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Bloggers Versus Billionaire

Posted by kdawson on Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:40 PM
from the nailing-jello-to-a-tree dept.
Censorship
Roger Whittaker writes "An interesting case in England is pitting the combined power of multiple bloggers against an Uzbek billionaire. The bloggers are supporting the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who has written a book about what happened there after the fall of Communism. The book is apparently unflattering in the extreme to oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who has engaged the law firm Schillings (which seems to specialize in getting unfavorable Web content removed for rich clients). Their threats have led to the removal of Murray's blog site by his hosting company Fasthosts. But a large number of bloggers have taken up Murray's cause, and the content that caused the original complaint, and links to it, have now sprung up in a very large number of places. The Internet still seems to regard censorship as damage and route around it."
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Submission: Bloggers versus billionaire by Roger Whittaker (134499)
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  • Assholes Uzbekistan (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2007, @10:45PM (#20751831)
    Looks like Borat was right about Uzbekistan
  • If this jerk had simply kept his trap shut and his legal team leashed, I would never have heard of him. But by being an aggressive prick -- he gets worldwide exposure and confirmation that he is an aggressive prick.

  • The internet is booby-trapped (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2007, @10:48PM (#20751859)
    It looks harmless enough, but if you try to take information away from it, it explodes in your face.

    • Re:The internet is booby-trapped (Score:5, Interesting)

      by alshithead (981606) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @12:51AM (#20752361)
      "It looks harmless enough, but if you try to take information away from it, it explodes in your face."

      It's a shame you posted this as Anonymous Coward. You deserve the good karma. However, I would rate your post as Insightful, not Funny. Time and time again we see idiots trying to force removal of information/data from the net and shooting themselves in the foot. There might be a profit type scheme buried there...

      1) Buy stock.
      2) Post information (maybe stock tip or supposed insider information).
      3) Declare information as escaped/illegitimate.
      4) Promise to sue (and maybe file a couple) everyone repeating said information.
      5) Profit!!!

      Or, maybe not, as I posted earlier, I'm not an oligarch. :)

  • The Money Quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2007, @10:49PM (#20751863)
    We asked Murray if he intends to stay on Usmanov's back. He replied: "There is room on Usmanov's back for an awful lot of people. You could get even more on his stomach, and possibly lose some under the overlap of his chins."

    We think that's a "yes".
  • UK ambassador to asshole Uzbekistan? Wo wi wow wow [wikipedia.org]. I think someone has already done a comprehensive documentary on the subject [youtube.com]

  • Boiling dissidents alive (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2007, @10:55PM (#20751899)
    Is this perhaps the same guy who's famous for boiling people alive: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3943.htm [informatio...house.info]

  • Censorship as Damage (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LaminatorX (410794) <sabotage@praecan ... m minus math_god> on Tuesday September 25 2007, @10:57PM (#20751907) Homepage
    "Routing around" censorship doesn't even do justice to the reality any more.

    Attempting to suppress a piece of information nowadays practically guarantees that it will be more widely disseminated than ever before, and with enough redundant links to remind you that the Net's underlying protocols were designed to survive WWIII.

    • Which reminds me does anyone have at torrent of the blog posts this guy was foaming at the mouth to get removed?

    • [...] to remind you that the Net's underlying protocols were designed to survive WWIII.

      This is an old canard; stop putting the cart before the horse. The internet was designed to enable effective and economical sharing of computational resources. This necessarily included the capability to share ASCII-Art renderings of Playboy pinups. In order to preserve the capabilities against censors, it had to develop the ability to withstand a potential WWIII nuclear exchange as an inevitable byproduct of the initi

  • From TFA:

    We asked Murray if he intends to stay on Usmanov's back. He replied: "There is room on Usmanov's back for an awful lot of people. You could get even more on his stomach, and possibly lose some under the overlap of his chins."

    We think that's a "yes".

  • Ooh! Ooh! Fight! Fight! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by alshithead (981606) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:00PM (#20751931)
    This will without a doubt be entertaining and possibly educational. There are plenty of people with power/money who would like to censor others' public opinions of them. It is easier in some countries (China) than others (EU, US?, etc.). There may certainly be lessons to learn for both sides. I know who I'm rooting for but of course I'm not an oligarch.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TubeSteak (669689)

      There are plenty of people with power/money who would like to censor others' public opinions of them. It is easier in some countries (China) than others (EU, US?, etc.).

      England has no freedom of speech as it is understood in the USA.
      It is very easy in England to go after someone for slander/libel/defamation and win.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slander_and_libel#Burden_of_proof_on_the_defendant [wikipedia.org]

      I don't know why this Uzbek isn't suing for libel/defamation in England.

