It Just Gets Worse

There are no limits to the dreams of a censor. The only limit is the abiltity to enforce the censor's edicts. The internet represented a burst of freedom that is now being dragged under the jackboot as censors everywhere develop their regulatory schemes. The funny thing is that the world hasn't descenden into perverted chaos in the meantime.

The fact that the interenet has grown organically, initially using existing technology means that it is not owned by governments or corporations. However, both of these pernicious forces are scheming to colonise the internet and use it as instrument to enforce their will or as a source of private taxation.

The link above shows the irrational shameless scheming of Senator Conroy as he seeks more and better ways to follow the lead of the Chinese and other tyrants in censoring the internet, all in the name of protecting us from ourselves.

The net neutrality debate is an example of corporate interests seeking to colonise the internet for profit, essentially by prioritisng traffic that produces profit, and relgating or banning traffic which chews bandwidth, such as Skype or bittorrents.

Insulting Islam

In a victory for free speech, a Turkish man has been acquitted of insulting Islam.

The sad thing is that such a crime exists at all.

Sickeningly similar crimes exist in Australia.

Sticks and Stones

There is something wrong with our legal system when a victim of sexual harrassment received $466,000 damages for receiving unwanted advances and explicit picure text messages on her phone, and in another case today a rape victim received $41,250 compensation from her attacker.

Copyright Madness

Copyright is a restriction on free speech. Some say it is a necessary evil. Intellectual property rights are artificial rules created by society for its own benefit. The reasoning is that better work will be produced since the creators can invest more time in them in the hope of a substantial reward.

Some copyright owners insist on pushing the envelope in the quest for larger profits:

ASCAP (the same folks who went after Girl Scouts for singing around a campfire) appears to believe that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license.

This unabashed greed will ultimately be counter-productive. It will demonstrate the unreasonableness of current copyright law and lead more people to flout it.

Strange Bedfellows

Canadian conservative Ezra Levant is a true hero of the free speech movement. After being subjected to the star chamber of the Canadian human rights bureaucracy he has taken them head on and created a national movement against fascist laws designed to shut down free speech.

Now the Daily Kos has come out in support of Levant, demonstrating once again that free speech is about basic human rights, not which side of the politcal fence you are on.

Hentai Hell

A US appeals court apparently does not understand the constitutional right to free speech. It has upheld the conviction of a man for possessing a cartoon, and a second conviction for writing an email about his fantasies. Without question the majority judges in this case are much sicker than the defendant. It is bad enough theat they seem unable to follow Supreme Court precedent, but their lack of respect for free speech is disgusting. Read about it here:

an appeals court has upheld an obscenity conviction against defendant Dwight Whorley for possession of hentai, pornographic Japanese comic books. Whorley was also convicted of a second obscenity count for writing an e-mail describing a sexual fantasy that was regarded as deviant by a jury.

Porn

There is an interesting discussion on the porn industry over at An Onymous Lefty.

Having free speech entails allowing porn, other than that which involves the commission of a crime in its making, such as child pornography.

However that doesn't mean that you have to like the destructive effects that the porn industry leaves in its wake.

It's a bit like legalising drugs. You may choose that path as a lesser evil, without recommending the use of drugs, or liking the destructive effect they have on users.

Obama Slobbering Media

In a new low, even for the OSM, ABC will broadcast from within the White House on the Obama health reforms.

ABC will not allow any alternative point of view, either by way of having a guest commentator on the program, or by taking paid advertising which differs from the White House view.

With the change of President, the OSM has moved from talking truth to power to being the chief government propagandists. This is a sad day indeed for free speech.

Funnily enough I am finding it difficult to link to a critical story on this issue in the OSM.

Censursula

Now politicians are trying to foist internet censorship on the German people:

The greatest fear of the protesters is that once in place, the infrastructure will be used to censor other forms of unwanted content, not only child pornography. German politicians already seem to be lining up with their wish-list of content to be censored in future – the suggestions ranging form gambling sites, islamist web pages, first person shooters, and the music industry cheering up with the thought of finally banning pirate bay and p2p.

The internet has benefitted greatly from not being owned by business interests. Censorship in aid of public morals is an important part of the taming and colonisation of the internet by business interests. It is the wedge they need to work their way in. Once politicans have arrogated to themselves the power to censor the internet, the rest is easy. the big palyers in the copyright business have never had any difficulty in bending politicians to their will.

Censorship Glitches

While the Australian interenet censorship trials continue, China continues to have difficulties with its system.

The last thing Australia needs is a system that bans content, slows down web browsing and emboldens meglomaniac politicians.

We have criminal laws to deal with content which it is a crime to posses, and the means to track that content exist.

