Let's Show Some Support For Spocko

From Libby @ The Impolitic, Blognonymous gets word of the troubles that Spocko's Brain, a great blog that I really should read more often, is having with KSFO, Disney, and 1&1 Internet.

For those of you that haven't been keeping up, here's the skinny. KSFO, our local talk-radio affiliate of ABC, has some of the most offensive on-air personalities in the Bay Area--a little like Limbaugh only half as articulate and twice as offensive. Well Spocko got pissed and tried to do something about it. He ripped MP3's of a few particularly noxious KSFO programs, posted them to Spocko's Brain, and then called up some KSFO advertisers--companies that include Netflix, Mastercard, and Bank of America--to inquire if the station's programming reflected their corporate values. And guess what? A bunch of those same advertisers abandoned KSFO.

But the story doesn't end there. In steps Disney/ABC, only after the advertisers have already left, to take out their frustrations on Spocko. They file a cease and desist order, insisting that the recordings be removed as a violation of their copyright, and when Spocko refuses, muscle his Internet service provider, 1&1, to pull the plug on Spocko's Brain which 1&1 does.

Now Libby and Spocko have done an excellent job skewering Disney/ABC, so let me take a swipe at 1&1. Many of you may not know this, but Blognonymous is hosted at 1&1, and I've been preparing to leave them for a couple of months now. Why? Because where most ISPs maintain a service level of 99.9%, 1&1 can't even achieve 98%, and when they do go down--often during Internet 'prime-time'--they immediately do maintenance. Those stints in October when Blognonymous was off-line, sometimes for hours? 1&1 trying to recover from a disk crash. Apparently anticipatory hardware monitoring isn't something 1&1 engages in. (And they're arrogant mother-f*ckers too.)

So here's a thought for anyone who wants to show some support for Spocko: Post on this topic. Tell Disney/ABC/KSFO to go f*ck themselves. But in addition, if you host with 1&1, leave.