Print This Post Print This Post

Sep

24

UK blogs come tumbling down in libel action


Talk about a ripple effect:

A number of UK bloggers, including the Tory London Mayoral Candidate Boris Johnson, had their blogs taken down by their ISP Friday following threats of legal action by Uzbek billionaire and major Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov.

The bloggers, who were unlikely to have previously heard of or mentioned Mr. Usmanov, were unwittingly caught up in a dispute between Mr. Usmanov and blogger Craig Murray, a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan.

[snip]

In taking down Craig Murray’s blog in response to legal threats, Fasthosts also took down a number of unrelated sites that, apparently, had been sharing the same hosting account. Blogs affected include that of Boris Johnson, Sandwell Labour Councillor Bob Piper, Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads and others.

I response, Hundreds of UK bloggers have now rallied round and added buttons showing their support for free speech rights.

Could this happen here?

Many content creators and hosts in the UK would argue that here it’s far too easy to get an ISP to remove content rather than face the potential of a long and costly libel defense. In the USA, ISPs and those who host content on them are better protected from spurious takedown notices by the US Communications Decency Act which basically makes content hosts immune from suits arriving from the content that passes through their servers.

[snip]

What is difficult to understand is why UK law hasn’t evolved to the point where content producers, authors and bloggers are held directly responsible for their words – and those who host those words, whether it be a website, blog or post on a message board, can do so with immunity until which time the content has been shown by the courts to break the law or infringe upon someone’s rights.

Anything less puts content hosts in the uncomfortable position of having to make extra-judicial decisions about what content is and isn’t a breach of the law; decisions which, in many instances, will pit the responsibility of the ISP’s decision makers to maintain corporate economic security against the rights of individuals to express themselves freely.

One thing’s for sure, people aren’t going to stop trying this kind of banishment. But it sure seems like plugging a hole in a dam.

Hattip Poynter.

Bookmark and Share

By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:25 pm September 24th, 2007 in Blogging 

Comments

4 Responses to “UK blogs come tumbling down in libel action”

  1. 1 Chicken Yoghurt » Public Service Announcement - Craig Murray, Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson, Bob Piper... on September 25th, 2007 3:49 am

    [...] otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The [...]

  2. 2 The Perfect Pitch » Blog Archive » Usmanov shows his true colours on September 27th, 2007 8:12 am

    [...] otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder [...]

  3. 3 Pickled Politics » Bloggers under threat on September 27th, 2007 9:46 pm

    [...] Shop, Fdog, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder [...]

  4. 4 Bob Piper on September 28th, 2007 5:09 am

    <strong>An updated list……</strong>

    The list of bloggers highlighting the behaviour of Usmanov, Schillings and Fasthosts now stands at over 300. Justin points out that some people are apologising for coming late to the party on this one – well don’t. As he says,……

Leave a Reply




"));