Slashdot Mirror
China Jails Porn Site Leader For Life
eldavojohn writes "The AP has picked up the story of a man convicted of serving internet porn in China. They report that he has been jailed for life. Eight accomplices were given sentences ranging from a few months to almost a decade. Some might view internet pornography as morally wrong but I wouldn't think it to warrant a lifetime sentence." From the article: "Xinhua reported that police said it was difficult to know the exact amount of profits the Web site earned. Police found about 200,000 yuan ($25,000) in the bank accounts of the nine. When the site was closed in October last year, it contained more than 9 million pornographic images and articles, the police said."
I visit the websites for the articles.
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
From that website (dated December of 2005): I'm certainly not intimately familiar with these cases but I do hope that they are jailing the correct people and that these people deserve it. A life sentence is nothing to sneeze at, especially in China.
My work here is dung.
9 million!? Is that all?
I wonder if the purveyors were also spammers? I haven't received any porn spam since about last October. Coincidence?
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
And to think, only 3 weeks ago Chinese officials tried to convince the UN that the Chinese government does not censor the internet.
Huh? Don't mind me, I'm just the new guy.
If pornographers are getting life, then spammers should get the death sentence. Of course, it would also undermine the capitalist underpinnings of the internet since porn and spam go hand in hand.
9 million pornographic images and articles
Tsk. Slackers. That's hardly worth buying a new spindle of DVDRs for, let alone going to prison for life.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
"Some might view internet pornography as morally wrong but I wouldn't think it to warrant a lifetime sentence"
Some view smoking marijuana as morally wrong but people spend decades in prison here for smoking a joint.
Can't you think of a more original troll?
9 million pornographic images and articles and combined they only had $25,000 in the bank. Hardly seems worth the effort. Certainly not worth spending the rest of your life in prison.
He won't have to serve it. Communism has less than a decade left. The internet is the catalyst.
Chen Hui was handcuffed and lead out of People's Court in Shanxi by two buxom sherrif's deputies in expensive wigs.
"Oh, we'll punish the naughty boy," said the tall blonde one, stroking her gun suggestively.
The ______ Agenda
I'm not trying to troll. If I were, I would be an Anonymous Coward. These crass web sites not only typically have no value as information, they are crass in the way that they mock God's evolution. They go against my ethics. I know I'm not alone in this.
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
Ohh yea, you're right. I mean, wouldn't it be wonderful if everything we did was punishable by life sentences?
What about an off-color remark on Slashdot? You're polluting the site! LIFE IN JAIL. How about a turn on red, with a sign that says "no turn on red?" Those stupid drivers need to spend their lives in jail! The entire cast of Lost or Battlestar Galactica need to be sent to prison as well, because their shows show too much skin!
Seriously dude, don't you have any fucking compassion? So, just because you don't want to run into any porn sites on the Internet (boo hoo), you think people should rot in jail for life over it? You're on scary son of a bith.
Don't you realize that it's the very freedom of information (whether you like it or not) that has made the Internet as popular and useful as it is?
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
A life sentence, what a surprise!
I thought they would put death penalty on him so they could take his liver, heart and kidneys and sell them.
Obviously I don't condone such draconian measures, and I'm generally a free speech enthusiast.
But isn't it interesting how governments of two of the most important nations of the world have strict controls on pornography.
China, because they like censorship in general.
But India has always put tight controls on sexually-related material. I don't know if they have a decency/obscenity code that webmasters need to follow. But certainly there is next to no production of porn-related material (especially when compared to Japan and US).
We cannot call India "backwards" or "repressive" with regard to free speech or sexual expression. They just haven't warmed up to porn.
Perhaps pornography is simply a Western invention and a predilection that strikes people in Asia as bizzare. Then again, I have no doubt that people in these countries are freely downloading Western porn; they just aren't producing it themselves.
One has to ask whether tolerance of porn/erotica is less a measure of liberalism than social norms. On the other hand, I feel pretty sure that in Asia/India and Arab countries prostitutions is rampant.
So pick your poison: prostitution/AIDS or porn/stripping.
One might even make the argument that whereas porn has been infiltrated by lots of feminists/actresses-turned-directors, brothels have remained a bastion of male rule.
Maybe it boils down to the technological issues; once enough people are armed with videocameras and ftp accounts, mores will change. But until that time, people in China and India will go gaga over Paris Hilton and Western porn stars.
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
...nor do you receive a decade in the states just for smoking it, unless you get caught many, many, many times. While constantly getting hassled by police is pretty annoying, they don't set up task forces or collaborate with the DEA to bust your average pothead.
Oh right - the Maoist government is now the pinnacle of morality?
Wake up, dumbass.
I find this part of the story submission rather peculiar.
What is morally wrong is to impose your own morality (like porn is bad) on others.
Regardless whether this imposition is by a government or by an institution.
As long as such a thing as the consumption and serving of porn is done between consenting adults there is morally absolutely nothing wrong.
(Yes I know some in Holland, Michigan differ with me but I'm from the Original Holland)
As long as a society, like here the Chinese, is of the opinion they can meddle in the private affairs of their people they are at best suspect.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
You say China is doing what all governments should be doing, but what China is doing involves life inprisonment, all over naughty photographs. The photographs are presumably of adults, otherwise I'd think the article would note child porn.
Two-faced weasel is a pretty close translation.
But Troll will be the verdict.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Mod parent +5 funny?
I ask the following as a genuine question, and I really would appreciate an answer.
I assume you understand that your beliefs and morality are not necessarily shared by others, just as I understand that you probably do not share my opinions. From this, however, the only fair conclusion I can draw is that I have no right to interfere with your actions unless they are infringing on my ability to exist happily and in a way that does not affect you.
Your post seems to indicate that you believe people who do not follow your moral code should be punished - therein lies my question: if you believe it is right to punish those who disagree with you simply for acting in a way that you find objectionable, without interfering with you personally, why is it not equally right for others to punish you for your acting in a way that they find objectionable, even if you do not do so in a way that affects them?
Psychotic Jesus-freaks? On my internet?
It's more likely than you think.
"Some might view internet pornography as morally wrong but I wouldn't think it to warrant a lifetime sentence."
