racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Yesterday I put up a short commentary about the Boy Bastos (literally translates to lewd boy or rude boy, depending on context) issue. I just breezed through the links, and didn’t really read in-depth. I’ve decided to revisit this issue, with a more objective perspective.

Let me highlight the press release published in the Philippine Senate’s official website.

Sure, the press release itself is lacking, in terms of having a grasp of the actual concepts behind the sites and applications involved. For instance, the Boy Bastos site was referred to as providing “access to a YouTube,” (emphasis mine) as if YouTube were an object itself. However, the ratonale behind the whole thing is noble, I would think (if a bit misguided).

Senator Loren Legarda is known to be a staunch advocate of women’s rights. And it is for this reason, among others, I believe, that she is popular among her constituents (she topped in the Senate elections in 2001 and 2007). True enough I, for one, would definitely want to protect my wife and kids from the dangers that lurk around the corner. And I’m pretty sure other people would feel this way.

Legarda is author of Senate Bill 1375, the proposed Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which seeks to reinforce the war on electronic smut.

Under the bill, peddlers of online porn and other “indecent materials” would be punished with up to six years in prison or a fine of as much as P500,000, or both.

The bill provides that it would be illegal for any remote computer facility operator, electronic service provider or electronic bulletin board service provider to knowingly transmit, offer or attempt to send any communication that contains indecent material, to a person under 18 years of age.

It would also be unlawful for them “to allow access to transmit indecent material to a minor.”

However, in terms of proposing legislation, the Internet is a difficult thing to handle. It’s like a two-pronged tongue. It’s like beauty and the beast in the same person (or Jekyll and Hyde?).

The Internet is a powerful tool and medium that espouses and personifies freedom of information. This is freedom both as in free beer and freedom as in free speech. This means information is both free to get, and free for you to disseminate and distribute, as you please.

So with the Internet, the flow of information is largely unrestricted. People exchange ideas freely. People communicate faster. This is the very reason that some regimes try to curb, censor and even ban this medium—for the very reason that they fear dissent among their citizens. In most cases, the Internet still prevails.

However, along with the beauty of freedom comes the ugly side (which is also a profitable side, depending on your perspective). Pornography has been known to be a driver of technology, and along with the freedom of information that the Internet gives us is also the freedom to transmit less desirable content and information (again, desirability is subjective).

So the question now is how to combat the evils brought about by this new medium, like exploitation of women, children, and individuals in general, but still keeping in mind that the Internet is a different animal that cannot be contained by space.

Here’s what I propose

• Educate your kids on the dangers of the Internet. Teach them not to share personal and private information online. Teach them not to haphazardly post photographs online. Teach them to only talk to trusted people online. Teach them to be responsible with what they read and watch online.
• Educate parents (most important!). Teach them how to use the Internet themselves; I’m aware most kids today are more tech-savvy than their folks. Teach parents about the benefits and the dangers of the online world. Teach them how to cope with the dangers, without necessarily having to curtail their children’s freedoms.
• Educate lawmakers, law enforcers and their staff. Teach them how to handle the Internet as an entity. It cannot be contained by space or geography. Unless data itself resides on servers within a country’s soil, it may be difficult to prosecute within one’s jurisdiction. Help them keep up to date with the trends and issues.
• Teach lawmakers and law enforcers how to handle the Internet as a medium. Can ISPs be held liable for serving access to pirated content? What about pornographic content? Can social media apps be held liable for questionable content that its users upload? Can blogs be liable for comments made by readers? It’s just like blaming the telephone company when you receive undesirable messages like death threats.
• Teach respect. Earn respect.
• Actively promote productive use of the Internet as a medium.

I would think the best way to keep people from engaging in illicit activities (crime, immorality, etc.) is to effect changes from within. Society’s ills cannot be solved by imposing expectations without first ensuring that the people’s attitudes are in tune with what society thinks is right. This would be unrealistic.

I think there are two ways by which you can make people follow you. One is if they fear you, and another is if they love you. Imposing a reign of fear will sure curb or minimize whatever undesirable acts, but this will only foster dissent (and deep down inside, people will want to disobey). Focus on the positive, and people will do what you think is right because they also think it is right.

If you try to impose filters on your home computer or network, so that your teenaged sons cannot access porn, they will only find workarounds and get access to these through other means. Perhaps they can tunnel through proxies. Perhaps they can turn off the filters themselves. Perhaps they can still gain access at a friend’s place, or a public terminal. Or maybe they can get hard copies of lewd magazines pretending to be men’s lifestyle mags). But if you help them learn about the sacredness of sex and the beauty of the human body (of course, in an interesting and non-boring way), I don’t think they will resort to pornography.

