As mentioned earlier, there's a storm going down at the moment about a rich Russian with a taste for Football, a volatile ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan and Boris Johnson. (Together, at last!)

The story so far.
Craig Murray posted a juicy blog post about Alisher Usmanov's past which may or may not have been true. Schillings (who act as libel lawyers for Alisher) started sending take down notices to Craig, Craig's hosting service Fasthosts, and anyone who had republished or linked to the article. Fasthosts caved and cancelled the account used to buy hosting services. This had the side effect of taking down many other blogs on the same account including Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Tim Ireland.

The reaction
Not surprisingly this has rallied the UK Bloggers from the whole way across the political spectrum. They take the view (which I share) that just because someone is rich and can afford expensive lawyers, that does not give them the right to censor publications simply by asking for it.

As Craig himself says in The Register, "If the man believes he was libelled then he should take me to court."

There is a temporary blog documenting the progress of the farce here.


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[ 28-Sep-07 7:33am ] [ ]