Scientology Attacker Will Be Sentenced To Jail 354
OBG writes "A Nebraska native charged with taking part in a massive cyber-attack against the Scientology website will be spending the next year behind bars. 20-year-old Brian Thomas Mettenbrink will plead guilty to the charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer for his involvement in the denial of service attack, which was orchestrated by the online group 'Anonymous.' Mettenbrink's is the second successful prosecution connected to the 'Anonymous' attacks. Last year, Dmitriy Guzner of Verona, New Jersey, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for attacks on Scientology sites."
Justice (Score:5, Interesting)
An (Score:2, Interesting)
As the one's who stood up for us all.
The one's we can tell our children about.
The good guys not the bad guys.
They are victims and Scientology is and always will be a cult and more to the point. If Anonymous always needs to hide they're faces it's quite obvious they have reason to be frightened.
Lest we forget the one's who take them on they are our neighbours, our friends maybe even your family.
Keep up the work guys and gals!
Re:Justice (Score:4, Interesting)
SciFag Inc. does NOT have millions of brain dead slaves.
Actual data suggests a mass exodus of customers (thanks to Anonymous) and they have now between 50k and 200k idiotic followers. Worldwide.
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Interesting)
As long as parents have the legal "right" to force their (property) offspring into organized religion, ethical people have the RIGHT to use force to oppose such religions.
Dangerous phrase.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Interesting)
O I admit it's a dangerous idea. I just think it's worth the price. I believe that our freedom and survival as a species depends on doing away with irrational faith and building an educated participatory society. When you seriously start challenging hierarchy, you can expect the powerful to react. Let's specifically look at historical precedents for throwing off the yoke of reactionary religion. The democratic Spanish constitution enacted in 1931 established complete separation of Church and State in what had been a theocratic monarchy for centuries. It excluded the Church from education. This was one of the major reasons for the rise of Franco's fascism. In the first weeks of the Spanish Civil War, the fascists slaughtered teachers from the secular schools (as similar right wing forces had done to Francisco Ferrer, founder of the anti-authoritarian and anti-clerical modern schools decades earlier).
We need to be prepared for these kinds of reactionary forces if we are serious about liberating ourselves. There is a lot of violence hidden behind modern respectability. Tacit threats. Our current complacency exists because we are afraid to act and are unprepared for the consequences. Get the fuck ready. Organize.
Go Grand Island! (Score:0, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Island,_Nebraska [wikipedia.org]
As a resident of this town/city, I am delighted to see our community on the front page of Slashdot for something I consider a heroic act. XD
Re:Seriously? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't propose oppressing anyone. I propose giving young people the right to free association. This means taking away the parent's right the keep youth as chattel. Adults should not be able to have title (custody) of other human beings, if such title gives them to right to indoctrinate and censor. So...when young people come together to learn (as they inevitably will...youth are extremely curious as long as church and school don't kill it), they do so under a free environment. Parents should not be able to impose compulsory church, and the state should not be able to impose compulsory schooling. Learning should be free, voluntary, and open.
As to the larger question of when to use force...that's really quite easy in theory. You can deliberately cause harm as long as the harm you cause is less than the harm you are preventing by employing such force. Easy in theory, not so easy to work out in practice...but hey, that's the problem of civilization.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
Useful for the elite.
If the shift would be to[sic] rapid, you'll get chaos and the world reverting quickly to a state worse than before the shift.
You're on slashdot and you don't see how self organization, voluntary association, and mutual aid, can work? Hierarchy and exploitation are chaos. Democracy and freedom could give us more peace and order.
the gods are...completelly real...as constructs which proved hugely beneficial during our evolution; they wouldn't be so prevalent otherwise.
Once again, beneficial to those in charge, not the rest of us. Pie in the sky when you die; That's a lie!
Re:unauthorized access of a protected computer (Score:4, Interesting)
In some ways you can think of a person's brain as a computer.
Think about a banana
Did I just have illegal access to a computer system?
Re:Seriously? (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. Your slippery slope shit is fallacious.
group who think that lima beans are a threat to the world.....using violence against lima bean growers
Lima beans are not a threat to our existence as a species. They are actually pretty good for your health. Apocalyptic, dogmatic, irrational faith is a major threat in a age of WMDs. It is also a barrier to having a participatory democratic society. If everyday people are going to make important social decisions, they need to not be totally fucking ignorant and crazy.
I don't support the existence of the state. The state is a monopoly on the use of force. The use of force depends on the ethics of situation. It should never be reserved to a particular institution to use as they please.
Um, so which religions teach tax cuts for the rich?
