Yuga’s Libel Case and Legal Fund
There’s a bit of a buzz going on at The Blog Herald, said to be the “first blog dedicated exclusively to the news of the blogosphere”1. I’ve read about this just yesterday, and I think it’s worth a mention because the issue concerns a fellow Filipino.
Abe “Yuga(tech)” Olandres, probably Philippine blogosphere’s most famous and influential problogger, has recently stepped down as Editor of The Blog Herald due to personal and legal issues he’s currently in.
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. [...]
Pressed what his “legal troubles” are, he has this to say:
I guess we can discuss about that ridiculous law suit here as I can’t understand how it got blown out of proportion.
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 [sic] 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.
And with his “small start-up web hosting”, I suppose he’s referring to plogHost, where a lot of Philippine top bloggers’ websites are hosted.
I’ve had the honor of meeting Abe on last month’s Blog Parteeh, and he’s a pretty all-around neat guy. One has to admire his dedication and perseverance to what he does. To top all these qualities, he remains down-to-earth and accommodating to people he meets. No wonder he is such a respected figure in the blogging world.
I fail to see the legality, or even the sense, in filing a charge against him, and a libel case at that, when he clearly did not say the malicious statements thrown at the former employer of the forum members. According to Abe, the administrator of the forum has already moved out the day after he’s been noticed of the going-on. The forum is now hosted somewhere else, and everything that concerns it is now out of Abe’s hands, so why? Why the fuss?
Mark of SlashPress Media, a network which has recently acquired The Blog Herald, mentions in one of his comments
For those of you reading this and learning about it for the first time, I can tell you that Abe has already had to spend an equivalent amount of money to that which was saved to buy a home, in order to defend himself against these ludicrous charges.
Reading it gave me a serious headache. Money wasted in this gibberish equivalent to that of money that could have bought a house? Where’s the justice in that? But this certain comment seemed to have pulled a string amongst regular Blog Herald readers as they suggested to help Abe financially by setting up a legal fund and donating even just a small amount of dough. And because I’m just a poor unemployed fat ugly creature, I have nothing to give but my moral support and this blog entry. Makes me wish I’m also a problogger.
An entry calling for help has been posted by J. Angelo Racoma, Abe’s fellow Pinoy problogger.
We’ve set up a Xoom link where you can send in funds: 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.
I hope that anyone who has money to spare decides to help a fellow blogger. Remember, anything is possible, and the same thing can happen to you.
Abe’s situation makes me wonder if the Philippine government, not that I completely trust it, has jurisdiction over the world wide web. If it has, is it efficient and competent enough to handle such cases made over the cyberspace? But most importantly, are we willing to rely on our government to protect us from legal mumbojumbos such as Abe’s case?
And does this mean that our digital rights are also at stake?
- Lifted from The Blog Herald’s About page [↩]
taken here by the blog whore. hello mysteryosa ;-)
Our digital rights are always at stake…
Ouch! Thats too bad fro Abe, Hope he can passed to this one.
Your A Book FREAK! Mini-Library & 32 Paperback books??? Your a monster in reading a book haha! Well super good for us we like to read..!
Kudos to Bulitas!
Yeah my moms like that, she’s freaking out every time she thinks of my late father…hehehe and the suicide thing?? She’ll forget that…”sabi nya lang yun”
Haha chocolates?? Kung sa Valentines makikita kita, I’ll be giving away chocolates on that day!
That P790 is for the hosting and domain at ate ems, we’ve been e-mailing and I think I’ll going to purchase all from her…
P.S - To All kind hearted visitors of Shari Please Give Alms to the Needy…Give alms to me!
Nomination Thingy??? Hmpp Sure! Abangan kung saan!
Love Lots!
