From: mirele@super.zippo.com (Deana M. Holmes (NED for OTs Series)) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: My response to tidepool.com re: Grady Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 03:17:44 GMT Organization: Knights of Xenu, Kingdom of Deseret Chapter Lines: 95 Message-ID: <3446d79e.9871780@snews.zippo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-945.newsdawg.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/16.451 Path: sn.no!uninett.no!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news.he.net!news.gridnet.com!zdc-e!szdc!newsp.zippo.com!snews1 Xref: sn.no alt.religion.scientology:385107 cc: postmaster@tidepool.com due to spelling errors. What I wrote to tidepool.com. I took advantage of the repost to clean up a few spelling errors. (Yes, I could have spellchecked it but I was in a hurry.) To: eric@wright.northcoast.com Subject: Cancellation of Grady Ward's Tidepool account Date sent: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 19:43:07 Dear Mr. Wright: It is my understanding that you were the one who made the decision to cancel Grady Ward's prepaid Tidepool account. I am told that this was done in response to so-called violations of your Terms of Service. I have reviewed your Terms of Service. They basically state: Don't send UCE. Don't mailbomb. Don't send harassing e-mail after asked to stop. Don't spam Usenet. Don't post off-topic messages. Don't run IRC bots. Don't impersonate other people. Don't hack the network. Don't share an account with other people. Don't exceed bandwidth limits. It's my understanding after conversations with other concerned Netizens that your reason for cancelling Mr. Ward's account was that he was posting off-topic messages to Usenet. Grady Ward practically only posts to alt.religion.scientology, with occasional crossposts to misc.legal and comp.org.eff.talk. His posts are *on topic* and very much so. Mr. Ward is being sued by the Church of $cientology for allegedly posting their Sooper Sekrit Sakred Skripchers. Apparently they have spent several hundred thousand dollars in prosecuting this case before Federal Judge Ronald M. Whyte down in San Jose, and they have yet to bring it to trial--or present proof that Mr. Ward ever had their copyrighted "truths" in his possession. Mr. Ward is representing himself before Judge Whyte, and he has approximately half-a-dozen attorneys arrayed against him. He has taken to calling them names on the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. Some of those names are scatological in nature. Additionally, he has also posted scatological satire regarding the defacto leader of the Co$, David Miscavige, as well as about these same attorneys and other Scientology shills. The Co$ has attempted to use Grady's posts against him before, such as when they were presented to Judge Whyte and His Honor pronounced them "disgusting." No matter that the posts had nothing to do with *copyright infringement*, or that His Honor was revealing himself to be prejudiced against Mr. Ward, or that Mr. Ward has a First Amendment right to say these things, no matter how "disgusting" they may be... And now it seems that you people have caved in to Mr. William Gertler (wgert@loop.com). Shame on you! As I told Jim Clearly on the telephone today, you have *caved* to the Co$. After reviewing your Terms of Service, I do not see how it could be that you could accuse Mr. Ward of being in violation. In short: NO MATTER HOW VILE OR DISGUSTING YOU MAY FIND HIS POSTS, THEY WERE AND ARE ON TOPIC FOR ALT.RELIGION.SCIENTOLOGY. I am shouting because you people have abused Mr. Ward, and gave in to a notorious and litigious religious cult, when, if you had *stood up* to them, nothing would have happened. As I explained to Mr. Clearly, the Co$ attorney Helena K. Kobrin tried to have Xmission here in Salt Lake City yank my account a year ago. She *failed.* My provider basically told her to take it up with me. That pretty much ended it as far as Xmission is concerned (although I do remain a sometime target of the Co$ legal machine). I think you are setting yourself up for disaster by caving in to the Church of $cientology. We know that Mr. Ward posted his missives through Supernews, NOT through Tidepool. The only connection he had to Tidepool was his address. Also, we know that your connectivity is provided through Sprintlink, and so it is *bogus* to suggest that you might lose connectivity over failure to "do something" about Mr. Ward. Finally, I would note that Mr. Ward may have a very good case for breach of contract on your part. Not only does Mr. Ward's behaviour not fall within your Terms of Service, he can get a *lot* of people, including myself, to sign affidavits stating that his posts, while vile, were on topic for alt.religion.scientology. Frankly, if it comes to it, I hope he does take you to court and teach you a lesson. You should know better than to cave to Scientology. Deana Holmes, J.D. Deana M. Holmes alt.religion.scientology archivist since February 1995 NEW! 4/97 *and* 4/96 Poster Child for Clueless $cientology Litigiousness mirele@super.zippo.com