Ultimately, these systems don't work, as the Chinese system demonstrated. Not only do they block the wrong content and fail to block a lot of the intended content, they also introduce further complexity into the system. This can result in a less reliable internet, and as the Chinese case demonstrates, security vulnerabilities.

In spite of all of these defects, the real harm in these systems is the very idea that politicians and bureaucrats think that they are entitled to block internet sites at will. The list is secret, and the mere publication of the list will result in the matter being referred to the Federal Police. Most of the banned sites do not involve child pornography.

Three Strikes Out

The French Constitutional Court has struck down legislation designed to disconnect file-sharers from the internet.

The Court was concerned with the presumption of guilt inherent in the law, and its denial of free communication to citizens. The court also made the following statement about freedom of speech:

"Freedom of expression and communication is so valuable that its exercise is a prerequisite for democracy and one of the guarantees of respect for other rights and freedoms and attacks on the exercise of this freedom must be necessary, appropriate and proportionate to the aim pursued."

Global Censorship - Climate of Fear

One clear example of censorship is the Global Warming debate. The proponents of the proposition that global warming is is significantly affected by human use of fossil fuels have unilaterally claimed victory by declaring the debate over. Al Gore refuses to debate the issue, even though his movie is full of incorrect data. Now the major focus of the climate change alarmists is on vilifying anyone who disagrees with them.

One seriously disturbing aspect of the debate is the unscientific behaviour of the pro-AGW "scientists". Many do not make their data and the details of their models available for checking in a timely manner, or at all. This is the opposite of science. Michael Mann, author of the infamous 'hockey stick' graph only gave up his data years later, and under congressional subpoena.

Mann's graph was hurriedly included in the 2001 IPCC report to dramatic effect and victory in the debate was claimed. Subsequently the discredited graph was quietly dropped by the IPCC.

The censorship in this debate consists of the closed-minded refusal to discuss the issues, with the insinuation that anyone who wants to continue the discussion is rejecting science. In fact the opposite is true. The very essence of good science is robust discussion. Those who prefer to denigrate their opponents rather than to debate with them are unscientific. This issue is all politics and little science.

Visa Denial

Christoper Hitchens writes on the capricious use of visas by governements as a means to censor:

What is at stake in all these cases is not just the right of the people concerned to travel and to take their opinions with them. It is also the right of potential audiences to make their own determination about whom they wish to hear. As a journalist, I can go and visit Hezbollah spokesmen and report back on what it's like and what they say, but why should a reader have to take my word for it?

He also had this to say on excuses for censorship:

One of the effects of the "war on terror," and of one of its concomitants, namely the attrition between the Muslim world and the West, has been an increasing tendency to make exceptions to First Amendment principles, either on the pretext of security or of avoiding the giving of offense. We should have learned by now that, however new the guise, these are the same old stale excuses for censorship.

Free Speech in Venezuela

Leftist icon and legendary buffoon Hugo Chavez has ways of dealing with his media critics:

Broadcast regulators last month accused Globovision of inciting "panic and anxiety" by criticizing the government for its slow response to a moderate earthquake, and prosecutors this week opened a second inquiry into Zuloaga for a suspected "environmental crime" related to wild animals he'd hunted and had mounted in his Caracas residence. They said they were acting at the request of pro-Chavez lawmakers.

Free press groups including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the investigation of Globovision, while Human Rights Watch said it showed the government is out "to harass its critics."

Since Chavez refused to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television in 2007, Globovision has been the only anti-government network on public airwaves in Venezuela.

The urge to censor grows with the desire to hang on to power.

Dead Parrot

Bob Carr on a statutory Bill of Rights.

A Bill of Rights is more likely to be an attack on human rights. The right to free speech would no doubt be constrained by the right of select groups not to be offended.

A constitutional Bill of Rights which enshrined freedom of speech, due process and the equality before the law would be a fine thing. No such thing is presently contemplated.

Two Steps Backwards

China has banned Twitter, Hotmail and Flickr on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square military murders. Once a government has repressive powers it will always find excuses to abuse them.

Idiot Booted

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has quit, ostensibly as a result of using her expense account to pay for her husband's porn.

This is the same jack-booted jerk that banned Geert Wilders from entering Britain to accept an invitation to speak at the House of Lords, and pre-emptively banned US shock-jock Mike Savage even though he had not applied to enter the UK.

I suspect that the real reason for her resignation was more related to the fascist incompetence she brought to her ministerial role.

The Terrorists Within

This is a classic example of how once ceded, rights are further eroded.

Control orders were part of the Howard anti-terror laws. Now, all it takes to apply control orders to other groups is an assertion that that group are "the terrorists within". Now applied to organised criminals, the bureaucrats have just begun to exploit their new toy.