Greece Still Having Trouble Figuring Out The Internet: Arrests Blog Aggregator For Aggregating Content It Doesn't Like

from the let's-explain-how-the-internet-works dept

Mon, Oct 30th 2006 10:05am — Mike Masnick

It would be nice to believe that the Greek government and their cybercrime officials have at least some grasp of technology -- but time and time it appears they do not. After all, this is the country that banned video games after the government felt it was too confusing to distinguish between something like solitaire and online gambling. Even worse, they arrested a programmer because some people he met got spammed. That was the entire connection. He had nothing to do with spamming them, but since the people accused him of sending the spam, he was arrested. In fact, the spam was typical Viagra spam -- so he was arrested for potential drug dealing even though it was clear from all of the evidence that he had nothing to do with sending out the spam. Now, Slashdot points us to the story of another person arrested in Greece. This time, it's the administrator of a Greek blog aggregator site, that simply brings together a bunch of Greek blogs. Unfortunately, one of those blogs included satirical posts. Apparently, a Greek televangelist complained about the content -- but since the original blog is hosted in the US, they simply arrested the guy who ran the aggregator site, despite the fact he had absolutely nothing to do with the content that was being complained about.

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20 Comments

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Trouble Maker, 30 Oct 2006 @ 11:31am

two cents worth
Sounds a lot like a Witch hunt...ohh! Technology is EVIL and all those that deal with are evil and they are to blame for everything that is wrong.

Matter of fact I was just writing that because of the increased number of computers in operation around the world the collective BTU output is the new reason why there is Global warming.

Of course this has nothing to do with the elliptic orbit the Earth takes as it orbits the sun as it goes though the orbital process over tens of thousands of years some orbits or closer, some are farther to the sun. Everyone just KNOWS that this has nothing to do with it. So Global Warming has to be directly related to Man’s (meaning Mankind) actions on a daily basis.

But how do we know these things? Technology! That uncontrolled aspect of Evil, Now if you ask me….the Greek are responsible.
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Denfro Licious, 30 Oct 2006 @ 11:31am

No Love
I guess they want all Geeks out of Greece!
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Steve, 30 Oct 2006 @ 11:36am

Greece and their government...Sad
I say this from experience. I'm Greek and lived in Athens for four years. You said that they should publicly embarrassed the Greek government. Well, there is no need to do that. Reason being . They do a good job of that on their own. If you didn't know they just recently had their elections and if you have ever watched their pre-election political debate they get up on the podium and fight like a bunch of old housewives. I believe that their government is probably the most corrupt and money under the table country and government, and the money under the table isn't only to politicians. I mean everything works with the money in an envelope there. Being that it's free hospitals (not free, payed by taxes that go up every other week) If you are seriously hurt and you go to the hospital it doesn't matter. you'll sit there for hours till the doctor takes care of the people that gave him a little envelope of money. I personally seen this when I lived there. Same thing with my school bus driver. Being that I'm American, I had to go to the American-Greek school on the old U.S Air Force Base (Helecon) and even though when he picked up a kid about 2 miles down the road he still wanted to go down the other street and make me go to the stop that was about 4 miles from my house, just cause he's lazy. Well, that was fixed with a bribe and he would now stop about 600 yards from my house. Being that the school, buses there are only Privately owned tour buses and the driver gets a list of kids and addresses and he would make up his own route. Now I know I'm a little off topic but this is just to let you know how corrupt things are over there. Not to mention the the border there is a joke and everyone and everything gets in and out of there as they please with no problem. When you go to the supermarket your actually surprised to see a Greek person. It's pull with Albanians, Pakistanis Afghans, Iranians, Iraqi's, Russians. Everything you name it, and I bet you only 10% of them went through customs. If that. Want to talk about terrorist hideouts... that would be the place... The cops over there are a joke... All you see them do is sit in front of their station drink coffee, play cards or backgammon or argue about politics or their soccer team. The only way they catch crooks is if something stupid happens and someone called the police and the crook decides to stay around for a while then they get there about 30 min later. Talk about response time. Now I go there every year to visit my dad and I'll tell you what. Nothing has changed...
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Ben, 30 Oct 2006 @ 12:03pm

Re: Greece and their government...Sad
Hear that sound? That's Techdirt now being removed from Greek blog aggregator sites.
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Steve, 30 Oct 2006 @ 12:07pm

Re: Re: Greece and their government...Sad
lol lol, Oh oh, I see interpol knocking at my door in the near future....How stupid can a government be???
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Elohssa, 30 Oct 2006 @ 12:12pm

Amish?
They should move to Pennsylvania if they want to live in the 1800s. That's where we mostly store those types over here.
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a geek from greek, 30 Oct 2006 @ 2:55pm

i
that it can collect text from the site
and can be sent direct to a fax number
the posts
of a blog
for example
can u understand...it?
is wiki>easy
thats what i'm talking about
straight central press room to be deleted
everybody have the right to sent it there!
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Joe, 30 Oct 2006 @ 10:56pm

Re: Greece and their government...Sad
Mipws ta parales ligoulaki adelfe? Des to kai apo tin allh meria: den bariomaste!!!