In my supposedly free country, if I understand things correctly, and I have chatted with a lawyer about it, one can get 4 or 5 years of jail time for each non-genuine DVD or CD that you have in your posession. I don't think that is warranted either myself.
I don't even think the statutory damages are warranted myself.
all the best,
drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/262954
Sayings - Deterred Bahamian Novel
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
A great reason why morality shouldn't be the sole basis for laws. Luckily, the US Supreme Court has overturned most laws that specifically say activites against the community morality are a crime. In countries as large as China, and the US, morals will vary greatly from place to place and person to person, and legislating it is a mistake. Those differences give us strength.
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
Because what I believe is correct. The other, conflicting beliefs are incorrect. The reason mine is correct is that it is upheld by God.
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
I suspect with less porn, there would be less intellect. Come on, geeks minus porn? They might convert to go out and (eek!) actually find sex! Real sex.. how does that work anyway? I've never tried...
Support my political activism on Patreon.
Pretty strong to have these two sentences on one line.
If I'd be living in your neighbourhood I would consider moving to a more enlightened place.
And that's something these poor Chinese victims of your type of 'Morality' can't do.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
"so that this rubbish gets shafted with slower transfer of packets."
I think that this rubbish might get the faster packets. Careful what you wish for. It may not turn out as you think.
all the best,
drew
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
Before the Mao Tse Tung drafted China's charter of rights back in 1947 he sealed a message in a box an buried it in his back yard. Few people know that box contained a message to the future asking if there was anything they should include in the charter just to be on the safe side. What wound up happening was an adventure the likes of which Mao had never exected. With the help of a robot and the science team that built that robot Mao travelled across time, and some of the universe to ban everything he found objecionable in the charter of rights.
When you look at it that way getting a life sentence for hostng a porn site doesn't seem so ludicrous.
I don't own a snook, and if I did I wouldn't leave it cocked.
Yet, the government gives an implicit "okay" to prostitution. About 33% of Chinese men returning from the mainland to Hong Kong have purchased the services of a prostitute.
Why is pornography worse than prostitution? Pornography is about fantasy. Prostitution is about reality, and in China, prostitutes are sometimes children.
It seems that China has always quickly doled out heavy punishment for what it deams crime hoping to get the "big" message across to "the people." It apparently works, as they do have a very low crime rate in comparison to say, the good ole USA.
Anyone seen my jagged little pill?
Forget the fact that your mother and father doing pretty much the same, basic thing that most normal, pr0n sites show resulted in you being born, right? In fact, if it wasn't for "private, real-life pr0n", the species would die off in about ... oh, say ... one generation.
No one said that pr0n sites are for children, and any adult that gets negatively affected by pr0n is under no obligation to view that material again. It's not to everybody's liking, but that doesn't mean that it should be banned just because you don't like it.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
I hazard the guess He is also known as the God of Abraham.
In that case I declare you are the perfect example of a Pharisee.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Uh, are you referring to the porn sites, or slashdot?
Some might view internet pornography as morally wrong but I wouldn't think it to warrant a lifetime sentence."
What type of porn are we talking? For relatively vanilla stuff, I'd agree that life in jail is way off...in most countries generic smut peddling might be seen as unsavoury, but AFAIK it's not a crime.
However, if we're talking snuff, paedophilia, or beastiality, I don't have any objection myself to the idea of someone involved in such to go away for a long time. Maybe not life, but I wouldn't see 20 years as excessive. Kids who've been sexually abused never get parole from the hell they experience.
At least they didn't decide to kill anybody (this time).
Right wing (or in fact, any wing) religious extremists are always interesting to observe. The whole "I am right and you are wrong because you disagree with me. And incidentally, did I mention that I know that I'm right because it says so in an ancient book full of allegorical stories that has had a very dodgy history of translation and reproduction by illiterate monks" attitude leaves no basis for rational discussion. I wonder if there are any other groups of people in the world with similar blinkered views? Hmmm, let me think...
A One that isn't cold, is scarcely a One at all.
The most effective birth control is tied with richer 1st world countries, perhaps whitecollar jobs and education. Western European countries and Japan have generally low native birth rates, middle-class+ America probably is too to an extent though it's population keeps growing with immigrants (as it always has).
I don't know the dynamics, but probably it has to do with the cost of bring up kids as a middle/upper class family (it's more expensive to pay for college/toys/etcetera than what a low income family usually gives their kids), the fact that women are more likely to work a job, and other such factors.
So China really just has to become a 1st world country to reliably lower the birthrate. The other factors I have seen don't seem to count for much.
Please don't try to polarize the issue.
Him? Polarizing the issue? What do you think you've been doing by advocating prison terms that are wholly disproportionate to any real measurement of the crime?
I hope net neutrality doesn't pass in any form through congress so that this rubbish gets shafted with slower transfer of packets.
This represents a total failure at understanding net neutrality. If the ISPs break net neutrality, then they'll send you packets based on who pays them the most, not what they are, so if the porn sites pay up, they've got nothing to fear.
Or are you expecting ATT and other ISPs to immediately stop worshiping the dollar and sell everyone the Righteous Internet, the way you want? You expect everyone else to buy it?
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Call me when the Tiananmen perpetrators are sentended to life prison...
...they mock God's evolution.
You believe they mock a diety you've freely elected to worship.
Please keep in mind that the rational part of the world, the one which has has never chosen to believe in the existence of idols or gods, doesn't necessarily want the "moral values" your fellow cultists have invented forced upon them.
If you stopped searching for trivial things which you claim are offensive to you then life would probably be alot better for everybody.
You like to hang out in a building on Sundays and sing songs idolising a superbeing. Others prefer to sit at home, masturbating, while watching videos of consenting adults performing sexual acts. And many others will spend their Sundays at the track, or pitch, or in a workshop, garage or lab. Some even go to the beach.
And horrors, many will spend their Sunday having sex! Gasp!
Harmless pornography may offend you but a lot of people find the crusades of the self-appointed moral elite to be far/em> more offensive.
Oh and, heh, here's an outrage for you to rant about...the captcha for this post is "incest".
