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Revision as of 05:10, 3 December 2005
Scientomogy is a parody of Scientology; specifically of Tom Cruise and his involvement with it.
The concept was created by New Zealand webmaster Glen Stollery on a website called scientomogy.info in 2005. The website drew worldwide headlines when the Church of Scientology's attorneys Moxon & Kobrin contacted Stollery, claiming his parody was an infringement of their copyright, despite being a different word by one letter.
In September 2005 the Church of Scientology issued a cease and desist order to Stollery demanding he shut down the site and transfer ownership to the Church, threatening him with a $100,000 lawsuit. The Church's law firm stated that "Scientomogy" would cause a likelihood of confusion with their own, violating the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(a).
Stollery originally relented and agreed the remove the offending parody, but then thought better of it and decided to fight the Scientologists in court. His response: "We also have a Full Disclaimer at the top of the front page and in the website's meta-tags stating that there is no connection between ourselves and the church. Not to mention the fact that the site is completely non-commercial in nature, and does not generate a single cent of revenue nor offers any services of any kind. It is a parody site showing the recent lunacy of Tom Cruise - confusion of any kind with their site is literally impossible."