Same goes with your daughters. Teach them to be confident with themselves and to be smart, and they will be less likely taken advantage of (by the teenaged boys whose parents impose filters and restrictions ).

Why they need people like us

And so folks, here’s the reason why our country—and those in power—need people like us. We are well-versed with new media like social media, blogging, podcasting, Web 2.(insert number here). And we are well aware of the potentials of the Internet as a medium, both for good and for bad. It is our responsibility to use this medium for good, and to guide our fellow citizens in using this medium in a productive manner.

So whichever side of the issue you stand on, I think you would agree with me on this.

The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment, exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worth while. The commonest mistake made about freedom is, I think, to identify it with freedom of movement, or, with the external or physical side of activity. – John Dewey

The Boy Bastos issue:

• A bugged life
• Bayanihan Blogs
• GMA News
• The Senate press release

It’s obviously just a case of clashing personalities. I doubt if there will be any basis to charging Mr. Boy Bastos in our legal courts, aside from the potentially libelous inclusion of a certain senator’s name on the boybastos.com domain registration info.

I also doubt Mr. Mark Verzo himself produces the pornographic content on his website. And in all likelihood, his web host is located off-shore (in US soil, perhaps?). So does the Philippine legal system have jurisdiction? I’m not sure. I haven’t checked the e-commerce act lately. But I would think that references to geographic location of data would be murky at best. We are, after all, still in the stone age of information technology.

(Why Stone Age? Think of the ZTE broadband deal. Incidentally, having worked in government for three years, I’m aware that the current administration has “fast-tracked” some deals with the Chinese government for some ODA projects. So that means even with government checks and balances, it only takes just a word from the higher-ups to get people to “approve” projects. So gov’t reviews and negotiations just become ministerial, in effect.).

It’s the intarwebs people! Web 2.0! User-submitted content. I wonder what the authorities will book Mr. Verzo with. And I wonder why they had to confiscate equipment (maybe they can charge him with running pirated software?).

Remember the Netopia lobby to censor the Internet? What about the congressman who blamed porn proliferation on 3G and broadband?

We need new blood in government. Maybe I’ll run in the next elections.

Update: Second thoughts on Boy Bastos (and Why Government needs people like us).

There’s a cabinet reshuffling over at the Blog Herald. My fellow problogger Abe Olandres has recently stepped down as Editor of the Blog Herald, and will be exchanging positions with Tony Hung, erstwhile Assistant Editor. Abe cites personal problems that prevent him from giving the Herald more attention at this time.

My recent personal issues/problems have slowed me down tremendously. A death in the family, legal troubles and more- all have piled up on me so quickly that I have been barely able to focus on my work. So I am glad that Tony accepted this role willingly and on such short notice. I will still be around, sometimes writing, but more on the back-end of things and I will continue to help Tony run the site. There’s still so much to do around here, as you know. Amongst other things, we’re getting a few more people into the writing team.

Abe tells me that he’s already spent so much because of the legal problems that it’s taking a toll on his finances. I’m not really sure I can discuss details of the case here, but believe me—it’s really quite stupid. Here’s how Abe describes it.

I run a fairly small start-up web hosting here in the Philippines. One of our former clients runs a forum that we used to host. Several members of that forum were throwing vindictives against a their former employer. That employer sent us a demand letter thru their law firm demanding that we terminate the site or be charged with libel as well. The client moved out from us the following day. However, the employer/complainant has now filed several libel law suits against us claiming that we are the owner of the domain and the operator of the site. The site is still up and running though hosted somewhere else, the domain was also transferred away from us. Still, the complainant is alleging we should have enforced some sort of regulations or control over the content when it was still with us.

Apparently, all they wanted is money and this case is just of one of their many business gigs.

If you ask me, I’d say that’s plain harassment. But you know how it is here in the Philippines. Corruption and inefficiency can be found in many parts of government (I should know, I was with government for quite some time). And the judicial system is probably not too prepared in handling such high tech cases yet. Court cases can take years to finish and in the end having to pay lawyers’ retainers, appearance fees and other miscellany (including suhol perhaps?) will be the real killer.

In line with this, some regular readers of the Herald suggested that we help out Abe with his expenses by setting up a legal fund. After all, this is a case where online publications are involved. And this could happen to any blogger (I’ve heard of bloggers in other countries being sued because of comments that readers have posted).

We’ve set up a Xoom link where you can send in funds: https://www.xoom.com/pay/26999757 . Xoom accepts any amount from $25 to $2,500. For smaller amounts, you can send paypal to theblogherald (at) gmail (dot) com.

