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According to a The CEO/Founder ofExecutive Software is a prominent Scientologist. Scientology iscontroversial in the US, but the German government has a history of specific discriminationagainst the religion. According to the US State Department report on Human Rights in Germany, official persecution has ranged from political parties refusing membership to Scientologists, to governments revoking its non-profit status, to Hamburg state officials publicly denouncing Scientology as a "criminalorganization." The fear of Scientology that is present even in America hasofficial sanction in Germany, where it now seems that Scientologists are notallowed to sell software. A German Interior Ministry official, quoted in the Reuters report, saidthere are fears that the disk defrag "could have a security problem."Forgive me for joining the overreaction, but this is reminiscent of earliercondemnations of "Jewish science." Next I expect crowds throwing Windows2000 disks on a bonfire. An Microsoft's reaction in this case is significant. Anyacquiescence in this ridiculous campaign of fear is pure cowardice onMicrosoft's part. They would have a reasonable abstract point if they wereto claim that if some customers don't want a specific feature they can allowthem to remove it (although their history on such points — IE mostfamously — is hardly consistent with this position). But even granting that,there is an obvious and odious cause to this particular request, one that they cannot ignore. If you facilitate bigotry, you are an accessory to it. On top of all of this,Microsoft obviously has the full source code for the utility, and takes asmuch responsibility for its actions and deficiencies as they do for anyother part of Windows 2000. So Microsoft knows that any claims of potentialproblems are claims against them, not Executive Software. You'd think theywould resist any such insinuation. I must admit that my ownvisceral reaction to Scientology is not a good one, and there are plenty ofreports of cult-style abuse by members here in the US. But there's a long andunjustifiable leap from that to banishing any product, such as software, bycompanies associated with it. This episode offends my sense of human rights,but it offends my sense of logic even more profoundly.No question, Microsoft was put in an awkward position here, but sometimesthere is a right thing and a wrong thing to do. Especially when the claimsare as irrational and offensive as these, compliance is not the way to go. Larry Seltzer is a freelance writer and software developer and the author of"ADMIN911:Windows 2000 Terminal Services." He can be reached at larry@larryseltzer.com.
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