Bob Blakely wrote a great piece last month On The Absurdity of Owning One’s Identity.

In the section called Owning My Story About You, he says:

Your reputation is my story about you. You can’t own this by definition; as soon as you own it, it’s no longer my story about you; it instantly becomes an autobiography instead of a reputation.

Control

In principle, you could “Control” my story about you, but there are all sorts of good reasons you shouldn’t be given this control. At least in public, and at least in the USA:

• You can’t stop people from observing you
• You can’t stop people from taking your picture
• You can’t stop people from talking about you

There are exceptions, of course, but they’re quite limited. The rules are similar elsewhere in the world, and you really don’t want to change these rules. Let’s say you want to stop me from talking about you - (maybe you don’t want me to talk about what diseases you have, or how much you spent on beer last month). You’d start by getting rid of this rule:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

…because as long as the first amendment is around, I can tell anyone I want how much you spent on beer last month, and (as long as I’m telling the truth) you’re just going to have to suck it up.

So … What’s the name of the company that is slapping Abe Olandres with a libel suit? Why should we in the blogosphere be giving them a free pass at anonymity?