>The Blocking Of The Blogger

>As you might know since the beginning of March Turkish bloggers are having a very difficult time to reaching their beloved blogger blogs.

This is so because as a court in Diyarbakır ruled that access to blogger and to all the blogs it hosts should be blocked. The ruling of the court is based on a claim made by a satellite television provider (which I will not name because I do not want to make their advertisement) that some blogs on blogger are showing the football matches of the Turkish League online and for free. Where as this unnamed company paid the unreasonable high amount of 321 million TL, to buy the exclusive rights to broadcast Turkish football for the next four years.

Therefore they asked the court in Diyarbakir a town in the south east of Turkey, where as the HQ of this company is in the middle of Istanbul to block the blogger.

A web site (http://privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr/) announced that Google has taken the necessary steps for removing the blogs that violated the copyright from blogger so that the court decision can be revoked.

But so far I as a blogger I do not see any progress as I cannot access my own blog without using any proxies such as vtunnel.

This I why I have been able to update my blog regularly in the recent days.

>Greed Is A Sin. Blocking Blogger, Not Yet.

>

Today almost thousands blogger users in Turkey had a very nasty shock. Their beloved blogs were out of their reach as a court in Diyarbakır ruled that access to blogger and to all the blogs it hosts should be blocked.

The reason for this court rule is just plain greed.

The decision of the court is based on a claim made by a satellite television provider which I will not name because I do not want to make their advertisement. This company paid unreasonable high amount of 321 million TL, to buy the exclusive rights to broadcast Turkish football for the next four years.

Now they force people to pay high subscription prices to buy the satellite dish, the receiver and pay a high amount of subscription to watch the matches of their favorite teams. And football is a quasi religion in this country. Unfortunately for them the Turkish Football league lacks excitement and good quality football this year. So this company cannot gain new subscribers as fast as they hoped. Ergo they are not making enough income.

There are some Turkish blogs, that show the footage of Turkish football matches. On line and free. They cause the company to lose money. Thus this satellite TV provider blames these few blogs and asks Google to close these illegal broadcasting blogs individually. And when this does not happen the TV company shuts down the whole blogger by court order. Does the TV company loses any sleep over this? No. Does Google lose any sleep over it? No way. Who does? The poor bloggers. Like me. Or like Izabela Szmit,a Polish girl who lives in Turkey at the moment:

Imagine that the ongoing (if I do not know, but …) too long to lock on Youtube.com, it’s time for … Blogspot. So I write to you about it quickly and chaotically, because maybe this is my last entry … But I like the orchestra on board the Titanic … play to the end …

The same TV company did blocked the blogger two years ago, when I have just started blogging, for the same reason. When the protest against them started to grow, first on internet later on other medias, they pulled back. The best punishment we the simple folks can give them is to cancel the TV subscriptions and let them lose more money.

As I use proxies I have no problems (yet) accessing by own blog. The whole thing is legal in Turkish jurisdiction system. But it is not moral.

After all God do not made greed a sin for no reason.