ANONYMOUS BLOGGING IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT

A test case went all the way to the US Supreme Court that determined it is legal to use someone else's name as a pseudonym. Nonetheless, kleptocrats declared a war against anonymous bloggers who choose for pen names the names of politicians. But the right to engage in anonymous blogging is a well-established constitutional right in all civil nations. In fact, anonymous political speech is an especially valued right in the West. From Homer to Mark Twain and the... authors of the Federalist Papers, anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures, and books have played an important role in the progress of mankind. http://venitism.blogspot.com

Infamous October-18 mafia uses the cybercops as a political tool. Cyber Crime Unit (CCU), Dioxi Ilektronikou Egklimatos, is just a paramilitary gang of October-18 mafia which terrorizes the Greek blogosphere. Putting the CCU wolf to guard the sheep gives the government a comparative advantage over the opposition. This is another form of a Trojan Horse.

Any cell of Greek CCU jail has neither pillows nor toilet! You have to urinate in a bottle! The whole CCU jail has neither soap nor toilet paper! During the whole night, scared jailed girls scream for help, but the guards, far away in their office, pretend they are not listening! If it's not barbarity, what is it? There is a long way from the civilization of Ancient Greece to the barbarity of Modern Greece.

As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens put forth in deciding McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995), anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation — and their ideas from suppression — at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse.

On October 18, 2010, Marilizard went completely insane, and she did not think twice about abusing her ministerial position in destroying a dissident blogger, an innocent victim of a wild political witch hunt. Under wild orders, a freakish gang of brutal cybercops broke into the home and into the college office of a distinguished professor and robbed at gunpoint his computers, software, files, documents, personal data, personal codes, and personal secrets.

The wild Graecocybercops locked the 65-year old professor in jail, they humiliated him with handcuffs, fingerprints, mugshots, and lies, leaked false information to the media parrots, and initiated sham court proceedings for treason! There was neither pillow nor toilet facility in his jail cell. At night, the world renown had to urinate in a bottle! There was neither toilet paper nor soap in the whole jail facility. He lost his job, and his life is stolen forever by a deranged minister. That's why the Global Tax Revolt declared October 18 as the international day against marilizardism.

Global Tax Revolt was the first organization to report the October-18 2010 fiasco to all banks, hedge funds, big investors, traders, and analysts. As a result, the yields of Greek treasury bonds skyrocketted, as no prudent investor was willing to touch them. Marilizard's stupidity cost October-18 Mafia many billions of euros! The only thing October-18 Mafia got out of this fiasco is toilet paper in the form of worthless Greek treasury bonds! CCU jail needs toilet paper anyhow! http://venitism.blogspot.com

Kleptocrats cannot understand that a blogger is free to decide whether or not to disclose his true identity. The decision in favor of anonymity may be motivated by fear of kleptocrat retaliation, by concern about ostracism, or merely by a desire to preserve as much of one's privacy as possible. Whatever the motivation may be, the interest in having anonymous posts enter cyberspace unquestionably outweighs any public interest in requiring disclosure as a condition of blogging.

Accordingly, a blogger's decision to remain anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to the content of a blog, is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by any reasonable constitution, the Lisbon Treaty, the European Convention of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Most bloggers follow the pseudonym netiquette:

1. Any person can use any pen name, aka pseudonym or alias, as he pleases.

2. Most persons use pen names of famous people, such as politicians.

3. It's an honor when somebody uses your name as a pen name.

4. Only spoofing is forgery, i.e., when one makes the appearance of an email coming from another email.

An IP address isn't personally identifying at all. Because of onion routers, botnets, and malware, suspect IP addresses increasingly turn out to be mere stepping stones for the person actually using the computer, a person who is nowhere nearby.

This means an IP address is nothing more than a piece of information, a clue. An IP address alone is not probable cause that a person has committed a crime. Furthermore, search warrants executed solely on the basis of IP addresses have a significant likelihood of wasting officers' time and resources rather than producing helpful leads. Botnet is a network of computers infected by a program that communicates with its creator in order to send unsolicited emails, attack websites, etc.

