I am apparently not taking as much of an “Usmanov break” as planned.

The picture on right is a Mulberry Bush, and the merry people dancing around it represent Alisher Usmanov, and his “reputation maintenance contractor” Schillings’ Solicitor.

Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush

In this country there is a long tradition of children doing circular dances until they are dizzy:

The acting game “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” is an example. Here one player stands in the centre while the others form a ring around her. During the choruses they dance round her like the planets about the sun, while in each verse she chooses and leads the action (this is the way we clap our hands, sow the corn etc.).

The words go like this:

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
On a cold and frosty morning.

To his credit, Mr Alisher Usmanov appears to be taking his aspirations to integrate sufficiently seriously that he is performing a dance of legal “Round and Round the Mulberry Bush” with his “reputation management” lawyer Schillings.

Usmanov and Schillings are back on the Case

To this end, in the last few days, after a bit of a lull, Schillings have started going for websites again. Via Tim Ireland:

Indymedia UK Facing Legal Censorship… again!

Indymedia UK has been issued with a takedown notice [10th of September & 21st of September] from lawyers acting for Alisher Usmanov. The notice served to Indymedia charged Indymedia with publishing allegedly libellous accusations about Usmanov, one of the richest men in Russia, recently linked to a possible hostile takeover of Arsenal FC.

But Craig Murray is back on the Net

At http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

International Herald Tribune covers story: 5,000,000 unique web users

On a separate note the story of Mr Usmanov legally bullying British bloggers into silence, and the shambles that is the British legal situation, has reached the International Herald Tribune (hat tip Bloggerheads). Just so you know, iht.com quotes an online audience of 5 million unique users (pdf), not all who will see this story of course.

When a billionaire born in Uzbekistan and an outspoken former British ambassador clashed over a scorching blog, the first outcome was the Internet equivalent of a smackdown…

“The threat is and always has been money,” Tim Ireland said. “Might makes rights. We have to take away at least one aspect in U.K. libel law that gives an unfair advantage to people who are cashed up.”

In the meantime, Murray’s accusations, which were also part of his memoir, “Murder in Samarkand,” continue to spread online to other blogs, pointing out the potential perils of trying to squelch information.

There is an excellent account of the Usmanov affair. The most interesting new information is that the UK Internet Services Providers Association are unhappy with the legal situation:

British bloggers are particularly vulnerable to defamation complaints because of a previous court ruling that found that Internet providers qualified as publishers of libelous material if they did not react when alerted about a problem.

The result is that Internet providers are forced to weigh who is telling the truth.

“It’s something that the ISPs are having to manage as part of managing their business,” said Brian Ahearne, a spokesman for the ISP trade group. “It’s not something that the ISPA wants to be involved in, and they shouldn’t have to be judge and jury on this.”

There is also an item on the International Herald Tribune “Managing Globalisation” blog about bloggers moving to “Offshore Blog Havens”:

Libel laws are pretty strict in the United Kingdom, but it’s harder to win a case in the Netherlands. That’s partly why Internet service providers there don’t need to worry so much about what their bloggers say. To make life especially carefree for bloggers, you could take an additional step: passing a law so service providers didn’t bear any responsibility for bloggers’ opinions. With that kind of combo, a country could quickly become to blogs and websites what the Cayman Islands are to wealthy folks: a safe haven. And if you need any proof that an industry has globalized, havens for its businesses are a good sign.

It’s not much of a recommendation for our legal system in the UK, is it?

Let’s Not Beat about the Mulberry Bush

The status of British Law that makes the company hosting a website liable for material published on their servers is wrong. Period.

That is analagous to the printing company being responsible for the contents of a newspaper they had printed. This is not the case in law.

Errors in the daily papers are corrected. Blogs and websites have a built in correction mechanism - in their comment facility, yet currently Mr Usmanov and Schillings are attempting to take websites off the air rather than apply corrections. Why is that legal?

It is not acceptable that British Law tolerates such pre-emptive intimidation. This issue is gradually becoming clearer, and is slowly gaining increasing visibility in the media and on the Internet.

Reform is required, and the sooner the better.

Internet Whack-a-Mole

If Mr Usmanov gets tired of “Here we go round the legal Mulberry Bush”, he could try the game of “Internet whack-a-mole” (known to Peter Mandelson as “eating the mushy peas with a cocktail stick”).

Schillings and other “Reputation Management Consultants” are able to provide this service. Each mole that is whacked is replaced within 48 hours by … er … about 250 more moles, guaranteeing a long and diverting game.

It beats football hollow, and you don’t have to spend £100m on shares to get the free pies.

On a sidenot, I am speculating that it may be a third-party outsourced self-perpetuating pyramid promotional publicity scheme for libel lawyers. Very canny - no cost involved at all. All you have to do is annoy some bloggers, and Bob’s your Uncle - publicity everywhere.

Alternatively, Mr Usmanov could buy a secondhand whac-a-mole game from Ebay for about $10. This is cheaper, more private, and potentially less embarrassing.

In this Legal Lottery, It Could be YOU…

Leaving aside all the stuff about daily politics, the General Election (NOT), Mr Brown’s manipulations (or NOT), this one is an issue with cross-political-spectrum support, and it is not going away.

If you are a blogger (in whichever niche - your reviews of Mobile Phones, Cookbooks, or Handbags are potentially vulnerable), I’d encourage you to maintain an interest in this story, and to keep posting and pushing peridoically (and I mean over a period of months).

Don’t forget that a site as innocuous as Mumsnet was threatened with legal action merely for their members discussing a child-control guru called Gina Ford.

If you are an elected official, I’d ask you to raise the anomalous status of the British laws as and when you are able - and again, knuckle down for the long term.

Acknowledgement

The image and the first quote come from The Aristasia Archive, which is amusing and has an intense concentration of a weird variety of New Age Bollocks (or is possibly a spoof) - very St Trinians.

Tags: alisher usmanov, schillings lawyers, reputation management, craig murray, tim ireland, libel law, internet service providers association, libel law reform, defamation, alleged defamation, takedown notice, keith schilling, Harriet Campbell, rollo head[tags]alisher usmanov, schillings lawyers, reputation management, craig murray, tim ireland, libel law, internet service providers association, libel law reform, defamation, alleged defamation, takedown notice, keith schilling, Harriet Campbell, rollo head[/tags]