Tilman Hausherr
OccupationSoftware developer
NationalityGerman
GenreComputer programming, Scientology criticism
SubjectScientology, Relational database management system
Website
xenu.de

Tilman Hausherr is a German citizen living in Berlin, Germany. Hausherr is well known among critics of Scientology for his frequent Usenet posts and for maintaining a website critical of Scientology. Hausherr is also the author of a software utility, Xenu's Link Sleuth, which was praised in a 2002 PC Magazine article covering 70 web builder utilities.[1]

Coined "Sporgery"

Hausherr is credited with coining the term "Sporgery" in the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, to which he is a regular contributor.[2][3] "Sporgery" refers to internet attacks that not only spam a forum with offensive posts but also misrepresent regular users by forging their names to the spam posts. The term is a blending of the words "spam" and "forgery".[3][4]

Website

Hausherr's website contains a large section critical of Scientology, including the "Scientology celebrities FAQ", as well as the "FAQ: Scientology in Germany" (2001).[5][6] He has also contributed updates on the activities of the Church of Scientology to the magazine Berliner Dialog, published until 2005 by the non-profit organization Dialog Zentrum Berlin e.V.[7] Hausherr was quoted in Religion Online as stating on his Web site: "Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially."[8]

In 1998, attorneys representing the Church of Scientology sent a letter to Hausherr, telling him to remove altered Scientology images from his Web site.[9] Hausherr had parodied copyright-protected images belonging to the Church including changing the Scientology "S" to a dollar sign, as well as elongating the nose of the president of the organization, an image intended to evoke comparison to Pinocchio.[9] In the course of the dispute Compuserve, which was hosting the pages and altered images, blocked his website for terms of service violations.[10] Hausherr defended his site, saying "It's just a page making fun of Scientology--it's a form of art. Parodies are allowed under German and U.S. law."[9]

References

  1. ↑ "70 assists for a winning site.(WEB BUILDER'S TOOLKIT)", PC Magazine, April 23, 2002.
  2. ↑ Attack of the Robotic Poets Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, ZDNet, by Kevin Poulsen, May 06, 1999.
  3. 1 2 Højsgaard, Morten T.; Margit Warburg (2005). Religion and Cyberspace. Routledge. p. 111. ISBN 0-415-35767-5.
  4. ↑ Rutter, Daniel (16 September 1999). "Gibbering clones the future of Usenet?" (Reprint with annotation). Australian IT. Retrieved 16 March 2007.
  5. ↑ Kent, Stephen (September 2003). "Scientology and the European Human Rights Debate: A Reply to Leisa Goodman, J. Gordon Melton, and the European Rehabilitation Project Force Study". Marburg Journal of Religion. University of Marburg. 8 (1). doi:10.17192/mjr.2003.8.3725. Archived from the original on 29 June 2006.
  6. ↑ Hexham, Irving; Karla Poewe (April 1999). ""Verfassungsfeindlich": Church, State, And New Religions In Germany". Nova Religio. 2 (2): 208–227. doi:10.1525/nr.1999.2.2.208.
    Hudson, David., Scientology's "Holocaust" : Is Hollywood on the wrong side in Germany's "Church" vs. state furor?, Salon.com, February 25, 1997
  7. ↑ Berliner Dialog Article by Tilman Hausherr, "Helnwein und Scientology"
  8. ↑ Dawson, Lorne L.; Douglas E. Cowan (2004). Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet. Routledge. p. 261. ISBN 0-415-97022-9.
  9. 1 2 3 Macavinta, Courtney (29 January 1998). "Scientologists in trademark disputes". CNET News. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013.
  10. ↑ Zehnder, Matthias W. (1998). "Extremismus im Internet" (in German). Birkhäuser Verlag. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
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