H nomizeis oti stis US tha eise kalitera?

Joe
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DimSis, 31 Oct 2006 @ 2:44am

I'm a Greek (and tech geek) and i have to agree 100% with the article's comments about our goverment... Greece is ruling from the worst politicians on this planet for about 150 years... :p
(they can't beat g. bush but they are trying hard!)
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Oct 2006 @ 6:26am

Re: Re: Greece and their government...Sad
Eimai kalitera kai den ta paraleo, H ellada ta exei ftisi. Exei yenei koroido ston kosmo me tHn politiki tns...
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hm, 31 Oct 2006 @ 7:32am

there are worse things out there...
It's not as if the u.s of a. are any better; it's just that you have been taught to think of it as "normal" when RIAA sues mother of 3 for songs she never downloaded. Laws should not apply for the Internet. Keep IT Free.
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Ted Laskaris, 31 Oct 2006 @ 9:46am

Greek state deeply ignorant
Ignorance breeds extreme behaviors. Greek legislators know as much about the Internet as about Eskimo history. The thought that these "fathers [and mothers]" of the nation pass laws that directly affect the way new technologies are controlled is scary, to say the least. Greece, in general, unfortunately remains a compu-phobic, Internet-phobic nation -- despite the fact that it registered the fastest expansion of broadband subscriptions worldwide in the first six months of this year. Greek government attitudes toward the Internet are negative. Speeches and promises aside, few in government take the Internet seriously or understand its implications for growth. This situation won't be changing any time soon.
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john landis, 31 Oct 2006 @ 1:00pm

Re: Re: Greece and their government...Sad
eisai malakas
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Bill, 31 Oct 2006 @ 3:10pm

sad greek....government....ABOUT THE PEOPLE
The "PASOK" and the left who government Greece for twenty plus year should be hold responsible for the currupt system; nevertheless, the new conservative government does not even try to change anything at all.
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Penny, 31 Oct 2006 @ 4:46pm

Re: Amish?
We have lots them in Pennsylvania and we are very proud of them. They are tops. There is nothing the Amish can't do.
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mcg, 31 Oct 2006 @ 5:48pm

Left?
Bill, Are you serious about the left governing Greece for 20 years or you're being sarcastic? PASOK is as right as New Democracy. They are both conservative corrupt parties that serve the interests of the oligarchy (well that's what happens in most of the world but anyway). It's really funny that everybody complains but when it's time for elections they either don't vote or vote one of these two parties. Every people has the leaders they deserve
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2006 @ 6:14am

Re: Re: Re: Greece and their government...Sad
THANK YOU. Tora Na katalavies ton elinismo, amesos molis kapois pie kati pou den sou aresie amesos tin vrisia. Kai yia afton ton ligo exei kai tha paramini stin nyhta H ELLADA. Mathe na milate me to mialo oxi ton kolo. Auth tin stigmi ethixes oti eleya, amesos to maloma opos tous politikous. Efharisto pou edixes oti exw dikio...Blaho
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Nick, 3 Nov 2006 @ 1:08am

Half-information leads to misinformation
First of all, let me say that I am Greek, and live in Greece (Athens to be more specific). I won't even try to deny that corruption runs deep here, but :
1. Video games were never banned from Greece totally. It is completely legal to play in your own house, an internet cafe etc. The games that WERE banned were the arcades - the typical shop where you had all the games and played for a coin per round. The bill never intended to prevent private gaming, and when people tried to make it so, it didn't pass.
2. As for the supossed spam author, everyone seems to stress the fact that he was charged for no reason... well, apparently he was sued by someone for receiving spam from his address... thus the police went there and cofiscated his hard drive for further examination
3. The accused aggregator case is also a case where the televangelist sued the aggregator. Unfair as it may sound, Greek law dictates that in this case ( a named person suing another for a concrete reason ), hard drives are confescated for examination :(

All in all : I'm not in any way trying to defend Greek laws, policemen, or to draw a pretty picure here. However, I am annoyed by people presenting only the information they see fit, to promote a regular article to a scandal.

As for people speaking Greeklish in this articles... what can I say, it's downright rude and doesn't serve any purpose to start flaming each other in a public post, in your own language....
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Greek born in Canada and resident of Athens, 5 Nov 2006 @ 8:42am

stay on subject
The subject is that Greek laws about internet are insufficient and thats why all this stories take place, we need to get our laws updated as the European ones.

Corruption and other mentioned problems are present will be here for a long time.
So if u dont like either u move or u do something about it.
If u decide to move then u must be carefull talking about things u decided not to fight for and let others do that.
Critisism is accepted but you should be fair.
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barbara roberts, 25 Mar 2007 @ 9:16am

password rejected
I always have trouble with passwords. I chaged it and it still rejects oit.
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