-L.A
you know what? you could be a politician.. hehe in ateneo, we also talk bout issues in our gov’t but I dont participate that much coz our govt is so magulo… di ba pwde peace nalang lagi.. kahit sinong president lagi yan may mag ooppppoooosssseee jan
tlga na meet mo siya? nako naman sana nameet ko din siya i would feel the way you do din for sure tlga..
dang, greed nga naman. not to mention, that annoying sue-happy culture of i won’t mention which people. abe, you have our support. kaso wala akong paypal, ayaw pa i-approve ung mastercard ko eh, lol
I dislike having to meddle in legal things but why does Abe get the burden of having to put up with all of the things that the client should’ve gotten? :P
i can’t see the point why his former employer filed a case against him. He’s the owner of the forum, so yeah… i really don’t get it
I dunno if the PNP or NBI were that good enough to handle this case. Kung yung mga kaso nga na may malakas na ebidensya, taon ang binibilang eh.. pano pa kaya pag sa inet? lmao!
The case would hold no grounds in court. I would seriously just hire a simple lawyer and set the real facts down.
The Internet crosses many juridictions, but mainly because the Internet is a branched off developing version of the Military Intranet’s original version… the laws are set more like the US on the grounds of freedom of speech.
The company could sue the owners of the site, not the company hosting it. The company hosting it is not responsible for the material of that user and by policies on most webhosts, it would not violate any known policy.
Aww, poor Abe! I hope this doesn’t get worse! Unfair naman nun.. they should just leave him alone.
i think that’s so pathetic… if only I had money. well. it’s not that. if only my parents let me donate it. lol.
I didnt pass PhiSci. I thought it would make me feel so shitty, but I’m actually okay, and I dont even care. rofl. I dont know. Bahala na si God. it’s not meant for me.
Yuga? Who the heck is Yuga?
I think that’s what people get for making money out of blogging. They had it coming anyway. Pfft.
Anyhoo, not that I give a rat’s ass or anything but best of luck to this Yuga guy. May the gods bless him or something.
I think they should not include Abe in that. He’s just the freaking host. What does he have to do with all those shits? Geez, those people.
ngeekkk.. grabe naman yun. wawa naman si kuya abe…
bukas, makalawa okay na din yan…
That legal case is stupid. Did the employer expect Abe to tamper with his client’s content, when a simple negotiation could solve it all?
This is a sad case of shooting the messenger.
thank you thank you!
that will surely help!
hehe!
Wow this is so unfair.I mean good people always faced with loads of problems while those bad peoples are so free from any problems.I hope he can get through it though.This shows how ugly a society can be…
This soinds like a horrendous situation…I am sorry I am unable to help out…stretched thin by so very many other things, but I think it great that you are blogging about it and letting people know.
Mm. That’s quite unfair, and not really, a smart reason to be charging him with. Isn’t it simliar to when a Hostee does something bad, and the Hostess’s account get suspended because of a hostee, except of course on a much larger scale (and perhaps with a different concept, but that the analogy I could think of.)
Hello Shari!I love your name
nice site and good massive commentators you have here 
Advance Happy Valentine`s Day!!
and thanx to QC you stumbled upon my site
ingat!
What bothers me, is the moolah, he spent for that ridiculous case that could’ve already been used to buy a house.
And why does he have to be sued when he’s only the host?
@ shai - the california supreme court thinks that one cannot sue someone over the statements made by commenters.
[...] Shari’s Misteryosa [...]
[...] Shari’s Misteryosa [...]
plain bullshit. this case wont prosper. i think the company’s ego (the one who filed the case against abe) was tapped at this so bad that ayaw nilang mag spread ung baho nila…
as i always post on threads about this abe vs libel lol, is there a single soul who knows the site that they are referring to!?!? i mean ung forum :|
salamat!
ok that lawsuit is stupid! we’re both forum junkies and di ba nasa disclaimer, or sa terms, or somewhere na the host,owners,etc are not responsible for what other people post?
and oo nga, what’s next censorship?
argh..stupidity leaking into the www
[...] really feel sorry for what I learned about Yuga from Misteryosa. Yuga through his comment on the Blog Herald, narrated: I run a fairly small start-up web hosting [...]
[...] hey, let me let you in on a “secret”. She left a totally off-topic comment on my blog entry about Abe’s Libel Case and Legal Fund. You all know I don’t take [...]
[...] Yuga’s Libel Case and Legal Fund- A stupid case against the Philippine blogosphere’s finest, Abe [...]
grabeh, kawawa naman si yuga. pero im positive malalampasan niya yan. i know him and he’s one sensible, intelligent guy — and mabait, at that. kaya ni yuga to.