bring the issue into the court system. I hope this guy does that - maybe some of the CoS's practices can finally see the light of day.
Re:Is this legal? (Score:3, Informative)
http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=gmlicensing [ebay.com]
Re:Head Shops & E-Meters (Score:4, Informative)
Re:My guess is... (Score:5, Informative)
You may be interested in the phenomenon of Anonymous--a sort of movement that has coalesced to fight against the abuses of the Church of Scientology.
Interestingly, the 'official' position (if so nebulous a thing can have anything 'official') is not that the -religion- of scientology is wrong and evil, but that the -organization- that calls itself the 'Church of Scientology' does not deserve tax exemption, recognition as a church, etc.
I've been keeping track of Anonymous for some time--they seem to be the origin of many of the various memes that end up getting popular, so they seem to work well as a sort of miner's canary when discerning the opinion of the internet in general. This is, to my knowledge, the first time that this particular phenomenon has occurred--an internet movement that has had significant international effect in the real world. What makes it even more interesting is that it -has no leaders-. Somehow, out of total anarchy, it's managed to coalesce a sort of identity to itself, and has directed attention towards a single goal.
At any rate, it appears that as a followup to the February 10th protests (which were remarkable in themselves in that they were entirely without violence and none of the protesters in any of the countries were arrested--that has to be a first, in a protest of that scope) there are another series of protests being planned for March 15th--sort of a "Happy Birthday" to Hubbard, whose birthday was apparently March 13th and not conveniently on a Saturday this year. I've also heard some mention of plans for April, but not being an Anon, I don't know the details.
IIRC, one of the Anonymous-sponsored websites is youfoundthecard.com; it's worth looking into.
Re:Head Shops & E-Meters (Score:5, Informative)
Re:bordering on illegal (Score:2, Informative)
For the record, I definitely think eBay shouldn't allow this, but it is most definitely legal and within their rights.
Re:Head Shops & E-Meters (Score:5, Informative)
eBay just jumped the shark (Score:3, Informative)
It's one thing for the scientologists to claim copyright protections on their literature but restricting the sale or e-meters is something they don't have the right to do. E-meters are hard physical items that are subject to the right of first sale doctrine. There is no copyright violation going on with their resale. Likewise, there should be nothing wrong with people reselling original copies of CoS literature provided they aren't bound by a contract that says otherwise.
Re:yet again the religous twats get too much say (Score:5, Informative)
You shouldn't talk of things about which you are ignorant.
There almost certainly was a historical Buddha. There is far more evidence for this, from independent sources, than for (e.g.) Socrates.
And FYI, the Buddha never said he was anything but a normal man. In fact, he stated again and again that he was just that -- not some kind of a God or superbeing.
Re:Microsoft vs. the Church of Scientology (Score:1, Informative)
Psychiatrists did the holocaust!!! (seriously,watch the BBC Panorama on Scientology, they believe that, they claim it, PUBLICLY)
Re:Don't tell Chef but (Score:5, Informative)
Another example of the abusive VERO program (Score:5, Informative)
Try reselling Weight Watchers program materials. They get deleted on a regular basis because Weight Watchers doesn't like it if you resell them. There's no legal basis for this, and if you push the issue with eBay, the response you get is "Well, they said they don't want you selling them, so too bad." They tell you to "take it up with Weight Watchers" who says "We say you can't sell them, and that's that."
VeRO is a bullshit program that lets eBay wash their hands of legitimate issues on the site and that gives companies ridiculously too much power. Do you think that if I set up a stand at a flea market reselling legally acquired materials, that the flea market owners would stand for the publisher of those materials walking around with a rubber hose and yanking the items away if I tried to sell them?
This isn't news, hopefully this just pushes VeRO into the public eye and convinces eBay to get rid of it, or to force "rights owners" (I wasn't aware that a "right to prevent resale" existed) to actually file individual complaints based on some sort of legal theory to delist an item, not just "We don't want these resold." Scn is abusing it like they abuse everything else, but this system seems to be made specifically to facilitate abuse.
Fun facts about the e-meter (Score:2, Informative)
Re:My guess is... (Score:2, Informative)
Reports had attendance figures anywhere from the high 5k mark up to over the 9k mark, and there was a presence over a fair portion of the world.