Actually there are Evangelical Christian churches that preach that kinda "cross of gold" bullshit. But...that wasn't my point. My point is that by focusing on homophobia and etc bigotries, the churches have gotten the working class to ignore their class interest and support a candidate simply for having conservative social values.
Catholics in the USA tend to ignore the bigotry that exists in the church and vote their economic interest. There are even left wing members of the clergy. But the USA is mostly protestant, not Catholic.
Social contract theory
I never was given the option to sign any social contract! I doubt most people would choose the organized oppressive violence of the state, the exploitation of capitalism, and the lies of religion if given a choice. Most people would choose anarchy: peace, freedom, self organization.
Re:movies... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:We are Anonymous. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How do you define a religion? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Abrahamic religions at least have the defense that they didn't know any better back then, then glossing over the utterly absurd foundations of their religion with some fluff about moral lessons.
Scientologists know, in their founder's own words, that they follow a religion written as a work of sci-fi on a bet that he could create a (somewhat) successful religion. Their "morality" consists of nothing more than "make money and give it to us, oh and destroy our critics by any means necessary".
Not to call the former any more valid than the latter; but when I decided I could no longer believe in my familial religion, no one systematically blackmailed my boss at every job I've ever held to get me fired and make me generally unemployable.
Re:We are Anonymous. (Score:5, Interesting)
What do I care?
The chance it will be me next time is infinitesimal.
I know the risk and take it with full awareness. So did they.
And if they come for me after all, I won't cry to Anonymous for help, because I know it won't come. None of us means a thing, and if you think otherwise you are deluding yourself.
OT-VII William "Rex" Fowler Murders Software Dev (Score:3, Interesting)
To pre-emptively counter the usual no-worse-than-Catholicism thought-terminating cliche, here is a very fresh anecdote about an OT-VII from a WISE software development house. Dude uncovered a pattern of embezzlement where his boss sent several $200,000 - $250,000 payments to CoS. Boss set dude up with the promise of a check and capped him on his son's birthday. There is a mystery briefcase, too. It may contain Marcellus' soul.
http://forums.whyweprotest.net/15-media/1st-degree-murder-rev-william-rex-fowler-scientology-minister-charged-60161/
Adams Co. business owner thought to be victim now charged in death of former co-worker
The owner of an Adams County software company has been arrested and charged with the murder of his former business partner.
William Rex Fowler was charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 30 shooting at Fowler Software Design that killed Tommy Ciancio, 42, the Adams County district attorney and sheriff said today in a news release.
(...)
Employees of the software company, which reportedly had suffered financial difficulties since 2008, related in part to the transfer of as much as $200,000 to a church or charity by Fowler, told investigators that Ciancio arrived around 10 a.m. Dec. 30 to collect his check.
(...)
Investigators say the gun was registered to Andrew Hyung Fowler, 26, who lived at 1413 L. Ron Hubbard Way in Los Angeles, when it was purchased. In interviews with police, Andrew Fowler said he gave the gun to his father for Christmas in 2007.
Police also found a briefcase and a typed note, dated Dec. 30 and signed by Fowler, that advised there was nothing confidential in the satchel and that it should be given to his wife, Janet.
When Janet Fowler was interviewed by detectives, she told them she wanted the briefcase returned immediately.
"It is important to me and my church. It is religious material and I want it now," she said to investigators. "Even if you looked at it, and read it, you would not understand anything in it. Because it is way above a normal person and you would not know what it meant. I want it back right now."
Janet Fowler also reportedly told investigators that her husband "is a Scientologist and would not have gone without a fight. He would have grabbed a gun in a struggle and would not have let someone shoot him."
She also told investigators that Ciancio had sent e-mails to Rex Fowler, threatening to hire an attorney and sue over money he said was owed him.
Adams County officials said Fowler is in custody, but would not say where he is being held. He was last at Denver Health Medical Center, but his name no longer appears on patient rosters.
But is a DoS actually accessing a system? (Score:1, Interesting)
Illegal access to a remote computer system...
Yet, he never actually accessed it.
He sent "requests" which were denied..
It's like knocking on the door to someone's house.
It's a nuisance yes, but not criminal trespass, or breaking and entering, which the law they are using is akin to.
Now, just because the scientology (which isn't a religion, never was - as L. Ron Hubbard stated clearly in earlier revisions of his book before his death) followers aren't smart enough to make their firewalls ignore these packets after a period of time and live through it, isn't part of the case, as apparently, there's no law on the books to cover this, knock on the door and run tactics.
Re:We are Anonymous. (Score:2, Interesting)
There is no king so how could anyone be a pawn?
If you are a deluded idiot, you are a self-deluded idiot.
If you are cannon fodder you chose that role by yourself.
Just because you share a common goal doesn't entitle anyone to give a shit about you.