Lawyers for the Church of Scientology contacted the Internet Archive, asserted ownership of materials visible through the Wayback Machine, and those materials have been removed from the Wayback Machine. [email to LawMeme]

The problem is not that the Internet Archive received such a request from the Church of Scientology's lawyers, or even complied with the legal portions of the request, but that the Internet Archive has not taken minimal steps to defend free inquiry and access to information. LawMeme reveals the sordid details...

This current attack by Scientology on freedom of expression appears very similar to what happened to Google back in March 2002, initially reported among other places in Microcontent News (Church v. Google: How the Church of Scientology is forcing Google to censor its critics). The New York Times (reg. req.) has a good summary of the entire controversy on Google vs. Scientology (Google Runs Into Copyright Dispute).

One of the major problems in the Google Affair was that webpages that did not contain any allegedly copyrighted materials were inadvertantly blocked initially. It didn't help that the documents provided by Scientology were deliberately confusing as to their claims. For example, the Church of Scientology wrote in its cease and desist letter:

This particular web site owner has placed our clients' copyrighted works and federally registered trademarks on his web page without the authorization of our clients. According, his actions are in violation of United States copyright law and I request Google either remove or disable access to the web site, "www.xenu.net". [emphasis added]

Of course, it is impossible to know at this time what the claims Scientology's lawyers have made to the Internet Archive. When LawMeme requested for a second time to see any documents provided by Scientology's lawyers, we received this reply:

[IA wishes it could be] more helpful, but at this point, if you need any additional information, you need to ask the Scientologists. [email to LawMeme]

In response to a complaint we received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed [n] result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint for these removed results.

So, while Lawmeme doesn't know all the details of Scientology's request to the Internet Archive, especially the extent of websites removed, we do know that the Internet Archive is blocking all archived versions of one of Scientology's leading critics and the main target in the Google Affair, Xenu.net. If you use the Wayback Machine to look for www.xenu.net, you will receive the following message:

Blocked Site Error.

Per the request of the site owner, http://www.xenu.net/ is no longer available in the Wayback Machine. Try another request or click here to see if the page is available, live, on the Web. http://www.xenu.net/ [Searching Page: Xenu.net]

Solution

The Internet Archive obviously needs a open policy on copyright violations and they have one (Internet Archive's Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Copyright Policy):

Copyright Policy
10 March 2001

The Internet Archive respects the intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights of others. The Internet Archive may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, remove certain content or disable access to content that appears to infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your copyright has been violated by material available through the Internet Archive, please provide the Internet Archive Copyright Agent with the following information:

Identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
An exact description of where the material about which you complain is located within the Internet Archive collections;
Your address, telephone number, and email address;
A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or are authorized to act on behalf of that owner; and
Your electronic or physical signature.

• Publish all cease and desist letters and/or provide them to Chilling Effects,
• Provide a link to this letter when a search results in a blocked page,
• Provide a page on the Internet Archive website that has a comprehensive list of all such letters and blocked websites,
• Notify the owners of webpages so blocked,
• Provide instructions for counter-notification under the DMCA, and
• Develop a policy to review all such requests and restore the archive of inappropriately blocked sites.

Of course, it always helps if the public makes it known that it values free speech, as this article in Linux Journal makes clear (Google Begins Making DMCA Takedowns Public). Make your voice heard! Email info@archive.org.

The Internet Archive says it well itself:

Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages.