Phantom Liberals: On the hunt (and protecting the hunter)
The search is on for Phantom Liberals! And the hunter has taken steps to protect himself or herself from an angry Liberal Party which might try to shut him down.
Courtesy of Bourque, we've got a new parody-slash-whistleblower website, called PhantomLiberals.com, dedicated to hunting down political appointees in the public service, in particular, low-level Liberals facing job loss as a result of the Conservative win in the last election, given jobs in the public service without waiting in line or even establishing their suitability for the work.
Unlike the Volpe parody website ("Youth for Volpe!") that was shutdown almost immediately by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), PhantomLiberals.com has registered itself in the United States. Specifically Texas, where freedom of speech is a cherished tradition. The hosting service, nearlyfreespeech.net, runs on a shoestring budget, and makes no effort to police its customers:
If you are aware of content on our site that violates the law in the site owner's jurisdiction, please contact the appropriate authorities. We are not law enforcement officers and we cannot initiate law enforcement action. Neither are we sufficiently educated to interpret the laws of each and every country our members hail from, so we rely on the local authorities to initiate action and contact us. We may, under some circumstances, assist law enforcement officials in accordance with our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
In particular, the Terms of Service has this to say:
It is your sole responsiblity to ensure your compliance with any and all applicable local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable Content.
NearlyFreeSpeech.NET will generally cooperate with foreign authorities in the investigation or prosecution of alleged criminal activities. There is one important exception to this policy. We will generally not help authorities of any repressive foreign government to investigate or prosecute alleged criminal activities if (and only if) the scope of those activities is limited to the operation of a website on our service that is critical of that government in a manner that would be Constitutionally protected speech in the United States.
This exception is granted on a case-by-case basis. You should not assume you have this protection unless we have told you in writing that you do, in conjunction with an anonymous hosting arrangement. You should not bet your life or your family's life on our ability to protect you. Under no circumstances will this protection extend to non-speech-related criminal activity.
So is the use of the Liberal name and symbol a violation of intellectual property laws, or a fair use for the purposes of parody or satire? Remember, what matters is whether the website meets the American standard for protected free speech, not a Canadian standard. I'd like to see the Liberal Party win that fight in Texas.
Whoever is behind this site, he or she is on the ball.
Oh, and should you be aware of any "phantom Liberals", drop these guys a note.
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Comments
"I'd like to see the Liberal Party win that fight in Texas."
Yee haw, welcome to Texas Mr. Graham!
Posted by: Aaron Unruh at October 16, 2006 04:51 PM
First the Liberal Leadership weekend is anything but and in fact gives the CPC a full measure of useful quotes for future use, and now this site.
It is a great week to be a Canadian conservative!
Posted by: IceMack at October 16, 2006 05:40 PM
Why oh why must people torture us with flash?
Posted by: the bear at October 16, 2006 07:44 PM
This is the Neville Chamberlain Admiration Society website in honour of Taliban Jack.
http://www.thistechnology.com/neville/
Shamelessly uses the YouthforVolpe HTML. Enjoy.
Posted by: Erik Sorenson at October 16, 2006 10:21 PM
This could just be the tip of the iceberg. I think anyone who wants to post satire in Canada will be doing the same thing, using a server in a country where freedom of speach is a right. The Liberal strong arm tactics merely served to delay the inevitable.
Posted by: Phil at October 17, 2006 12:29 AM
Did the Liberal Party win that fight? The site looks to be down.
Posted by: glenda at October 17, 2006 08:06 AM
Yeah, glenda. The Phantom Liberal site seems to be down. Too many ghouls?
Posted by: 'been around the block at October 17, 2006 08:11 AM
Too many LIBRANO ghouls, that is?
Posted by: 'been around the block at October 17, 2006 08:13 AM
Does anyone have screen captures of the site?
Posted by: at October 17, 2006 09:15 AM
No big surprise to see Alfie Gags fingerprints all over the smoking gun. I'm guessing people people count their silverware after having him over for dinner
Posted by: neo at October 17, 2006 12:11 PM
Is this a permanent shutdown , or is this just a temporary glitch?
Posted by: kursk at October 17, 2006 12:48 PM
WHOIS results for phantomliberals.com
Generated by www.DNSstuff.com
Registrar: DIRECT INFORMATION PVT LTD D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK [the normal status for a domain when it is locked]
Dates: Created 16-oct-2006 Updated 16-oct-2006 Expires 16-oct-2007
DNS Servers: NS.PHX1.NEARLYFREESPEECH.NET NS.PHX2.NEARLYFREESPEECH.NET
Anyone know why a domain would be "locked"?
Posted by: Nimrod45 at October 17, 2006 01:55 PM
I cannot find reference to the website anywhere. I have sent a nasty email to shaw. Might have to suck up if it wasn't their doing. Anybody have any theories?
Posted by: Jeff Drebit at October 17, 2006 02:09 PM
Guys. it's probably a blogstorm, too many excited cons wanting to see and daily KOS swarming to overwhelm the system. How many times has this website been down. Look at the problems Greg Staples has been having.
Posted by: Fergy at October 17, 2006 03:03 PM
Janke: I would really like to see you dig into all the Canadian media outlets and post it in black and white who owns/runs the MSM outlets and what each persons political affiliation is. In the post from a while ago "The Globe and Mail: An outlet for Liberal Party research stories?" it's clear the most of the people running/writing for BellGlobemedia, CTV, etc. are actually working directly for the Liberal party (not just biased towards them). If you could compile an undeniable list like that it would be very interesting.
Posted by: T2 at October 17, 2006 07:08 PM
It was up when I posted, the link was on Bourque, they may just have had too many hits.
Posted by: Phil at October 18, 2006 01:33 AM
 
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