I found some of the footage I saw amusing, though, especially the Atlanta protest where they called out the SWAT team to stand on the Scientologist's side of the street.
(Though...isn't there a water shortage there? 'cuz the Scientologists had their sprinklers on in a bunch of the pictures; I was under the impression that sprinkler usage wasn't allowed at the moment?)
Re:What fraud and abuse? (Score:5, Informative)
Any Scientologists reading this topic have no doubt already heard about Bare Faced Messiah and the lies contained within it, invented (of course) by the Church's enemies in order to discredit Hubbard and his ideas. To you I say: what if your perception of reality is wrong? What if you have been lied to, that a sort of Matrix has been built around you by your friends and colleagues at the Church? Wouldn't you at least like to see what other people's reality looks like? No need to take any pills, the truth might be a click away...
Re:Completely Misleading (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Church (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't tell Chef but (Score:5, Informative)
Read the wiki linked to in the article summary. Very Interesting.
It gets funnier, much funnier... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.xenu.net/ [xenu.net]
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/fishman/index2.html [xs4all.nl]
Re:short answer (Score:5, Informative)
No, because case precedent says there are certain rights you can't legally sign away. Slavery and your life are included in that. They are deemed rights which you can't legally waive. Ever. (*)
No, because the contract is prima facie [wikipedia.org] invalid -- meaning, it wasn't ever a valid contract, so trying to enforce the terms of said contract is meaningless.
Cheers
(*) There could be some place where you could, but that place shares no legal history with us.
Re:My guess is... (Score:2, Informative)
Zim assures me that it's not him.
And apologies if I conveyed an unclear message; I did not intend to denigrate the efforts of the folks who have been fighting against the practices of the Church of Scientology for some time now.
However, the Anonymous movement arose independently of the anti-scientology movement; it's only after (I think) January 23rd of this year that there began to be any sort of significant overlap between Anonymous and the existing anti-scientology organization. Anonymous has existed as an internet-based entity for some years now, and is only now making a significant crossover to the 'real world'.
I would caution you against underestimating Anonymous--there's rather a lot more to it than one might expect on first glance. Dismissing it as "just another example of a real world group coordinating via the internet" ignores some of the more interesting parts of this phenomenon.
As a disclaimer, I'm not an Anon myself--I just watch 'em.
Re:Head Shops & E-Meters (Score:5, Informative)
Let me be perfectly clear then: Scientology makes the claim, in their official religious literature, that Jesus was a homosexual pedophile. That is backed up by court records.
Re:yet again the religous twats get too much say (Score:5, Informative)
And things like rising from an untimely death after being nailed to a cross (or tree) three days after dying (and then celebrating), having a last supper, being born of a virgin, being the son of a god, etc... were all prevalent beliefs of pagan mythology at the time of and well before Jesus. A guy who had these "myths" thrown upon his name decades after he was dead in order to start a religion.
People forget that the history of most religions are far more "earth-bound" than they like to realize...
Re:Don't tell Chef but (Score:2, Informative)
Re:My guess is... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:yet again the religous twats get too much say (Score:1, Informative)
If you don't believe it, do some research. A quick google search reveals these links to be informative:
http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Other-Essays-Freethought-Library/dp/0879758333 [amazon.com]
http://web.archive.org/web/20000520040242/http://www.wels.net/sab/text/qa/qa15.html [archive.org]
http://web.archive.org/web/20021019195356/http://www.worldmissions.org/Clipper/Holidays/EasterAndAsherah.htm [archive.org]
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jckr1.htm [religioustolerance.org]
Innaccurate info from original, anonymous poster (Score:2, Informative)
Having once worked at eBay (I quit in late '07) in association with people on the VeRO team, I can tell you that direct access to the DB is not required to get an item off the site very quickly; it is quite easy for rights-holders to get items they claim to be infringing removed... all it takes is a single qualifying complaint (per item while I was there, but they may allow lists now).
A couple of notes about VeRO compaints, however:
1- The complaint is made under penalty of perjury, which creates some potential for liability for frivolous or incorrect complaints on the part of the complainant (potentially difficult to take legal action on, but present).
