The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

I Hate Ryanair.

Actually, I have turned down the very occasional offers of advertising here because I can't be bothered to complicate my tax return for the trivial sums involved. However, I also felt that to make money from my blog might somehow compromise the opinions expressed.

The decision of Nominet's domain name tribunal to transfer the rights in ihateryanair.com to the airline itself turned upon the fact that the previous owner had made a few hundred pounds from advertising. Ryanair argued that he had used their brand to promote his "business" and the tribunal found against him. Had he taken no advertising, he would have been spared the trouble of moving his site to its new location (link above).

Contrary to the ignorant and intemperate opinions expressed by Andrew Marr recently, bloggers are mostly doing our (more or less) valuable bit to contribute to public debate and civil society in general. Of course, I don't blame anyone for making a few bob from blogging. You will never read here that business is a bad thing. It is the life blood of our society and ultimately funds every "superior" activity of which socialists and other sneering snobs approve. This case suggests, however, that bloggers need to take care when mixing their opinions with commerce. How fortunate for the Rupert Murdochs of this world that the same doesn't apply to old media!