The Bangus Ultimatum

Starting today I hope to post more regularly to the iBlog blog. Think of it as a buildup to generate buzz and inspire themes for iBlog Summit 2. I’m going to cover, well, blogging (Pinoys blogging in particular) as well as other intarwebby things and the inevitable overlap with social and legal issues. Here’s my first go at it, perfect for Halloween:

(Got this from boingboing) It’s something I’ve been waiting for: mainstream media at its most sensational, with its audience share threatened and its corporate sponsors reeling, lashes back at blogs. It turns out now that we are part of ” an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective”. Ouch.

A sidebar to the article then discusses how one can “fight back”. This includes:

BUILD A BLOG SWARM. Reach out to key bloggers and get them on your side. Lavish them with attention. Or cash.Earlier this year Marqui, a tiny Portland, Ore. software shop, began paying 21 bloggers $800 per month to post items about Marqui, while requiring them to disclose the payments. Marqui’s listings soared on Google from 2,000 to 250,000 results. Never mind that one blogger took the money and bashed a Marqui marketing strategy anyway.

BASH BACK. If you get attacked, dig up dirt on your assailant and feed it to sympathetic bloggers. Discredit him.

ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn’t liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger’s access anyway. Also:Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger’s name or Internet address.

SUE THE BLOGGER. If all else fails, you can sue your attacker for defamation, at the risk of getting mocked. You will have to chase him for years to collect damages. Settle for a court order forcing him to take down his material.

Now, the article is obviously trollbait, but it shows that we’re not all safe in our own little worlds. Outside the walls, people are sulking and plotting deep into the night. And it’s not like mainstream media and Big Money are the only ones looking for payback. Governments and administrations are out for blood (sometimes, more literally than figuratively). It reminds me of Dean Jorge Bocobo’s fears that something as apparently harmless as TouchGraph could be used on a blog “clampdown”. As blogging spreads and grows in influence, expect more flashpoints of conflict, maybe even full-scale Blog Wars.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 30th, 2005 at 10:59 am and is filed under Civil Rights, Cyber Law, Legal Ethics, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.