I'm not trying to troll. If I were, I would be an Anonymous Coward. These crass web sites not only typically have no value as information, they are crass in the way that they mock God's evolution. They go against my ethics. I know I'm not alone in this.Ok. Here's my counter example.
Not only does your religous verbal defacation have no value as information, you are an ass in the way you think that because you don't agree, it's ok to send people to life in jail. Your intolerance goes against my ethics, I know I'm not alone in this. Hey everyone, let's lynch this person for being an ass.
Oh wait, I forgot...Free Speech.
You have the ability and the right to not view porn if you don't want to. You have the ability and right to install internet filtering software on your child's computer to "prevent harmful viewing of information". I personally believe that trying to kill off all the "bad" websites in way more harmful than letting a child see them, for one being, that child will have a very shallow and narrow understanding of life if you do. BUT, that's just my opinion and I'm not going to murder you because you think differently.
Be grateful you have the right in this country to say what you did in your posts; say them and not fear that the government will kill you. Say them and expect the worst thing that could happen is a bunch of pissed off people reply to your post. Respect that right because that is the VERY THING you say China destroyed, and did a good job at that.
And on a different topic... WTF is "God's evolution"?
I thought if you used the words God + Evolution side by side, then it would cause a massive implosion of the universe...
---FourChannel---
... is useless without pictures.
Chinese women get in average 1.73 children, which is significantly less than what is needed to sustain the population over a long term. The population is still increasing though, due to expanded life expectancy. But India will soon replace China as the worlds most populous nation.
BTW: The second world countries (the old "Eastern Bloc") has in general even lower birth rates that the first world countries, so imitating Western lifestyle is not the only option.
Lack of access to pornography would have turned me into a sad and lonely man. Just as you are, my gentle troll.
Do not trust this signature.
...if everyone would just jail spammers for life, or even better, execute them publicly using the wet noodle method.
"This is America... where the will of the few outweigh the outrage of the many..." - Unknown
I am not saying that they are the pinnacle of morality. I am saying that in some ways they are more ethical than the Western world.K... you could also say that dead people are in some ways more peaceful than living people. But both of those statements make irrelevant points. The issue at hand is the termination of your life over someone else's morality crusade. Tell me, would you like to be on the recieving end of the Chinese Judicial System?
---FourChannel---
A few days back someone announced that the web wasn't dominated by porn sites. Now we have a single porn site with 9,000,000 pages. I've run some big non-porn sites, and they were just a few thousand web pages. Maybe the porn tale does wag the iDog...
I come here for the love
The spirit in which pornography is created and viewed promotes immorality.That's what YOU believe. Personally, I believe that sexuality shouldn't be suppressed, and I feel that the proliferation of pornography simply underscores our desire to be more open about sex. It shouldn't be a taboo. We're living and breathing organisms and it's a part of who we are. To deny that is to deny our very existence.
I don't believe pornography is created in a "spirit of immorality." I believe that some of it is over the top, as happens in anything, but I don't believe it's immoral any more then sex itself.
Take a look at one thing here - notice how I say "I believe" rather then putting this out there like fact? See, that's another part of being human. We have different beliefs. You need to respect my beliefs before I can try to respect yours.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
And someone got to count them all. They'll probably throw him in jail next for obviously being corrupted by what he saw.
Obviously they couldn't have edited, even viewed, that much material individually with the number of people involved. I have to question that number at all. Sounds like an estimate of losses due to filesharing by the RIAA. Overall a good reason not to be living in the People's Republic of China.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Yep. The Chinese!
You are no alone in believing in God, but people
who dont offend against God's regulations because
of other reasons than believing in God will not be
saved. Removing the sites will do no good, excepting
in removing one source of temptation to you ( and me ).
emt 377 emt 4
prostitutes are sometimes children.
If you checked the statistics, you would find it is no more prominent than in the United States.
Actually the land of high end electronics for children and teens, has a very high rate of child prostitution.
Please research before committing foot in mouth.
And what is your belief based on? Faith? If you were compelled by the government to believe in God, would God still consider that to be true faith?
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I guess they've used up the falun gong for organ transplants so they had to start on a new group of people.
Who's comparing anything to the US?
All the parent claimed was that they're sometimes children, something you can hardly claim is untrue.
The point remains that prostitution is more of an underground market with the problems that imply.
I personally think that if any culture should try stop any of those two, it should be prostitution.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Oh dear, speaking for God now are you? shouldn't we wait for Him to do the judging? How about tollerence and forgiveness? Why do you hate your brother for one action which might be a missdeed but does not go against the most important laws in the 10 commandments?
"Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know no murderer has eternal life in him" (1 John 3, 15).
Now why don't you think a little more and judge a little less...
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
In some ways he is right - pornography can be very harmful to people. It's addictive, time-wasting, teaches an inaccurate depiction of sex (i.e. it's just something that is there for pleasure, fun, not something important that should be kept in a marriage relationship), destructive to healthy family relationships, and if that isn't bad for children, what is?
The Chinese government is probably going overboard by putting this guy in jail for life, and I don't consider them to be a very good moral authority, but I can't fault them for trying to clamp down on Internet pornography. Society really is a lot better without it.
Maby you should answer the question he asked.
FRA: STFU GTFO
Watching it, I think it's supposed to be done anally, which the girl will always love, and then you'll have your babies...? :-/
I'm still trying to figure out why she should swallow though, but she wants it because it taste good!
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Blah blah blah cut your whining you communist fuck whining troll leftist. You and your American-hating ilk are not welcome here.
Here's a funny story on hypocrisy in that vein:
About 10 years ago, I lived in the PRC for a couple of months doing database work. I remember going one of those big Samusung stores--the kind that are like computer bazaars with tons of vendors--and there were cops who stood outside and searched everyone's bags as they left to make sure that they didn't have any porn.
Later on, I got pickpocketed at a bus stop. When I went to the police station to report the crime, there were a bunch of cops in a lounge there watching an American porno movie.
Guess that explains what happens to the porn that the cops "confiscate" outside of those computer stores in China...
Please?
The Tech Terminal
Is it hypocrisy in Chinese culture, or is it hypocrisy in Chinese government? Remember that China is not a democracy, and what the government does won't necessarily reflect what people think.
because in your fantasy, in your mind, you can fuck whomever you want...
