Standing up for Free Speech

Last week i.PH received two demand letters asking us to take down one of our blogs because it allegedly had libelous content.  The companies claiming libel, Stratvisions Inc. and Versomina Inc., threatened legal action against us if we failed to take the site down.

The two demand letters can be seen here:

  
Click on thumbnails to enlarge

Whether they tried to contact the blogger directly to request that the posts be deleted is unclear. But we refuse to take down the blog for a very simple reason — we respect the principle of free speech.

We believe that blogs serve an important purpose in allowing people a venue for expressing their thoughts, ideas and opinions. In the past you had to own a newspaper, radio or TV station to get yourself heard.  This has changed with the advent of the free marketplace of ideas that we know as the Internet We find the threat of legal action against us (and it’s accompanying legal costs) disturbing, to say the least.  But whether or not we agree with what our bloggers have to say, one thing is clear — we respect their right to say it.In fact, i.ph domains are anonymous precisely to promote free speech and encourage people to speak out.  Got a beef against your local politician?  Blog about it.  Know where all the MMDA speed traps are along EDSA? Warn other motorists by posting their locations.  A restaurant served up a cockroach along with your fries?  Upload a photo on to your blog.

Anonymity, and the opportunity to reach a wide audience, gives people a chance to air their truths without fear of harassment and let the public decide. Of course, we are well aware that we have certain responsibilities as a service provider. In this case, if the blog entries are proven to be libelous and there is a court ruling to that effect, we’ll take them down immediately.But until that happens, probably the best thing for all parties involved to do is to air their sides and let their ideas speak for themselves.  Because when all is said and done, the truth shall set you free.

Congratulations to Comicology!

Guys! Let’s give a big round of applause to Bim of Comicology for winning in the best Hobby/Recreation category of the Philippine Blog Awards!

Here are some pics of him accepting the award last night:

So guys, congratulate Bim!

Also, Noelle of Trippin’ was nominated for Best Travel Blog, but she lost to Ironwulf. But the fact that she got into the finals when there area LOT of good travel blogs vying for the award means something.

Good job i.PH people, keep it up!

WordCamp Philippines 2008: Awesome!

The first-ever WordCamp in Southeast Asia was held last September 6, 2008 in the College of St. Benilde, and it was a success! Since i.PH runs on WordPress, the i.PH team was there and we were able to talk to some bloggers who were absolutely passionate about WordPress.

Gracing the event was our CEO, Joel Disini, who gave a talk about the future of i.PH and even gave us a sneak peak at some of the new features being developed by the i.PH team, namely Google Gears integration:Imagine being stuck in traffic and inspiration strikes. You don’t have an internet connection with you, but you just have to write about it soon or else you’ll lose the chance. Well, with i.PH and Google Gears, you can take blogging offline. Just enable offline mode in i.PH, and you can write about anything, anytime, anywhere and upload it whenever you can! With i.PH, you can take blogging offline! How’s that for awesomeness?

Remember, everything that you love about i.PH, the easy customizible layouts, the drag-and-drop interface, the advanced privacy features, have all been built on the powerful WordPress platform! Imagine what more we can do with WordPress in the future!

Finally, i.PH would like to congratulate the Mindano Bloggers for organizing the successful WordCamp!