The Cesidian Root: A bizarre peek at the world wide weird

Cesidio Tallini, the founder of eponymously named alternate Internet The Cesidian Root, and the logo for the quasi-foundation of islands he claims to have liberated from the United States. (Cesidio Tallini)

Want a .satan URL? Or .hack, .christ, or even .god? Look no farther than the alternet.

The Cesidian Root is an Internet for the third world -- or rather the fourth, fifth and sixth worlds, according to its website. The organization lists current time on its site as Mercuday 10 Columbus 2012 @ 568 (the last three numbers are the time in Cyberterra Mean Time, of course).

What the heck?

The Cesidian Root may seem like it should be called the world wide weird -- but founder Cesidio Tallini says it’s not an alternet at all. He’s merely a passionate defender of the First Amendment.

“There is only one Internet,” Tallini told FoxNews.com. “That is Internet by the people, for the people -- and that’s the one that I am running.”

There is only one Internet. That is Internet by the people, for the people -- and that’s the one that I am running.

— Cesidio Tallini, founder, The Ceisidian Root

Though you won’t stumble onto his system with a simple misstep in your daily websurfing, getting on Tallini’s network is easy enough:

Your computer looks up the Internet address of a website (such as “http://204.245.162.49”) from the name you type in a browser (“www.FoxNews.com”) using a phonebook of sorts, a remote computer called a DNS server. Point your PC to Tallini’s DNS server rather than the one your Internet provider has supplied (using Google’s handy how-to guide) and bang -- you’re surfing the World Wide Weird.

“Freedom of speech is also about being in control of your own computer,” Tallini says. “The government shouldn’t have the right to control what is on the Internet.” When WikiLeaks’ host provider shut down access to the site in November 2010 -- a move encouraged by the U.S. government, he says -- Tallini claims the Cesidian Root had it up and running four days later.

High-tech entrepreneur Tallini says he created the Cesidian Root in order to provide access to the Internet completely free from government control -- one of the reasons he expanded the standard set of top-level domains (common TLDs include .edu and .com) to include .god, .africa and many more.

He also calls himself governor of the United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA)-- the world's first supermicronation.

Tallini explains that the Cesidian Root is not under the jurisdiction of the United States or any another other country, despite servers located all over the world. He established UMMOA on Jan. 19, 2008, through what he calls “the most peaceful and bloodless battle in world history.”

According to the UMMOA’s constitution, the supermicronation “digitally” annexed the 11 insular possessions that make up the United States Minor Outlying Islands -- uninhabited dots in the Pacific Ocean that include Midway Island, site of one of the most important naval battles of World War II. UMMOA then established (you guessed it) Cesidian law, a body of law created by Tallini himself, which governs the Cesidian Root.

“What we’ve created is under its own jurisdiction for matters of convenience,” said Tallini.

Not so fast: The U.S. Department of the Interior, which operates the Office of Insular Affairs, doesn't recognize Tallini's claims, said spokesman Adam Fetcher.

"Midway Atoll remains an insular area of the United States of America," Fetcher told FoxNews.com. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carries out administration of the island out of its Honolulu office."

Tallini’s territorial claims are clearly illegal, in other words.

According to Aleksey Korzun, the founder of Web consulting company WebFoundation.net, what Tallini has cooked up is nothing special.

“The Cesidian Root is using the same systems the Internet uses,” Aleksey Korzun told FoxNews.com “It’s simply giving your computer different directions on how to get to a certain website.”

Korzun likens an Internet address to a phone number. Basically, Tallini created his own phonebook.

“He would tell you, if you want to use my server to get directions to get someplace, you need to call this server instead of the other ones,” he explained.

Tallini hopes his message of free speech will help spread awareness of the alternative Web system he has created.

But Korzun says the system may have another, more purple purpose: pornography.

“Systems like the Cesidian Root would usually only be used for illegal activities. They’re used for child pornography rings, drug sales, and people who are lulled in by a false sense of security and they want to do something illegal.”

In fact, Cesidian Root users may have less free speech protection than ordinary netizens.

“I would say if you use his server, you would have less free speech as he can change whatever he wants at any time,” Korzun said. “He has no legal or moral obligation to serve his users.”

Besides, why use a system 99 percent of web surfers won’t see?

“There are standards for the Internet that have been in place for a long time,” Korzun said. “Why would someone use the Cesidian Root or any of their domain names when no one will access your site because they’ve never heard of it?”