Free Speech

I have always believed that a persons own religious views are personal, and that discussion of the basis of these views can be very valuable in understanding others. As a result I am at least saddened and to some extent maddened by the use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by the Church of Scientology.

I have always thought that affirmative beliefs are the most susceptible to broad generalizations, one can often understand most deeply ones beliefs by examining what one rejects. An example being a person who labels themselves as a practicing Jew, but does not keep kosher or a one who labels themselves a Catholic, but does not believe that priests should be required to be celibate.
I believe that an active dialog between a believer and a dissenter is a valuable tool in creating a diverse yet tolerant society. Unfortunately, there clearly are many who readily believe that an ideal society would be one where every living person has become a convert to that person's individual belief system. 
I am content to live in a world where each of use recognizes the basis for others beliefs, whether they be based on faith, reason, or evidence that is personally convincing to them. Given that, if you are reading this page, you are probably a friend of mine, I think that I can clearly state that you and I disagree on at least one significant religious principle, but I am still glad to know you.

Furthermore, I believe that any religion should be prepared to have its religious principles discussed, even if eventually one must conclude that the difference between it and a dissenter are based on a matter of faith believed unprovable by at least one of the debaters.

Thus I am somewhat dismayed to learn that in March of 2002 the Church of Scientology utilized provisions of the DMCA to get my favorite search engine Google to remove links to many if not most pages on the Operation Clambake website. This website to my eyes appears to be a fairly harsh critique of the value of Scientology. I am not sure any of my friends are Scientologists or disillusioned former Scientologists, so I really have no opinion about it as a religion one way or the other. I further believe that Copyright Law, can be useful in the promotion of creation of useful art. For this reason, I believe that it makes sense to grant limited copyright. That said, copyright is the single strongest tool in existence today for non-governmental groups today. I think the use of the DMCA by the Church of Scientology is an abuse of at least the spirit of copyright law as the original framers of the constitution (who I believe were well balanced in this area) intended. I hope that court cases as well as future legislation will return copyright law to an incentive to create instead of a tool to restrict the exchange of ideas and to generate a perpetual income stream from a single creative idea.