      • Re:Ooh! Ooh! Fight! Fight! (Score:4, Informative)

        by alshithead (981606) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @12:39AM (#20752331)
        "England has no freedom of speech as it is understood in the USA.
        It is very easy in England to go after someone for slander/libel/defamation and win."

        I'm here in the USA so I know our legal system a little better as far as slander and libel laws than that of the UK. However, I do have a very good friend from London who is well educated and we talk a lot about the differences between the UK and the USA. Libel and slander laws have been the topic more than once. It's my understanding that you can pretty much say whatever you want about anything in the UK as long as you cite fact that YOU can prove in court. The burden is on you. As long as you can convince a UK court that what you said/wrote is true, you're okay. In the USA it tends to presume that I can state my opinion freely until the party criticized can prove ME wrong. So, here in the USA, prove me wrong. In the UK, I have to prove I'm right. I might be generalizing a little too freely but then again...IANAL and IANAS (solicitor). :)
        • Alshithead regularly engages in producing child pornography.

          So you're saying that in England you would win a lawsuit against me (unless you did and I proved it of course ;)) whereas in America you'd lose (after all, my comment is vague enough that its impossible to disprove)? Sounds like England might have the slightly better system in this regard.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by alshithead (981606)
            "Alshithead regularly engages in producing child pornography.

            So you're saying that in England you would win a lawsuit against me (unless you did and I proved it of course ;)) whereas in America you'd lose (after all, my comment is vague enough that its impossible to disprove)? Sounds like England might have the slightly better system in this regard."

            Great example and you expose a part of my point that I neglected. In the US as long as you say, "IN MY OPINION alshithead regularly engages in producing child

  • but isn't a Billionaire in Britian someone with 1e12 (a million millions) pounds. That is, over 2 trillion US dollars?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Unfortunately the billion, as with everything else in Britain, has been slowly but surely Americanised.

      So while you're strictly true, in every-day practice, a billion nowadays is the same anywhere.

      1e9
      • I think you mean more like "Made consistent with SI," which is European in origin. For 10^1, 10^2 and 10^3 you've got prefixes, deca, hecto and kilo as well as non-compound designations for the numbers. After that, it goes to a prefix every three 10^6 = mega/million, 10^9 = giga/billion, 10^12 = tera/trillion, 10^15 = peta/quadrillion and so on. Well if a billion is 10^12 then you have a case where there's one with a prefix and no name. That's a little strange. Also with the current system, it is consistent
    • I suggest Calc...
    • British pounds are roughly double the value of an American dollar. That would mean he's a billionaire.

  • Arsenal FC (Score:3, Funny)

    by slick_shoes (881437) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:25PM (#20752027)
    Of course all this is all because Usmanov has recently bought up a load of shares and his vast, blubbery shadow is being cast over North London as he circles Arsenal Football Club - even the club chairman has today spoken out today over concerns about how he amassed his fortune. Usmanov has said publicly that he intends to gain a "blocking stake" in the club. Football fans can be ALMOST as devout as Apple fanboys ;)

  • If Alisher Usmanov is like Paris Hilton at all (Score:3, Funny)

    by rolfwind (528248) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:34PM (#20752071)
    He'll soon rebound from this scandal with a book deal, music contract, perfume and fashion line, and will drive around with Britney while getting "accidentally" photographed without his panties.
  • Sir, Mr Usmanov, I challenge you on a duel. Counterstrike 1.6. You may choose your mouse.

    And if you win, please visit DreamHack Winter 07 as can't use my ticket then (http://web.dreamhack.se/index.php?page=what_is_dreamhack)

  • Potential for abuse (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zobier (585066) <zobierNO@SPAMzobier.net> on Wednesday September 26 2007, @12:43AM (#20752347)
    While I agree that this guy does seem like an arse, I have a thought experiment: What if someone were to make up a story like "I found out that John Howard was taking bribes from George Bush to influence Australian lawmaking -- but when I blogged about it, the AFP had my webhost pull my blog!"? They could manipulate this phenomenon to spread misinformation and people would end up believing it.

    • I found out that John Howard was taking bribes from George Bush to influence Australian lawmaking

      That would be completely ridiculous. George would never bribe Johnny.

      Unless of course by "bribe" you mean "threaten to withold sexual favours".

  • It's not the Internet network itself... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mind21_98 (18647) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @12:52AM (#20752367) Homepage Journal
    ...but the people who are on it. But still, I applaud them for standing up to the bully that he is.