Marilizardism has metastasized in Middle East and Balkans. Hillary Clinton laments that security is often invoked as a justification for harsh marilizardist crackdowns on freedom. Now, this marilizardist tactic is not new to the digital age, but it has new resonance as the internet has given marilizardist governments new capacities for tracking and punishing human rights advocates and political dissidents.

Marilizardist governments that arrest bloggers, pry into the peaceful activities of their citizens, and limit their access to the internet may claim to be seeking security. In fact, they may even mean it as they define it. But they are taking the wrong path. Those marilizardists who clamp down on internet freedom may be able to hold back the full expression of their people's yearnings for a while, but not forever.

The civilized approach does not immediately discredit every hateful idea or convince every bigot to reverse his thinking. But we have determined as a society that it is far more effective than any other alternative approach. Marilizardism, deleting writing, blocking content, arresting speakers – these actions suppress words, but they do not touch the underlying ideas. They simply drive people with those ideas to the fringes, where their convictions can deepen, unchallenged.

Marilizardism is the #1 enemy of cyberspace. Liberty and security, transparency and confidentiality, freedom of expression and tolerance – these all make up the foundation of a free, open, and secure society as well as a free, open, and secure internet where universal human rights are respected, and which provides a space for greater progress and prosperity over the long run.

Now, some marilizardist countries are trying a different approach, abridging rights online and working to erect permanent walls between different activities – economic exchanges, political discussions, religious expressions, and social interactions. They want to keep what they like and suppress what they don't. But this is no easy task. Search engines connect businesses to new customers, and they also attract users because they deliver and organize news and information. Social networking sites aren't only places where friends share photos; they also share political views and build support for social causes or reach out to professional contacts to collaborate on new business opportunities. Marilizardism is in full swing in all barbarian societies.

The government of Greece, October-18 mafia, and other marilizardist governments harass their netizens. Clinton points out that walls that divide the internet, that block political content, or ban broad categories of expression, or allow certain forms of peaceful assembly but prohibit others, or intimidate people from expressing their ideas are far easier to erect than to maintain. Not just because people using human ingenuity find ways around them and through them but because there isn't an economic internet and a social internet and a political internet; there's just the internet.

Maintaining marilizardist barriers that attempt to change this reality entails a variety of costs – moral, political, and economic. Marilizardist countries may be able to absorb these costs for a time, but they are unsustainable in the long run. There are opportunity costs for trying to be open for business but closed for free expression – costs to a nation's education system, its political stability, its social mobility, and its economic potential.

When marilizardist countries curtail internet freedom, they place limits on their economic future. Their young people don't have full access to the conversations and debates happening in the world or exposure to the kind of free inquiry that spurs people to question old ways of doing and invent new ones. And barring criticism of marilizardist officials makes governments more susceptible to corruption, which create economic distortions with long-term effects. Freedom of thought and the level playing field made possible by the rule of law are part of what fuels innovation economies.

A NIGHT IN CYBERCOP JAIL
With our compliments to Elaine Paige and Cats:

Midnight. Not a sound from Athens
Has humanity lost her memory?
Marilizard is smiling alone.
Thrown in jail by marilizardists
And the mind begins to moan.

The iron door beats a fatalistic warning.
A guard brings a slice of bread
And soon it will be morning.

Memory. All alone in jail
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then.
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again.

Memory. Turn your face to the light
Let your memory lead you
Open up, enter in.
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is
Then a new life will begin.

Memory. All alone in jail
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then.
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again.

Burnt out ends of smoky days
In stale cold jail this morning.
The jail lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning.

Daylight. I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in.
When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin.

Sunlight, through the cracks of jail
Endless masquerading.
As the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading.

Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun.
If you touch me you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun.
achillesfaliriotis@yahoo.com