The problem with your line of reasoning is that the war on drugs is much much MUCH more expensive than the extra money we'd spend supporting junkies. Just realize what the war costs us:
1. Manhours. We could easily cut our police force in half if they didn't have to worry about drugs (see point #4.)
2. Imprisonment. It's DAMNED expensive. It includes welfare (food, shelter, medical care) and a whole lot more. You might be in favor of a more barbaric prison system, but some of us still believe in humane treatment of prisoners (especially seeing as how you never know if you'll wind up falsely convicted. It. Happens.)
3. Legal fees for the accused. You might think that this is absurd and should be abolished, but you'd want to have a few appeals, too, if you were falsely accused.
4. Creation of violent drug-related crime. Would drug dealers be shooting each other (and innocent bystanders) if you could get a pound of smack for $10 at your local Walmart? Hell no. And if you were a junkie, would you be robbing houses or holding people up at gunpoint in order to get your fix? Hell no. Well, you might do it ONCE and you'd be able to buy enough smack to last for the rest of your (VERY short) life. More likely you'd be able to get the money by begging or working odd jobs. It just wouldn't make sense to resort to crime to support your habit--hell, it wouldn't even be worth the cost of the gun.
5. "You can retire from life in the US and live off welfare, SSI and other state-funded programs."
Amongst western first-world nations, the USA has one of the weakest "safety nets" of all (you should see the state-funded programs--and unemployment rates--in Europe!) and yet we have by FAR one of the worst drug (and violent crime, and property crime) problems.
6. Taxes. Tobacco and alcohol are heavily taxed and yet they're still pretty damn cheap (someone on minimum wage can easily afford enough booze to stay in a drunken stupor most of the time.) While I'm not sure that the many, many ill health effects of tobacco are counterbalanced by the taxes, I think that the taxes from alcohol and other non-smoked drugs could easily pay for future medical treatment. (Drunk/high driving is another issue entirely and IMO it should be dealt with very severely.)
7. You're implying that this war on drugs waged by brute force is actually winnable. It isn't.
Yes, I understand how it offends your sensibilities that some people are moochers and live their lives in a "stupor", but realize that by outlawing their drugs we're all paying MUCH more in the long run. I don't think that's worth whatever sense of satisfaction you get knowing that the junkies are locked up. Why not err on the side of civil freedoms and less wasted money on the futile fucking war? Welfare is really another issue entirely; you don't have to be pro-welfare to be anti-war on drugs (and as a matter of fact, I tend to dislike the welfare state--though I'm not quite a libertarian about it.)
In my country, I am stolen from on a daily basis. This has gone on my entire life. The worst part is, the theft is done by the government and if I refuse, I'll get thrown in jail for probably a decade or two. Money is taken from every day's wages I earn, and given to others. Others who are deemed "more needy" by some great power in Washington. As I've worked harder and became more productive, they've taken more and more, at greater and greater percentages. It is now up to 30%.
The worst part is, the government has suckered almost everyone into agreeing with them, by paying for a very small quanity of things that I DO use out of the money they steal from me. For example, I am forced to drive on government funded roads to get to work. Because the government built the roads, they essentially squashed any chance that a private road would ever be built. So, I trade 30% of my salary for a road.
They also force a ransom from me every year for the property I own. They use this money to fund horrible schools which are dangerous for children and have questionable curriculum. They are so bad that in my area private schools are the norm, so most parents are paying for school twice.
I have never experienced this, but I heard someone won a reality show here in the US, and went away to jail because he didn't pay a ransom to the government on the winnings.
Let us not forget about death taxes, sales tax, elevated taxes on products like tobacco and alcohol, state income taxes, etc.
As Ayn Rand was so fond of saying, the only moral functions of government are national defense, police protection, and a judicial system. The politicians in ths country over the last 100 years might as well have torn up and shit on the Constitution, because that is what they were doing to the concepts behind the document.
My friends, China is a preview of the U.S. This was predicted by folks like Thomas Jefferson. It is the nature of government.
It's not hypocrisy in Chinese culture. It's because there have always been two major forces in Chinese governments. First is very strong moral conservatism. Because this is part of Confucianism the people involved are usually very upstanding and are not corrupt and generally quite idealistic though very very conservative. Then there is massive corruption because of the autonomy usually given to provincial and then local rulers. China's a big place with lots of people and the bureaucracy has always been too small to micromanage everything. Also because of its persecution by the First Emperor who was a Legalist Confucianism doesn't like legalism that much. The idea is to install good moral principles in the bureaucrats rather than have them follow strict laws. So local governors usually have a great deal of power. Also there is a saying in many parts of China "The world is big and Beijing is a long way away." On the flip side, the moral conservatives are *very* conservative and controlling micromanaging bastards(see pre-Deng Xiao Ping Communist Party for an example). The very things that allow corruption to flourish are *also* the things that allow people freedoms from central control. There's also the very important role that families and local area affiliations and clans (well not so much now) have to play. So in this situation you have a bunch of people in the central government who are not corrupt, idealistic and morally conservative trying to harshly enforce their brand of moral puritany. On the other hand you have the often much more free-wheeling provincial governors who don't care about what central government says. All of Chinese history has been a struggle to get a balance between the two extremes so that the micromanaging puritans can't control every aspect of people's lives and that corruption due to people not listening to central government doesn't get completely out of control. Both sides know this and there is a certain armed truce with the provinces and local areas listening to some things that the central government says (especially if sufficient force is applied) or at least pretending to and the central government tries to concentrate on the battles it can fight. Also the prostitution is probably occuring in the Southern provinces, particularly Guangdong and those have always been especially independent of Beijing, so much so that Beijing gets pissed off. Strangely enough the Southern Provinces can also be some of the most fiercely loyal to China, more specifically Han Chinese. I just laugh when people expected that the fact that Guangdong is the most rapidly developing area of China is going to lead to actions to topple the Communists. Now, if the Communists were non-Han Chinese then well maybe yeah.
Mod parent up, +1 owned.
