Angry in the Great White North

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.