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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."
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.
"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.
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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 8000+ years of civilization went down the drain with communism destroying the past and making people a tabula rasa starving for wealth, and capitalism offering wealth on the occidental model. Result? Let's see how the younger chinese generation turns out.
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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.