Oops, sorry, forgot to format it properly:
It's not hypocrisy in Chinese culture. It's because there have always been two major forces in Chinese governments. First is very strong moral conservatism. Because this is part of Confucianism the people involved are usually very upstanding and are not corrupt and generally quite idealistic though very very conservative. Then there is massive corruption because of the autonomy usually given to provincial and then local rulers. China's a big place with lots of people and the bureaucracy has always been too small to micromanage everything. Also because of its persecution by the First Emperor who was a Legalist Confucianism doesn't like legalism that much. The idea is to install good moral principles in the bureaucrats rather than have them follow strict laws. So local governors usually have a great deal of power. Also there is a saying in many parts of China "The world is big and Beijing is a long way away."
On the flip side, the moral conservatives are *very* conservative and controlling micromanaging bastards(see pre-Deng Xiao Ping Communist Party for an example). The very things that allow corruption to flourish are *also* the things that allow people freedoms from central control. There's also the very important role that families and local area affiliations and clans (well not so much now) have to play.
So in this situation you have a bunch of people in the central government who are not corrupt, idealistic and morally conservative trying to harshly enforce their brand of moral puritany. On the other hand you have the often much more free-wheeling provincial governors who don't care about what central government says. All of Chinese history has been a struggle to get a balance between the two extremes so that the micromanaging puritans can't control every aspect of people's lives and that corruption due to people not listening to central government doesn't get completely out of control. Both sides know this and there is a certain armed truce with the provinces and local areas listening to some things that the central government says (especially if sufficient force is applied) or at least pretending to and the central government tries to concentrate on the battles it can fight.
Also the prostitution is probably occuring in the Southern provinces, particularly Guangdong and those have always been especially independent of Beijing, so much so that Beijing gets pissed off. Strangely enough the Southern Provinces can also be some of the most fiercely loyal to China, more specifically Han Chinese. I just laugh when people expected that the fact that Guangdong is the most rapidly developing area of China is going to lead to actions to topple the Communists. Now, if the Communists were non-Han Chinese then well maybe yeah.
I'm sorry, how exactly is pornography just about fantasy? Pornography involves actual people doing actual sex acts, and it can involve very intense exploitation of women. Pornography is about portraying women as completely sexually available for any man, about shaping the male libido to have very high and often unrealistic expectations and demands from regular women- in short, the fantasy of porn extends beyond the computer screen. As a community, it is not necessarily a bad idea to outlaw porn, to decide that, really, the male libido does not need further encouragement (particularly in a country with many men more men than women, like China).
I dunno if the Chinese government implicitly okays prostitution. Just because it is prevalent in some contexts does not mean that they condone it. I won't be surprised if they have prostitution "crackdowns" every now and then.
You see, pornography is very prevalent in China; heck it is as prevalent as pirated movies and software in China (keep in mind the estimates that >90% of software is pirated), meaning that there are parts of China where you can literally see this stuff in plain view just be strolling down the street (there is a positive correlation between prevalence and distance from Beijing, so you probably won't see this in Beijing). China does piracy crackdowns every now and then to show people (mostly the congresscritters in Washington) that they do care and will take a tough stance on piracy. Piracy is illegal in China. And you face extremely severe consequences if you are prosecuted. And that, my friend, is the big "if", since it is not uncommon to see cops visiting one of the many small stores selling pirated goods to buy stuff (at a discount, of course) for their own consumption. As I said, porn is quite prevalent. A lot of the places selling pirated movies also sell pirated porn. And you can sometimes even see explicit covers of such products as you are walking down the street because the vendors will sometimes set them up so that they are street-facing.
Sure, they'll throw a few guys in jail now and then, but this is just a show to tell people that the government is Mr. Tough Guy and that violating the laws is Bad For Your Health. But in practice, nobody--including most of the people in government--gives a damn.
The central government is also not that dumb. They know that if they strip people of their sources of pleasure, they will be in trouble (they already have more than enough boiling discontent that they are trying to keep a lid over), so I'm not surprised if they are purposefully limiting their action to a few show cases to just nominally assert their authority while unofficially condoning it. Of course, that probably isn't any consolation for the bloke in jail.
Either way, I'm sure you're isolating a lot of slashdotters.
I think by evolution of God or "God's evolution"; he means how the perspective and ways peoples view God have changed and evolved over time. Seeing as at one time, at least in Abrahamic religions, God was feared and was vengeful; now God is viewed as loving and caring. Of course the Bible sort of goes in a direction of God the overseer to God no were in site to God internally. Then again, maybe I'm just evolved in my views.
Theres like billions of Chineese... only 9 million pictures is a tiny photos per penis ratio... it's positively criminal!
In the USA and a lot of other places this happens too and it is also seen as criminal behaviour. In a suprising number of places around the world some prostitutes are also literal slaves - unpaid and imprisioned - but in nearly every one of these places that is also criminal behavior. If you are going to criticise the Chinese government there are a lot of real things they endorse you could bring up instead.
We should never criticise the USA as whole for some loonie in Utah that thinks he can marry lots of little girls and have kids with them the second they hit puberty (and tries a few times before) - because society and the government do not see that as acceptable and take steps to stop this sort of behavior - same as with China and child prostitiution although bribes etc may be slowing things down.
Some might view internet pornography as morally wrong but I wouldn't think it to warrant a lifetime sentence.
So, you think the judge shouldn't have been so lienient?
It's interesting you define this as hypocrisy, whereas the great nation of USA, who's biggest export is filth and pornography on an astronomical scale can also decry a "wardrobe malfunction" and get apoplectic about someone revealing a nipple in the middle of a football match. Time to get real, I think.
"I like to skate on the other side of the ice"
most basic form of mind control is one of human instincts
Eh? How does the chinese government give an implicit "okay" to prostitution? Prostitution is ILLEGAL in China. Does it happen? Of course it does. But that happens in the USA too. Does that mean the US government implicitly okays prostitution?
What if you are a right wing athiest?
"I like to skate on the other side of the ice"
No, they need to be sent to prison because their shows suck.
Um, hate to break it to ya, but ancient India produced some of the most kinkiest artworks known to man. In fact, pretty much all of Asia was, at one point in time, relatively sexually liberated. Some of them lost that liberation over time (I believe in India's case it had something to do with Muslim influence, both direct and indirect.), but many (most?) of them gained inhibitions after interacting with the West. As I understand it, Japan didn't have any porn taboo at all until the American occupation.
