More on Alisher Usmanov

Alisher Usmanov, as pretty much everyone who reads UK blogs is aware by now, is a bullying Uzbek billionaire who got his lawyers to shut down Craig Murray’s website. He did this, presumably, to preserve his reputation. However, he has failed; before this affair started, I hadn’t heard of him and not had many other people. Now lots of people have heard of him, and take an extremely dim view of his activities.

As Obsolete puts it:

Alisher Usmanov and his shower of lackeying legal cunts, Schillings, have finally pulled off a very pyrrhic victory.

Obsolete continues:

Despite comprehensively failing to remove Craig Murray’s original blog post about Usmanov, which is still around if you know where to look, they’ve managed to spook Tim Ireland’s webhost so much that they’ve pulled the plug on Tim and Clive’s cluster of sites, also including Bob Piper, Boris Johnson and Craig Murray’s blogs.

(BTW, if you don’t already know where to look for it, Craig Murray’s original post is here. And probably in loads of other places as well, by now.)

It’s good that Ushmanov’s reputation has been blackened by this affair, as it will make others think twice before they try to censor the Internet. What else can be done to lessen the harm that can be done by billionaires wielding libel lawyers? Sunny Hundal suggests locating one’s website in the USA, where libel laws are more sensible:

British libel laws always make it more difficult on the party with less money. So hosting companies don’t want to take a chance and, at the first threat of legal proceedings, will capitulate. Tim and Craig’s example is worrying because it may have repercussions for British blogging in general. So do blog about this and spread the word! This will hopefully make others re-think before issuing legal threats to bloggers. Oh by the way, we’re hosted in the United States, which have different libel laws.

Personally I think that Usmanov should be banned from visiting the UK ever again, and all his assets here forfeited. And his scumbag lawyers, Schillings, since they don’t believe in free speech, should to told to leave the country within 48 hours or they’ll have their tongues ripped out. (I’m told that Usmanov is likely to become the next leader of Uzbekistan; and I imagine that dissent there is treated rather harshly. By taking Usmanov’s shilling, Schillings have aligned themselves with him, and thus deserve to be treated similarly harshly.)

Alisher Usmanov is a scumbag

Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek billionaire who wants to buy Arsenal football club, is a scumbag.

Why? Apart from his criminal behaviour in the past — for which he was imprisoned — because he got libel lawyers Schillings to take down Craig Murray’s blog after Murray used it to write uncomplimentary things about Usmanov.

As Lenin puts it:

Craig Murray, as former ambassador to Uzbekistan, has raised these claims on his website and was followed by a number of other blogs and message boards. Evidently, Usmanov feels threatened by them, and has employed the libel lawyers, Schillings, who have applied pressure to service providers to pull the websites in question – before a single thing has been tested in court. The issue as it now stands is not whether the allegations against Mr Usmanov are correct, but whether you should have a right to hear about them and whether the promise of the internet can be shut down by an affronted oligarch. It is one thing to expect a single post to be withdrawn, although even this is unconscionable if it results from straightforward goldplated bullying by a plutocrat. But to take down the whole site is outrageous. Fasthosts is not a free service: you pay to register the website, and you to pay for the web hosting. Whatever contractual stipulations they might use in their defence, Fasthosts ought to be compelled to defend the internet access of their customers and specifically to restore the websites in question. (Update: looking through the Google cache of some of Murray’s articles mentioning this, I see that the service providers repeatedly edited his posts after threats from Schillings).

Update: this is all over the UK blogosphere, e.g. Chicken Yoghurt, Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone