Don’t Kiss The Frog has an extremely interesting (and rather worrying) post up about Greek bloggers and new laws which are being drawn up.
according to the Eleftheros Typos newspaper, the government has already prepared legislation to deal with the issue of bloggers gone wild. The new law will treat informational(sic) blogs like newspapers. The name of the person legally responsible for the blog’s contents should appear in a visible place. No more anonymity for them informational blog bastards. And if they ruthlessly insist on anonymity, the new law will make it much-much easier for the authorities to obtain a court order for their ISP-related data.
UPDATE: Also read another post on the subject up at A Division by Zer0
The most scary thing of all, of course, is that the goverment is now considering putting limits on free speech. This is exactly what the big media companies (and Televangelist/Telemarketers) want. Specifically, they are going to request people that blog about “informative issues” remain eponymous. If they still wish to remain anonymous then it will be much easier for the goverment to violate their rights and find out who they are.
Technorati: greece, greek bloggers, law, legal issues, blogging
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Wow. that is baloney. does greek have any blogger’s rights groups at all??? seems like if there isn’t any, now is the time to start getting some–holy crap!!!!!
eek, sorry about the multiple spelling errors up there!!! that would be does “GREECE” have any bloggers rights groups!!!
If the blog in question is breaking the law then it is quite correct that they should be taken to court. I only read it when they posted about you Martin, a while back so I can’t speak with any authority on the rest of its content but if that is what it’s like then… it’s appalling.
What scares me is that the proposed anti-anonymous blogging law could have serious implications for all bloggers here in Greece. I choose to blog anonymously because of threats made against me not the other way round. I should have the right to protect myself online if I am doing nothing wrong.
I will be watching closely and will keep you posted on any developments. If anyone is following this in the Greek press, please keep me informed. Thank you.
Exactly. The problem is not the libelous writings or press-gr which most of the time were obviously false to anyone paying attention. I don’t have a problem with people following the extent of the law and persecuting liars (although I do believe it is unnecessary as when a blog lies too much, people figure it our eventually and leave).
What I am opposed to is throwing out the baby with the bathwater so to speak. Anonymous blogging is, very often, necessary, as in the case of DD and this is a right that should remain strong.
I am really shocked by some of things I’m reading about anonymity while blogging. Martin’s example from Italy above and a comment over at db0′s blog mentioning that in Germany
I had no idea. Am I the only one ?
I wonder what the rules are in other European countries…
Although I agree that slanderous bloggers should be punished, I don’t want to see all bloggers punished or monitored for no reason.
However, it will be difficult to really stop blog owners from being anonymous. All anyone has to do is set up a blog in the USA and then Greece won’t have jurisdiction, since in the states, we have freedom of speech. How do you do this?
METHOD #1: Set up a basic internet (dial up) account with a company such as MSN, Netzero, etc in the USA etc. Some are as cheap at 9.95 USD per month, and immediately give you access into their network without the typical “Greek company” waiting times. Plus you can be billed thru your credit card monthly.
Then, what you do is connect to the American company’s internet access number from your computer (in Greece) and then you are connected in the American service provider’s dial up network. You set up your initial blog, post your blog articles etc., from inside the American service provider’s network, and then you disconnect. Of course, in addition to the monthly ISP charge, you will be charged long distance phone rates to connect to the USA from your computer in Greece. But, generally, you would prepare the blog article ahead of time and then just copy and paste the article into your blog to limit the actual connection time.
For example, Diva, if one of your readers (from within Greece) visited your blog (from Greece) using this method, and you tried to track their IP address, you’d see that their IP address originated from within the USA.
METHOD #2: Have a friend or relative set it up for you in the USA and you email your blog Articles directly to your friend and he posts em for you.
I find it highly unlikely that an American service provider would give the private details of one of it’s customers to Greek authorities strictly on the basis that the blogger was remaining anonymous.
Thank you Philip for your information. It sounds like a total headache to have to take those measures (not to mention the cost) but if things go belly up here, there are options.
I do have a question for people. Don’t Kiss the Frog mentioned the ridiculous ban on video games a few years ago
I remember when my gamer friends heard about the law, most of them just laughed but some were very worried (some were involved in serious gaming and even in game development). I am sure those caught up in the nonsense took it very seriously and were quite rightly scared to death about being sued.
But then it did blow over.
Perhaps this will be the case here ?
What do people think ?
Phillip: a simpler and cheaper way is to use a public proxy server, as this old Slate article describes: http://www.slate.com/id/2080681/
Well, I don’t see how they can *require* you to have your real name visible on the blog. If you have some sort of contact information, they can just contact you that way, give you an official phone number to call, and deal with it from there.
Or just use Tor