VenomFangX is a creationists that makes videos for youtube about why Christianity is so great and why “Darwinism” is so bad/evil/of the devil, etc.
Thunderf00t is a non-creationist (i.e. scientifically minded person) that routinely makes videos debunking various creationist claims. He often uses portions of those creationist video in his own, to comment on them. This is authorized under “fair use” in the U.S. Copyright Law.
VenomFangX decided to be an ass and started filing DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) take-down notices to YouTube about Thunderf00t’s videos where he used material from VenomFangX’s video.
VenomFangX was in the wrong because of the fair use doctrine, and filing DMCA notices where there isn’t a violation, is a violation! VenomFangX got some heat because of this, and ended up having to make this apology, seemingly supplied by Thunderf00t.
Browse around their other videos, they are quite entertaining.
Last week there was some litigation nonsense over at YouTube, with someone suspiciously like the “Church” of Scientology issuing takedown notices on some 4000 Scientology-related videos. In response to this, Anonymous has launched their own video channel…AnonTube!
The site pulls videos from YouTube with tags like “Scientology” and “Chanology”, but has backups, should the meddling f(r)iends of Co$ try to remove the content again. AnonTube serves as a nice aggregator of raid documentary videos and original Anon content, and will hopefully develop some good Anonymous conversation & commenting.
“You’ve shown many times that you are unable to make the right decisions on your own. Only after complaints of hundreds or thousands of users, you are willing to listen. You are often a tool in the hands of fraudulent corporations, evil regimes and abusive cults. You have taken down videos of users who simply spoke out against evil and abuse.”
What’s been shaking over in Scientologyland lately? Quite a bit, actually. Some un-googleable folks calling themselves the American Rights Counsel [sic] sent more than 4000 DCMA takedown notices to YouTube - the sort of thing one does when one is asserting copyright over a video - and all of the videos in question just happened to have something to do with Scientology. Some are news reports from Europe & Canada, Anonymous protests, Clearwater (Florida, a bastion of Scientology) city council meetings, all with C0$ connections. YouTube’s policy with regards to these kind of copyright issues is to immediately remove the potentially offending videos. Many of them have apparently been reinstated, but Mark Bunker’s XenuTv is a YouTube graveyard of ‘this video no longer available’ notices.
This kind of litigious, censorious crap was what got Co$ in hot water with Anonymous in the first place, and the fine Anons on the Enturbulation boards are all over this recent attack. Will we see another Anonymous strike? Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson reports that Anon plans to purchase group tickets to Katie Holmes’ upcoming Broadway opening & sit silently in the audience in their all their Guy Fawkes glory. Creepy yes; effective, potentially - Katie, the gentlemen in masks are your friends and will help you make a getaway. Just give them a signal.
Anonymous copycats are springing up. Copycatting Anonymous in practice means you join Anonymous…we are Legion!
Regardless of your position on Scientology (Manipulative cult thugs that ruin people lives to protect their tax exempt status? Just another group of semi-harmless wackos that deserves to express their views in peace?), watching this YouTube chess game develop is pretty interesting.
A little backstory on the precipitation of the conflict: this video of Tom Cruise going off on Scientology’s greatness was posted on YouTube, and it was quickly removed by the CoS’s usual litigation threat tactics. This pissed some people off, and Gawker.com refused to remove the link on the basis that it was newsworthy.
Anonymous were among the ones pissed off by the CoS’s actions - messing with the democratic nature of the internet and menacing YouTube, a voice of that democracy. They reacted with a holy war the goal of which is to purge Scientology from the medium that helps it spread, the internet. Try to silence others, and we will silence you.
Whether or not Anon is a joke, the meme is spreading and the backlash against the “religion” is growing.
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