samizdat (SAH-miz-daht) noun
An underground publishing system to print and circulate banned literature clandestinely. Also, such literature. [From Russian samizdat, from samo- (self) + izdatelstvo (publishing house), from izdat (to publish). Coined facetiously on the model of Gosizdat (State Publishing House).]
Hmm. Samizdat? Not a word that was coined in the U.S. We haven't had as much need for the term, I guess. Still, we have the institution. From passing notes in class to mimeographing outsider "zines" to encrypting our e-mail, we're a country of samizdatniks. The difference is, we can get away with. We expect to get away with it. In fact, it's legal, so we're not even getting away with anything, just exercising that pesky First Amendment entitlement. Why don't we have a special term for this special right that's envied by so much of the world?