Mark of Splashpress Media has also given an incentive to contributing:

Let’s try this: for the first 10 x $100 contributions made via the paypal that Angelo mentioned – theblogherald (at) gmail (dot) com – you’ll get a link in “friends” for the rest of 2007. Just specify the link & text you want with the payment.

It’s like an über-discounted advertising rate. But it’s better since you get to help out someone in the process.

We should show our support for Abe, and express outrage at how people can take advantage of individuals like this. In the end, it’s not just about the money. It’s about principle.

Why didn’t I think of that before?

Anyway, what brought me to this realization is a recent issue of a lawsuit threat because a blog ranks higher than a business site for a Google search. Search Engine Journal has the skinny.

An online shoe store owner is threatening to sue a blogger Dean Hunt (DeanHunt.com) unless the blogger ‘lowers his Google ranking” for a keyword phrase that the store owner feels he deserves.
...

I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited].

On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.

Please understand that we make our living from this, and you are just writing a blog that has nothing to do with [edited].

If you do not remove yourself from google for this search, then I will call them myself and have you removed.

...

You have to understand Dean that an online business should be higher in Google than a blog.

Don’t forget that Google is a business as well, they obviously make more money from other businesses than they do from blogs, so it is in their interest that I am higher than you for certain searches.

I have also contacted my lawyer about this issue, so you should expect a letter in the post very soon.

Wow. That’s stupid, with a capital S! (That makes it Stupid, then.)

This is why I often advocate the use of blogs by businesses and companies. It helps with the image and helps boost search rankings, as well. “BLOG” standing for “better listings on Google” is very appropriate, don’t you think?

I dread the day the owners of racoma.com come knocking on my door demanding I de-optimize my blog for my surname. Or rather, I think I should look forward to that day. Maybe I can charge a gazillion bucks for racoma.net and racoma.com.ph.

There’s an ongoing discussion at the SEO Philippines eGroup (and quite an impassioned one, too) about the pricing of .PH domains. Having worked for dotPH, I’m aware of the issues and the arguments from all sides. Of course, with this disclosure, I also cannot just divulge any information I know of that other people might be interested in.

Still, you might find the thread over SEO Philippines a good read (membership to the e-group is required, but is as simple as sending email to seo-philippines-subscribe AT yahoogroups DOT com). Abe has also posted his response on his blog, and it’s from the perspective of his being a .PH reseller.

Also, another bit of disclosure: the company that I currently work with, Enthropia , has also been active in advocating the Use com . PH campaign. And part of this is our giving free com . PH domains to eligible bloggers. We do recognize the need for Filipinos to be able to carry the com.PH name with pride.

My response to the issue

Here’s my response, below.

Those of you know know me would be aware I used to work for dotPH. While I can’t divulge the exact details about the issue, I’ll share some general insights (the little that I actually do know of what’s been going on).

To tell you the truth, it’s a stalemate. Gov’t wants to take control—or even just reassign—the .PH ccTLD, but dotPH maintains that gov’t can’t just do that since they were first to be assigned registry status by ICANN. The Philippine government can’t do anything unilaterally since it’s also through ICANN that these issues have to be resolved, as it’s ICANN that assigns the administrative and technical management of the registry.

Frankly, dotPH claims ICANN will take their side on this matter. If the gov’t decides to sue, then it will take years and years for the issue to be resolved, especially given the slow pace of the legal system here and the lack of really solid electronic-commerce and IT laws (and do consider that one of the main proponents of e-commerce laws here is Joel Disini’s brother, Atty. JJ Disini—so there might be some difficulty trying to interpret the laws to gov’t’s advantage. Though arguably they’re not always on the same side when it comes to IT stuff, when it comes to business they seem to be a strong team).

Perhaps as IT professionals and businesspeople, we can lobby for better dialogue between gov’t and the .PH registry, if what we want is to have more competitive pricing. Do consider that other ccTLDs around the world also still charge $35 per year. The market is different. You can sell CNO domains at $5 and still earn, because of the sheer volume; in contrast, the market for .PH is considerably smaller. Of course, there’s also the basic concept of supply and demand—if dotPH sells for lower then there will be higher demand for .PH domains. The thing here is to find the optimal price at which everyone’s a winner ( i.e., domains are priced competitively and are affordable, and the registry/registrars earn even better than with the $35 prices).

(End of quote)

A bigger issue

Other SEO Philippines members who have far better background on the matter than I have pitched in their two cents’ worth, and there seems to be bigger issues cited, particularly about the .PH namespace not being a “business” and that the registry should be treating their appointment as a trusteeship. If you’re interested in reading about this, then I suggest you head on to the e-group message archives.