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10 Ways to avoid the Boy Bastos Treatment

By now, most of you might have heard of the Boy Bastos news and the search warrant made by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Mark Verzo’s house earlier. Mark is the owner of the site BoyBastos.com and also a blogger who owns a blog network. The portal is currently down as instructed by the authorities.

I won’t talk about any legalese here as I’m not in authority to discuss those issues. From my point of view, and having dealt with people from the NBI before on a similar situation, here are my tips to avoid the same treatment from them.

  • Don’t insult or taunt Loren, or anyone with political power, authority, clout or influence for that matter. You don’t want to be on the receiving end of their dark half. I think Mark’s situation got worse because he was challenging the senator to get him.
  • Clean up your act. If you think you’re a little guilty or in the borderline, best remove them from your site and issue a no-cache command on search engines. Just hope they didn’t make screen shots or cached copies of the offending materials.
  • Anonymity is not absolute. You can hide behind layers of proxy or veils of internet protection and still be traceable to a certain degree. Someone, somewhere will be able to track you down somehow. They could always go to your provider and threaten them to give out your personal information. Yahoo! did that in China. So did Microsoft, AOL and Google — with proper government pressure.
  • Check all your nicknames, handles, emails, pictures if they reveal your real identity. A Friendster account, LinkedIN, MySpace, Facebook can giveaway vital information to reveal your true name, contact information and even address.
  • Put up a disclaimer and a Terms of Use on your site. Have it checked with a lawyer or someone expert in that area. Also add an Adult Content Warning for visitors.
  • Block certain IP segments. Most government offices have assigned static IP ranges. You can make it harder for them to investigate you if you block IP segments from your site. If they don’t know any better, they’d think your site is down and won’t bother re-checking.
  • You have the right to remain silent. Use that right always. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Don’t even bother responding to any demand letter — they could use it as evidence later on.
  • Pull out your own list of networks — sometimes, it’s a game of who knows who. Let’s admit it — in the Philippines, things get done faster if you’re way up there (or knows someone) in the food chain.
  • Here’s a trick I learned from the movie Sword Fishdiversion. Create multiple fake names, multiple fake addresses, multiple online accounts, and even fake pictures and make them as realistic as possible. If they’ll be searching for you online, they’ll be swamped with different and conflicting names and address. That could buy you some time to withdraw all your money and fly to the Cayman Islands or some country where there’s no extradition treaty with the Philippines.
  • Get yourself a good lawyer. That’s the best advise I could give anybody.

Yes, we can always claim freedom of expression and the lack of provisions in the penal code for such internet activities, still we can’t avoid the fact that bullying is one trick people in high places have mastered over the years.

This reminds me of an old and interesting movie — The People vs. Larry Flynt. Michael points to a link in the forums for more details.

So, who’s next?

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

48 Responses

  1. Avatar for Daniele Broxterman Daniele Broxterman says:

    Uncommonly exotic blog article.

  2. Avatar for Deborah @ Ohio 4G Wireless Deborah @ Ohio 4G Wireless says:

    Hi, just stopped by doing some research for my Ohio 4g site. Truly more information that you can imagine on the web. Wasn’t what I was looking for, but great site. Take care.

  3. Avatar for surfer surfer says:

    ITS ALL ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT!

    ITS HOW YOU ACCEPT IT.

  4. Avatar for ThePinoyTUBE ThePinoyTUBE says:

    Good article! Still can’t see what all the hoopla is all about – I still think Legarda went over the top on this one.

  5. Avatar for julia julia says:

    i heard there are people planning to buy boybastos.com and turn it into a merchant website that sells filipino handicrafts & products

  6. Avatar for kiatkiat kiatkiat says:

    DON’T VOTE MGA POLITICIANS BEHIND THE CURTAILMENT OF OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHICH INTERNET SITE TO VISIT. MGA BWISIT SILA. Nawala tuloy c boybastos.

  7. Avatar for Mr G Mr G says:

    Interesting comments, however I think the issues are starting to become blurred. IMO, this is what we’re looking at:

    1) A man was “arrested/invited/questioned” for violating a non-existent law. A search warrant was produced for said man, based on said non-existent law.

    2) The said man’s private property was confiscated, on the grounds that he is a “suspect” engaged in “criminal” activities of “sexual” nature, albeit the “crime” was supposedly committed online.

    3) How can a “crime” exist when no law defines it as such? I cannot say it is illegal to enter another man’s home unless the trespassing law exists. With regards to the issue at hand – IF the said man was engaged in hosting and distributing pornography through the internet, why should be arrested + investigated + his private property be confiscated when he has not broken any laws? (Please bear in mind that his belongings have not yet been returned, nor is there a guarantee that IF they are returned, they would still be in working order).

    4) In fact, shouldn’t said man be able to sue the government of the Philippines for trespassing, kidnapping, robbery, libel, and slander? Legally speaking, since he has broken no crime, the very basis for the search warrant is null and void (this is of course, assuming that the basis for the search warrant was peddling pornography online), which makes the entire situation a series of illegal acts on the part of the Philippine Government!

    5) Isn’t it amusing that by using an example/scapegoat, the bill being pushed by the senator in question suddenly became a priority?

    In the end, I shall say this:
    I am not defending Mr. Verzo, far from it. In fact, I can sympathize with the many parents out there who would like to see legislation enacted with regards to apparent ease of access with regards to online smut. I know how they feel, I have a daughter who I love and try to protect as best I can.

    HOWEVER.

    I am a firm believer in the line of thought which says: “If you cannot be responsible, don’t blame the product of your irresponsibility on others.”

    There are hundreds of 3rd party software available which does exactly what parents need for their impressionable children – they filter out content unsuitable for minors. Most modern internet browsers even have them installed on default.

    The issue I have with this whole mess is the fact that we have a small group of people (who do not have enough knowledge of how the I.T. industry works) that are trying to regulate it as how they see fit. Could you imagine the repercussions if this is simply ignored? It is tantamount to having Fire safety laws drafted by people who do not even know that gasoline fire can be put out by (wet) sand.

    It will be a big and ugly mess of haphazard legislature. Imagine if the law that Sen. Legarda had drafted requires ISP’s to filter out smut content? Again, with no real defintion of “smut”, that leaves an incredibly disturbing grey area – so who defines what is “smut”? The government? The ISP? The judiciary? A committee?

    Tsk.

    Maybe the blogging community should start voicing out? Maybe along the lines of: “We are intelligent adults, and any regulation that requires the filtering and censorship of information should be first carefully studied, debated, and discussed.”

    Amen? Amen.

  8. Avatar for Jamie  Dy Jamie Dy says:

    How can they arrest him when the site is hosted from a foreign country?..

    even if there was a law regarding his site in the Philippines, it should only apply to locally hosted sites.

    Thats why there are servers that’s located in some countries thats allows porn, gambling, and warez to be hosted.

    i wonder which site is next?
    iyottube.com
    uploads.ph
    pinoyspy.net
    what else?

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