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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."
Oh yes, these people deserve it. Much the same as landowners deserved to be tied to ceiling fans and swung about till they died during the communist revolution. Imagine that! Owning land! Or selling pictures of naked adults!
According that definition, you are also morally wrong because you are saying that it is morally wrong to say porn is morally wrong, ie imposing your own morals on people.You conveniently forgot this bit: between consenting adults
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
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.
Since Justice Cardoza sat on the Court of Appeals of New York, there has been an effort by judges to remove morality from the common law, as evidenced by contract law, and to a lesser extent, torts. Legislatures will, from time to time, legislate from a moral basis. However, if they mention a moral basis too bluntly, the Supreme Court has been pretty consistent with striking them down. No system as complex as the legal system is ever subject to any absolutes, but the US has done a pretty good job of legislating for other reasons than morality, despite the prevelance of strongly religious figures throughout the history of all legislatures in this country. There are definitely no laws that have been challenged that specifically make illegal immoral behavior. Contrast that with specific laws in other countries which do exactly that, but don't define the crime. Vague criminal statutes are unconstitutional in this country, and anything based on community standards that gets reviewed gets struck down for that reason, because standards change and are based on who applies them. The famous Supreme Court rules about pornography seem to run contrary to this, but no one has had sufficient standing to challenge them on that basis, as the general type of person prosecuted under them are child pornography. Does that answer your question more throroughly?
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
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.
What? Asia is full of porn. Porn, love hotels, brothels, hostess bars (i.e. emotional prostitutes), strip clubs. Seriously. How were you not aware of this? And no. The bars don't cater to only a a foreign clientel. Many Japanese bars frequently put up big Jim Crow-esque signs that read "Japanese Only."
http://archive.salon.com/sex/world/2001/03/16/sur
http://archive.salon.com/sex/galleries/2003/09/12