2- It is a complaint of IP (Intellectual Property) infringement, not simply copyright infringement. That's why items that are sold from an organization for a specific use, and whose resale is legally limited, can be said to infringe if they are being used/sold in a way inconsistent with the IP owner's wishes.
3- There is an appeals process, and the item can potentially get put back on the site.
For an overview of the process, you can go to this page eBay provides to explain it: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/vero-rights-owner.html [ebay.com]
If you'd like to see a copy of the notice that VeRO members (registered IP owners) must send to get things removed, then download this PDF (also linked from the priorly mentioned page): http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/NOCI1.pdf [ebay.com]
Re:Head Shops & E-Meters (Score:3, Informative)
the correct word here is "pederast", however, your words will do as some people wouldn't know what pederasty was unless they actually went and looked it up...
Re:Don't tell Chef but (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_beliefs_and_practices
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
Read that crap and tell me they aren't more insane than Creationists!
VERO is pretty much useless (Score:2, Informative)
EBay hosts many auctions of bootlegs of many of the films (anime, samurai stuff) for which my company, AnimEigo, is the US licensor (turning you all into malleable Otaku will definitely get me closer to the aforementioned end-state of World Domination). At one point, we tried using VERO to cancel these auctions. It was a total waste of time.
1) After being VERO'd, the bootleg vendor would simply put up another auction. It was a game of whack-a-mole, and they had more time to play than I did. The time I wasted -- I could have spent it on the Orbital Mind Control Lasers.
2) The serious bootleg vendors would simply contest the VERO. At which point the rights-holder has to provide documentation that demonstrates that the property infringes their rights. And that, folks, takes time and money -- and I need that money, do you guys have any idea how expensive it is to build and maintain a Secret Lair?
So my advice to people who want to sell E-Meters is to contest the VERO; it requires only 10 minutes of your time filling out a form and faxing it off, and will cost the COS a considerable amount of money to take to the next step. Now, they may decide that it's worth it to them to do that, but hey, that's money they can't spend on other things - and keep in mind that for them, World Domination is a serious business, not just a hobby like it is for me.
The real point of VERO is to protect eBay from lawsuits by rights-holders.
Natalie Portman naked and petrified. (Score:1, Informative)
[Operating Thetan Level 3]
BODY THETANS
by L. Ron Hubbard
The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet - 178 billion on average) by mass implanting..
He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken - in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".
His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc was placed in the unplants. When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert.
The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development. One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.
In December 1967 1 know someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.
One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.
One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing.
You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.
Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error.
Good luck.
* * *
For the purpose of clarity, by BODY THETAN is meant a thetan who is stuck to another thetan or body but is not in control.
A THETAN is, of course, a Scientology word using the Greek theta which was the Greek symbol for thought or life. An individual being such as a man is a thetan, he is not a body and he does not think because he has a brain.
A CLUSTER is a group of body thetans crushed or hold together by some mutual bad experience.
----------
Character of Body Thetans
Body Thetans are just Thetans. When you get rid of one he goes off and possibly squares around, picks up a body or admires daisies. He is in fact a sort of cleared Being. He cannot fail to eventually, if not at once, regain many abilities. Many have been asleep for the last 75,000,000 years. A body Thetan responds to any process any Thetan responds to.
Some body Thetans are suppressive. A suppressive is out of valence in R6. He is in valence in Incident I almost always.
One can't run a human being on these two incidents since human beings are composites and would not be able to run the lot. Aside from that, non-clears are way below awareness required to even find these Incidents.
Huge amounts of charge have already been removed from the case and the body thetans by Clearing and OT I and OT II to say nothing of engrams and lower grades.
Awareness is proportional to the charge removed from the case.
Although a human is a composite being there is only one I (that is you) who runs things.
Body thetans just hold one back.
You will continue to be you. You, inside, can of course separate out body thetans and so solo auditing is the answer. How good do you have to be to run body thetans off? Well, if you didn't skip your grades, Clearing and OT II particularly, you. should be able to'command body thetans easily.
* * *
Incident II is over 36 days long. Capture on other planets was weeks or months before the implant. Tho