This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2005 at 1:47 pm and is filed under UK General Election 2005.


The Backing Blair site has been down for the last 30 minutes following a complaint to our providers. We’re just now trying to find out more about the nature of the complaint, but it’s unlikely to be legitimate.

Here’s a legal titbit for you while you wait (from this PDF): 4.18 It is important to make clear the distinction between cyber-squatting and spoof websites in the political context. Cyber-squatting might be defined as the malicious registration of internet domain names for financial or, in some cases, political gain. Spoof websites, on the other hand, generally make no pretence to deceive electors and typically include humorous or more general critical analysis and comment. Given the importance of freedom of speech within a fair campaign environment, we do not consider that spoof websites, where clearly identified as such, are intrinsically damaging to the campaign environment.

UPDATE – This is a genuine stroke of genius and this kind of noise from Milburn does not surprise me one jot.

UPDATE – The complaint was made with regards to the London Underground song and refers to “excessive use of possibly copyrighted material.” Excessive use? It’s either in violation of copyright or it’s not, surely? Backing Blair should be back with you shortly. We will try to identify where the complaint originated.

Incidentally, before this (ahem) landmark moment, the Flash video for the London Underground song reached over a quarter of a million individual web users. In two weeks.

UPDATE – The most recent update has been posted to the Backing Blair site.