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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.

Coined "Sporgery"

Hausherr is credited with coining the term "Sporgery" in the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, to which he is a regular contributor. "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".

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). 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. 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."

In 1998, attorneys representing the Church of Scientology sent a letter to Hausherr, telling him to remove altered Scientology images from his Web site. 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. In the course of the dispute Compuserve, which was hosting the pages and altered images, blocked his website for terms of service violations. 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."

References

1. "70 assists for a winning site.(WEB BUILDER'S TOOLKIT)", PC Magazine, April 23, 2002.
2. Attack of the Robotic Poets, ZDNet, by Kevin Poulsen, May 06, 1999.
3. ^ Højsgaard, Morten T.; Margit Warburg (2005). Religion and Cyberspace. Routledge. p. 111. ISBN 0-415-35767-5.
4. Rutter, Daniel (1999-09-16). "Gibbering clones the future of Usenet?" (Reprint with annotation). Australian IT. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
5. Kent, Stephen A. (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. 8 (1).
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. ^ Macavinta, Courtney (January 29, 1998). "Scientologists in trademark disputes" (in English). CNET News. Archived from the original on 2013-01-19.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
10. Zehnder, Matthias W. (1998). "Extremismus im Internet" (in German). Birkhäuser Verlag.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

External links

• The homepage of Tilman Hausherr

v t e Scientology and the Internet
Organizations, websites	alt.religion.scientology Anonymous Chilling Effects Church of Scientology editing on Misplaced Pages FACTNet Operation Clambake Penet remailer Planetboredom Project Chanology ScienTOMogy YTMND
Software, terms	Fishman Affidavit Scamizdat Scieno Sitter Sporgery
People	Mark Bunker Tory Christman Tilman Hausherr Andreas Heldal-Lund Keith Henson Arnie Lerma Shawn Lonsdale Karin Spaink David S. Touretzky Grady Ward Lawrence Wollersheim
Litigation	Religious Technology Center v Lerma Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc.
Category:Scientology and the Internet (28) L. Ron Hubbard Scientology Church of Scientology

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• Critics of Scientology
• Living people
• Usenet people
• Scientology and the Internet