It might seem odd that these formerly-liberated countries now seem more prudish than we are, but you should realize that there's a difference between legal tolerance and social tolerance. I think that porn and prostitution (and other sexual "issues") tend to be more socially tolerated in many Asian countries, but they aren't legally tolerated. Over here, they're legally tolerated but (comparatively) not as socially tolerated. 100 years ago porn was illegal in the USA, and I believe we spread the porn = bad sentiment far and wide. Just because we've become less inhibited during that short century doesn't mean that the "values" we shared with (I'm tempted to say "inflicted upon") other nations will disappear just as quickly.
But anyway, long story short: you're a tad crazy to say that the West invented porn. The Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Indians, the Japanese, and the Chinese all had works we'd label "hardcore pornography" by today's standards. We invented porn in the sense that we greatly popularized the idea that it was wrong, but the institution was thriving long before we arrived on the scene.
True, some laws are very congruant with morality, such as murder and theft, but there are non-moral justifications for those as well.
Translation: You're right. Some laws, such as murder and theft, could coincidentally be construed as moral-based. However, I refuse to be allow my whole argument to be proven wrong, so I will make desperate attempts to throw up smoke and mirrors in the form of un-backed-up claims and through extremely specific examples.
Strictly speaking, the term "censorship" only refers to banning the publication of material, not prosecuting people.
Um, I'm pretty sure they confiscate/destroy the porn after seizing it. How is that not a ban on publication?
Blocking an illegal child porn site with filters and blacklists is censorship. Going after the people running the site is law enforcement.
I haven't RTFAed, but I'm pretty sure that they confiscated/destroyed the porn and/or took down the guy's site. That's the same thing as blocking publication.
Of course, common usage of the word now tends to refer to both.
Probably because you pretty much NEVER see "law enforcement" (as you call it) without accompanying censorship. If someone raids a sex shop (as happened in Georgia a few years back), do they just arrest the owner or do they also confiscate the contraband? You're right in implying that censorship can exist as distinct from law enforcement, but the opposite isn't true--law enforcement of this type ALWAYS involves accompanying censorship. I guarantee you those 9 million images won't be accessible anymore; they have been... wait for it now... censored!
I'm pretty sure that the term "censorship" has been around long before there was electronic media of any kind. Back then, if you wanted to censor something you had to physically stop it from being published, and that is precisely what has happened here. The internet didn't magically redefine the meaning of censorship; it only introduced new methods of it which didn't necessitate brute force. This is merely the older, more brutal, more effective form of censorship.
Dang! Now they'll delete and fire my fav porn star: Mi Suk Yu Wang
Table-ized A.I.
How much of their population are modern nation states willing to keep incarcerated for crimes which won't stop just because you arrest people?
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
From the POV of the Chinese government, a well-run site dealing in material of sexuality is even more dangerous than selling vcds of ripped foreign yellow flicks. Vcds and their target audience always remain a peripheral object in society and it is easy to reject it as something like a nasty insect, but nevertheless, not capable of actively stirring up harmful ideas: Transactions at the wooden fold-up table when people buy disks are meant to be silent. The entire trade is silent.
The rise of a site encouraging people, common people from all classes with the sexual inclination, to participate in a community of people sharing the same ideas, will benefit from the nature of a site as a persistent living psychological entity that reflects those ideas: In this case, licentious sexual exploration; society and not to mention the audience for this site (the government?!) will perceive half the shades here to be debauched and morally corruptible - Which in fact they probably are; which is not to say, however, that another significant portion of pornography caters to those who are in a sense morally healthy in that they do not exihibit sadistic tendencies toward the objects of their fantasy. Nevertheless, consider: The Chinese government must be afraid of the effect of entire swaths of young adult males developing obsessionist tendencies over.. sex. This in itself would no doubt be a major transgression of what constitutes 'acceptable'?
Besides that, the interest incited in internet media of a sexual nature/focus could (if uncontrolled) accelerate the Chinese internet towards a free-exchange state where smut coexists with serious discussions. This would really be similar to America where sex fuelled internet growth.. This is completely astray from the vector that the Chinese government want for internet development, isn't it?
From TFA:
" When the site was closed in October last year, it contained more than 9 million pornographic images and articles, the police said." [emphasis mine]
This is censorship in its simplest form. The fact that the photos were available for a while before being censored does not change the fact that they were, ultimately, censored. Whereas they were once accessible, now they have been rendered inaccessible by the authorities. That's the textbook definition of censorship; I don't know how I can make it any clearer. Whether or not the owner was arrested doesn't matter at all; the government shutting down the website was an act of censorship, plain and simple.
They don't want porn? What the hell do they do on the Internet, then?!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Damned Christianists - trying to impinge on our right here in the US to free self expression and sexual freedom. Whatever happened to tolera... What? Oh, in China you say. I guess it's their culture and they have a right to do as they please...
http://metapundit.net
What motivates government censorship?
Is it all about control? Controlling the means of reproduction (single spouse with mandatory government/religious totalitarian organization certification) - and then institutions maintain control of the subjugated masses?
What if all the people told the churches and governments to go get bent?
Sex is an obvious component of reproduction.
Reproduction is required for homo sapiens to continue on planet Earth.
So, does pornography lower reproduction rates, or spur on higher reproduction rates?
It seems in Pandas, the cute black and white bears have more successful matings when the
Panda males are 'energized' by watching videos of other Pandas mating.
Do humans behave in the same manner?
(Increasing reproduction rates with increasing pornography use)?
Wikipedia is censored in China again you insensitive clod
Yours is a straw man argument, as the one instance (nudity on a daytime free television broadcast) resulted in exposure (pun intended) of objectionable material to an audience which included children, while the "filth and pornography" is regulated in such a manner that it is not legal for it to be sold to anyone under 18, placing the responsibility for exposing children to it in the hands of parents and not the government. In other words, yes people do like porn in the USA and no, we don't want it presented in an uncontrolled manner in which parents have no say in when and how their children are exposed to it. That's consistent.