    • ...but the people who are on it. But still, I applaud them for standing up to the bully that he is.

      Your are technically right, in a limited way, but poetically your logic is abysmal.

      We are online, the internet is part of our lives and our lives are reflected on the internet. It reroutes through us.
      In complex systems, this is called emergence [wikipedia.org], and if you didn't realize by now that humans are part of the complex system that is the internet, then I wonder who you thought laid down all cable and fiber to begin with.

  • Background? (Score:5, Informative)

    by clarkkent09 (1104833) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @12:56AM (#20752385)
    The article barely mentions it, and the summary not at all, but the background to this is the battle over the ownership of Arsenal, one of the big four English football (soccer) clubs. The Arsenal fans (and apparently Craig Murray) are generally opposed to Usmanov's takeover of the club and some of them have blogs, hence the attacks on him and the unleashing of lawyers in response.

    Some more details here: ahref=http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/18/arsenal-usmanov-kroenke-lifestyle-sport-cx_pm_0918arsenal_print.html/rel=url2html-32009 [slashdot.org]http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/18/arsenal-usmanov-kroenke-lifestyle-sport-cx_pm_0918arsenal_print.html/>

    Otherwise why would a bunch of British bloggers care about the business practices of an Uzbekistani businessman, and why would he care what they think.

    • Re:Background? (Score:5, Informative)

      by hughk (248126) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @12:30PM (#20757455) Journal
      Murray was the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan. After having the regular low-key meetings with dissidents, there were several incidents where they and their relatives faced problems up to and including being tortured to death. MI6 sanctioned this because they thought that the information coming from torture may be useful. Murray disagreed with treatment of his visitors by the Uzbek government and also by the implicit support of the FCO on the basis of information received. Craig Murray was well thought of by my friends there - courageous and principled, which is why he lost his job. Murray has a bit of a bone to pick with some of the Uzbek mafia (who are the government) hence his comments about Usmanov.

  • What does this suggest (Score:5, Interesting)

    by suv4x4 (956391) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @01:26AM (#20752513)
    You know a frequently exploited theme in science fiction, which actually comes fromt he real world: all together we're worth more than just the sum of us.

    Just like none of the nerve cells in our brain knows exactly what effect it has on the big picture, they all together create complicated intelligence machine.

    Then I read this:

    "The Internet still seems to regard censorship as damage and route around it."

    I know it's not the context they used it in, but ponder this: Internet has enabled million of people worldwide to communicate instantly.

    In this case people came together to show some rich loser he can't mess with their blogger buddy. The result is an information network that quickly provides redundant copies of information under attack and makes the information virtually impossible to erase ever.

    The resulting intelligence, behavior and outcome probably escapes the mind of each one of the participators that form it.

    Does the Internet have a mind on its own already?

  • Is Usmanov Clean? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Slashamatic (553801) on Wednesday September 26 2007, @02:07AM (#20752677)

    In Uzbekistan during communist times, a leader emerged, Sharaf Rashidov, who defrauded the Soviet system by falsifying the production statistics that were used to calculate payments. Communisms central planning would move products directly from producer to user but pay from a central fund so it was ripe for fraud by falsification of statistics. Eventually, the Soviet government found out and many of the government were imprisoned or dismissed. [wikipedia.org]

    When communism died, so did all semblance of control over the government there who reverted to a kleptocracy. The power to export (Uzbekistan is a major cotton producer) or to convert currency was given to a select few. When the blackmarket rate was something like four times the official currency rate you can imagine what happened - yes, a massive black-market in currency. Privatisation became a rip-off. Although shares were passed out to all, those in remote places became vulnerable to raiders who swept them up in return for nothing.

    Given the nature of the controls on the Uzbek economy, I cannot understand how Usmanov made his money legally. He cannot be permitted to become the beneficial owner of a western company as the anti-money laundering rules would force the company to become increased-risk or worse which would cause problems for western banks to do business with him. Lawyers are now also constrained by anti-money laundering rules, so they too could have problems working with him.

    • Ah yes, the good ol' "Noveau Riche" are a bunch of crooks, just like most of the old rich who have had the advantage of time to dim the memories of how families/aristocrats gained their wealth. As someone once said behind every great wealth there is a crime(like bootlegging, or child labor).

      • The Blog Text (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:01PM (#20751941)
        September 2, 2007

        Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist

        I thought I should make my views on Alisher Usmanov quite plain to you. You are unlikely to see much plain talking on Usmanov elsewhere in the media becuase he has already used his billions and his lawyers in a pre-emptive strike. They have written to all major UK newspapers, including the latter:

        "Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record."

        Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke "Gorbachev", a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue.

        Usmanov's pardon was nothing to do with Gorbachev. It was achieved through the growing autonomy of another thug, President Karimov, at first President of the Uzbek Soviet Socilist Republic and from 1991 President of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered the "Pardon" because of his alliance with Usmanov's mentor, Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov. Far from being on Gorbachev's side, Karimov was one of the Politburo hardliners who had Gorbachev arrested in the attempted coup that was thwarted by Yeltsin standing on the tanks outside the White House.

        Usmanov is just a criminal whose gangster connections with one of the World's most corrupt regimes got him out of jail. He then plunged into the "privatisation" process at a time when gangster muscle was used to secure physical control of assets, and the alliance between the Russian Mafia and Russian security services was being formed.

        Usmanov has two key alliances. he is very close indeed to President Karimov, and especially to his daughter Gulnara. It was Usmanov who engineered the 2005 diplomatic reversal in which the United States was kicked out of its airbase in Uzbekistan and Gazprom took over the country's natural gas assets. Usmanov, as chairman of Gazprom Investholdings paid a bribe of $88 million to Gulnara Karimova to secure this. This is set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand.

        Alisher Usmanov had risen to chair of Gazprom Investholdings because of his close personal friendship with Putin, He had accessed Putin through Putin's long time secretary and now chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski. Usmanov and Jastrzebski were roommates at college. Gazprominvestholdings is the group that handles Gazproms interests outside Russia, Usmanov's role is, in effect, to handle Gazprom's bribery and sleaze on the international arena, and the use of gas supply cuts as a threat to uncooperative satellite states.

        Gazprom has also been the tool which Putin has used to attack internal democracy and close down the independent media in Russia. Gazprom has bought out - with the owners having no choice - the only independent national TV station and numerous rgional TV stations, several radio stations and two formerly independent national newspapers. These have been changed into slavish adulation of Putin. Usmanov helped accomplish this through Gazprom. The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, he bought personally. He immediately replaced the editor-in-chief with a pro-Putin hack, and three months later the long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov, mysteriously fell to his death from a window.

        All this, both on Gazprom and the journalist's death, is set out in great detail here:
        http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/06/russian_journal.html [craigmurray.co.uk]

        Usmanov is also dogged by the wides
        • Usmanov is also dogged by the widespread belief in Uzbekistan that he was guilty of a particularly atrocious rape, which was covered up and the victim and others in the know disappeared. The sad thing is that this is not particularly remarkable. Rape by the powerful is an everyday hazard in Uzbekistan, again as outlined in Murder in Samarkand page 120. If anyone has more detail on the specific case involving Usmanov please add a comment.

          Don't want to side with the bad guy, but...
          The section above leave

    • Re:Censorship is Damage (Score:4, Insightful)

      by megaditto (982598) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:19PM (#20752001)
      Not sure if any kind of pornography or other forms of free speech should be censored; once you start the process, there's no stopping.

      On the other hand, producing or sponsoring sick materials involving children, rape, etc. might very well deserve an execution, or life imprisonment at least...

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Alioth (221270)
        No it wouldn't. Censorship suggests that something in the public interest is being suppressed. It is not in the public interest for people's personal details to be left lying around. However, it is in the public interest to know which companies are lax with personal data, or whether a billionaire's assets are mostly ill-gotten gains.

        This is the trouble with many simplistic rants on Slashdot - because $FOO is considered a good thing, then $BAR must be "otherwise your opinion is inconsistent". Whereas anyone

        • No it wouldn't. Censorship suggests that something in the public interest is being suppressed.

          Actually it only suggests the suppression of information. That's why we have self-censorship (Engaging in the censorship of oneself).

          This is the trouble with many simplistic rants on Slashdot - because $FOO is considered a good thing, then $BAR must be "otherwise your opinion is inconsistent". Whereas anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that it's not quite as clear cut as that, and someone's personal bank details are not the same thing as whether someone's business dealings are legal or not.

          As you say, simplistic rants are a problem. However I do not agree with you on the reason. When you make a universal statement (otherwise known as a blanket statement) all it takes is one counterexample to show that its incorrect. The problem with such simple statements is that when repeated often enough, people start to believe in them (which is why you'll see politicians c

      • Like the "Meg White sex tape"? Now we all know that there is no Meg White sex tape...
        Oh, thank god! For a moment there I thought you said "Meg Griffin sex tape"... =(

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