I tend to think it's reasonable to expect that there will not be nudity during a football game. Except perhaps for a flasherGamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
While trying to do "cultural" evolution and "revolution" ? She fscked up 3000 year of history that nation had, and no life-term for her while she was alive, and now she is a revolutionary saint eh ?
But, life term for someone who served porn, which is something that describes what around 300 million chinese males and females do every night ?
Read radical news here
What sucks about them? I mean, god man, what more do you need in a show? They're intelligent, interesting, and they have some good actors. Edward James Olmos is really great in his role as Adama, and the whole cast of Lost does a great job.
I guess a show that magically transports candy bars through the TV would be the only thing to make you happy.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
If you think China is overly harsh, maybe the west should look at itself to see exactly how harsh it is. Ever hear of three strikes legislation? It's all the rage in California, Texas, Washington and many other US states. The gist is you do three crimes then you get put in jail for 25 years to life.
Many people get thrown in jail for 25 years for stealing a slice of pizza or some chocolate chip cookies. The chinese justice system may be overly harsh but so is the criminal justice system in many US states.
i dunno how they got it, but i don't see any reason to help glorify such a regime.
Since when did God speak up against porn? Did he talk to you personally? And, if so, did anyone else hear it? Did God instruct you to be the next prophet? Have you spoken to your therapist about this? Because.. I can't really recall having seen anything in the Old Testament (closest you get is tearing down some phallic symbols, which comes down to Idol Worship, which has been put forth as a different sin: worshipping the material world). The New Testament seems to be really quiet about it, too, despite recorded instances of porn from that era. Some of it far more creative (and, occasionally, outrageous) than most the stuff out there today. You do, however, get some pointers about "letting him who is without sin cast the first stone" and such, though, which does have some applicability here. Are you without sin, by your faith? After the crucifixion, the next Roman emperor was Caligula, whose rein contained some of the most outrageous perversions seen so far, at least if you consider the scale. Rumors abound of his sister dying from brutal sodomy, as I recall. You'd think the people contributing to the formation of the church in this era would have written about almost nothing else if they were as preoccupied with people's sexual habits and preferences as you are. About the only notable admonitions in the bible regarding sex, are to lay off the sheep (attributable to the notion that animals can't consent to being the recipient in sex), not to hump a man (attributable to communicable diseases; there are many other "rules" in the bible that clearly are aimed at disease control in an era which had precious little of it), fidelity (attributable to reducing violence in society), prostitution (again, communicable diseases, plus the modern objections to it) and crossdressing (not sure about that one, but I'm fairly sure you can put it down to something in the culture at the time). Do not be so eager to deal out judgement.
i live in shanghai, where there are a never ending surplus of 'late night hairdessers' which dont deal with hair, they have blue or red lights in them. you see countless amounts of women sitting on the sofa as people (men) walk past 'window shopping'. handjobs for 40rmb sex for 80 rmb, these originally setup for migrant workers are now helping the community :S
not to mention i live on a bustling bar street where i get attacked by the 'high class bar ladies' for a 'classless massage'
also while on the topic, there are alot of highclass 24hour saunas and 24 ktv bars (not the singing kind) where you can pick your lady for about 300rmb or a bottle of booze
on a good note, rape crimes are low/unheard of
so Are they releasing the stuff under GPL ???
sorry to burst your bubble, north china has some very raunchy places and services especially beijing - especially at the ski mountains in the winter
Well, HK is part of the mainland only in name. Why else would HK citizens need additional documentation to travel to the mainland from HK?
OSx86 FTW
ow many links would you like me to provide on here to view porn? You are one mouse click away from material that children can openly view, with no age restrictions whatsoever. The American public ar quite willing to accept the government coffers being filled from a multi-million dollar industry, but are too prudish to be exposed to it themselves. You can't have it both ways.
"I like to skate on the other side of the ice"
Those laws only apply to felony CONVICTIONS. Moron. 3 felonies, you're out.
Except that it's really sad that we, as a society, consider a naked female breast (it actually wasn't even naked) to be objectionable.
So either way you look at it, we're still not that much better.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
'A lie if repeated often enough, becomes the truth.' - Goebbels
They go against my ethics. I know I'm not alone in this.
You are completely free to refrain from looking at them, please follow your ethics in this.
You are however not free to push your ethics onto me, please stop trying to do so.
I thought if you used the words God + Evolution side by side, then it would cause a massive implosion of the universe...
If that were the case, the pope would have caused such an implosion already decades ago.
Just keep in mind that the large majority of people who believe in christ don't want to have anything to do with creationalism or anything related to it, regardless of what some extremely noisy fundamentalists would like you to believe.
Well, at least they don't have that now- I know that when I go to such a computer market (I live in Shanghai- there are a quite a few) that I never get searched. Crime sucks in China, though- I thought I had simply lost a cellphone on a taxi 3 months ago. I got suspicious when I gave them the plate number and the driver ID number (printed on the reciept) and the driver said that there was nothing on that taxi. Just last week I went to the cellphone market and someone was selling it in the "secondhand" stand. When I approached, the owner wouldn't even let me look at it. I'm not sure the police can do anything about it either- I didn't report it stolen because I had thought that it was a simple loss.
OSx86 FTW
Please don't try to polarize the issue.
Good call..
The spirit in which pornography is created and viewed promotes immorality. This garbage has no place sharing the same fiber as other, more intellectually engaging content. I hope net neutrality doesn't pass in any form through congress so that this rubbish gets shafted with slower transfer of packets. I am probably dreaming now that the Democrats have majority in the house.
Ah, I see, we should leave polarizing the issue to you, nice case of do as I say not as I do eh?
Well, in the US they take greater care to hide such activities. But in China it's much more thinly veiled (who would want a haircut at 3AM, and under blue light too); only really dense people (me before reading an earlier post) wouldn't see it for what it is.
OSx86 FTW
many people in the US jealous. They will wonder why the US does not have such laws.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
...to sentence this guy to so much hard time. Many were hoping he'd get off, but now he's going down, and I just can't see the point in sticking it to him like that. That Chinese judge needs to get laid more.
Well, in the US they take greater care to hide such activities. If you go to certain neighborhoods in the United States, there are scatily clad women standing on street corners. Some of them will actively solicit men in passing cars.
Erotic art was there in many temples and caves in India, Japan and other civilizations.
But with the advent of Christianity with its much more constricted views of right and wrong, other civilizations changed.
Ironic that what west sees as backwardness in other cultures is actually introduced by west itself.
This is the kind of tripe that a gross ignorance of foreign history and prehistory and of comparitive religions will get you.
First of all, the presence of erotic art does not denote a broad cultural acceptance of erotica. Second, cultures go on swings of greater and lesser acceptance of erotica -- even Western civilization went from the period of the Inquisition to the period of Renaissance to the period of Puritanism. Japanese culture, which you cited in particular, had numerous shifts in culture to accept and reject sexuality in various forms without the influence of Christianity playing a major role (being actively driven underground for centuries by the Shogunate after a brief introduction in the 16th century).
Furthermore, you apparently have no understanding of the greater influence of Confucian mores (originated in the 5th century BC) on Eastern views of sexuality. Confucianists widely viewed the act of sex itself as meant only to be used for procreation and had very similar views to the West on the "dirtiness" of sex, on the necessity of sex being only between a man and a wife, on the subservience of women to men, on the persecution of homosexuality, etc. two millenia before China had contact with the West. While Taoism was far more accepting of sex, it is Confucian mores that have been the dominant. These mores, developed independently of the West, also happen to be a large part of why the Chinese are so willing to accept authoritarian systems -- Confucianism is inherently a hierarchical system -- and have been a driving force behind many of Communist China's morality laws.
Also, if you think that India is a hotbed for free-love just because it was the home of the Kama Sutra, tantric sex traditions, and erotic temple art, you have a LOT to learn about the many forms of Hinduism and how dominant their various influences have been as well as the way that most polythestic cultures respected the idea of "a time and a place" for sex rites while leaving marriage as the dominant institution.
Next, I'd just like to note that while it was Jesus that said that if your eye leads you to sin, you should pluck it out, it was the millenia old tradition of Judaism that Christianity inherited most of its sexual mores from. All monotheistic religions that we have good records of the beliefs of have had strong prohibitions against sexual immorality, and you'd probably be surprised to find out how many still existing polythestic and animistic religions have VERY strong prohibitions against pre-marital and extra-marital sex in spite of existence of fertility rites and primitive porn.
All human cultures have, with time, developed some sort of bias towards sex primarily between husbands and wives. All human cultures have had porn, prostitution, and adultery in spite of their society saying it's wrong in the general case. Very, very few cultures have accepted polyamory outside of ritualized days and events, and yet people have left evidence that they indulged anyway. It's like there's competing biological needs involved or something...
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
adults. At least no studies that I know of, and I have researched the issue.
Switzerland, for example, is very free with porn (what most contries would call porn) yet the rate of rape is very low. And the degree of gender equality is fairly high.
Countries that forbid porn, like some mid-eastern contries, have some of the worst gender equality you will find anywhere.
Anyway, the point is, this fundamentalist Christian notion that porn is damaging to adults is not scientifically proven - far from it.
Cavemen scetched erotic images on the sides of the cave walls.
Erotica is natural and normal to humans. Always has been. It's just the way we're wired.
Some oppresive governments and religous nuts simply confuse cause and effect.
No. Tell it to the Chinese embassy, first thing Monday morning. ;-)
Given the Chinese gov't willingness to fuck the people, I think that it qualifies as a "significant other".
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
The flaw is either that you assume that shutting down one porn site and locking up its owner is just as easy as stopping an activity that apparently 1/3 of a large population engages in or that you assume that the arrest of a single pornography site owner (out of Lord knows how many) implies that China is not cracking down hard on prostitution too.
It is quite possible that any of the following apply, which your argument does not account for:
Any of the above make the argument you put forth -- that obviously the Chinese consider prostitution less of a crime than pornography -- ridiculous.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I guess they didn't pay off the right chineese officals. Don't the Chinese know that all the best internet technologies come from porn. The porn industry is technology inovation engine that gives us all the cool stuff we come to have and enjoy. Pictures, movies, streaming invations, CUCME and the list goes on and one. Maybe the Porn industry dosn't create these technologies but they do work our the bugs for the rest of us by being the earliest adoptors. The Chi Coms should know that Porn is a great tool to use for birth control. You can't get anyone pregnant when typing with one hand on the keyboard...
Paul E. Bahre
I think most straight-thinking people would consider the sight of vomitting and/or consumption of maggots more offensive than a nipple. However, these sights are visible on Fear Factor commercials during TV shows such as Friends (which is quite an unoffensive show). It seems a bit weird that this kind of stuff can make it onto TV, with pretty much no newsworthy outcry against it, yet a nipple slip during a football match (with streakers to be expected) can cause so much commotion. I would consider it more of a bias, rather than hypocrisy. TV stations want to advertise their own shows for their own benefits, and the media hyped the nipple slip because they could milk so much out of it. The Chinese police/government also have to work on a similar basis of highest revenue and lowest cost - meaning they'll bust up a major chain of illegal pornography or prostitution if the effort required isn't unworthwhile. But I'd guess for most of the cases, the effort required by law enforcement to crack down on these isn't always the most effective way to utilize their resources.
Again with the strawman. It's like a meme these days...
All your strawmen are belong to our hay-like overlords.
you get charged with the weight of the blotter paper not just the drug.
When the paper weighs in orders of magnitude higher than the dosage, that's a huge difference.
Your ethic is that nobody can "push" their ethic onto anybody else. You then proceed to tell somebody to follow your ethic by not trying to get you to follow their ethic.
In other words, you are pushing your own ethic on somebody else by expecting them not to push theirs on you.
Think about it.
Your ethic is that nobody can "push" their ethic onto anybody else. You then proceed to tell somebody to follow your ethic by not trying to get you to follow their ethic. In other words, you are pushing your own ethic on somebody else by expecting them not to push theirs on you. Think about it.
I think it should warrant it. Too bad they don't do it here.
Here is another link which shows how rediculous this law is. From the page you'll see people getting life sentences for stealing a spare tire, stealing some CDs or stealing a slice of pizza.