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Kremlin Seeks to Control Online Media
reporter writes "According to a disturbing report just published by Bloomberg, 'As the Kremlin gears up for the election of Putin's successor next March, Soviet-style controls are being extended to online news after a presidential decree last month set up a new agency to supervise both mass media and the Web.' However, unless the Kremlin pursues Chinese-style/Turkish-style blocking of the Internet-Protocol addresses of web sites like 'The Economist', even the Kremlin cannot control the online media. If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States."
Well this is what happens when your President was once a KGB chief.
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
a country.
sooner or later mobsters will show their true face and "weed out" competition.
pity on any fools who think russia is a western, modern nation.
Read radical news here
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue... I was able to get a sense of his soul... He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1392791.stm
"If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States." ...and then what? Putting it outside Russia means that blocking it's IP is probably easier to do, not harder. Then again, if I was doing it I'd let it run... and see who drops in.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Yeah, and that's not obvious enough, what with the constant murder of sources and journalists in Russia? Have you been living under a rock for two years!?
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
We're in the 21st century. We've got the Internet, everybody (ok, most) is aware of blogs and the relocatability of information sources.
So when will institutions learn that times have changed?
You know, Bush Sr. used to be the head of the CIA.
In the United States the media controls you.
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
He is not an autocrat. George Bush looked into his eyes and he saw it for himself, a method far more powerful and revealing than any mere logical argument.
Plus if this were true, would we have spent six years pissing off the entire world chasing two-bit terrorists while the government of the nation with the worlds most dangerous nuclear arsenal consolidated power and grew ever more despotic, violent and belligerent?
So do be silly, Russia is a de-mocracy now, that means the problem is solved, friend.
"If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States."
Fair trade. the US gets the anti-Putin sites, and Russia gets the Torrent servers after the RIAA pulls the plug in the US.
Meanwhile, Canada gets the former US internet radio streams.
'The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers'
You shall know him by his Sig
"Soviet style" is when you round up a few million people without trial and make them slaves in work camps in some place very cold and do this such that the vast majority of them die before there 'term' (if they even got one) is up.
Take a fucking breather people. There are a lot of things to bitch about when it comes to the US and its direction. That said, the extreme hyperbole where you compare the Soviet Union justice system to the US makes you sound like an idiot not worth listening to.
I am not happy with the direction that the US is headed in many regards, but people need to screw their heads back on and get some perspective. The US is not Soviet Russia. Hell, it isn't even close to the Russian Federation or China. The US is still very much a liberal place to live, and in many regards far more liberal in some areas then Europe. The US has a long way to fall before it reaches the level of Russian Federation (much less the Soviet Union).
Any entity composed of more than zero people has an information control program of one sort or another.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Yeah well, so it's not "so good" after all, right?
Freedom of expression is not a relative concept. You either have it or you don't.
Slaves in work camps? You're thinking of Stalin times, 1930's to 50's. After Stalin died things got a LOT better - there were no mass killings for one.
I don't think the US realises how radically the USSR changed during the time it existed. It was messy and dangerous but somewhat functional under Lenin; brutal under Stalin; Kruschev denounced Stalin and changed direction radically; then it gradually relaxed until there was not the heart to continue forcing it to exist.
Discussing the Soviet Union as if it has always been that same entity from WW2 is pointless.
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
... " If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States." ...
Then it becomes enemy, imperialist propaganda and immediately discarded as such. To have legitimacy sites must be located within the country.
2c
- http://www.lenta.ru/info/license.htm
- http://www.rbc.ru/
- http://www.mail.ru/
- http://www.gazeta.ru/
...
Same goes for the most popular blog services:- http://www.livejournal.com/ which has Russian-speaking abuse team controlled by a Russian company
- http://www.liveinternet.ru/
- ...
None of these businesses is going to risk their investments. The irony is that it is exactly the same in the U.S. as well - big companies just support one of the two candidates and nobody cares about the smaller ones. So Bloomberg and the rest, stop scaring your people while attempting to control them. And you,It's called 'proportional judgement' and it's applied all the time: in Saudi you're not allowed to bring in a bible - should 'christian countries' disallow a quran ? Of course not. 'We' are expected to be 'better' than that. Palestinians kill people and Israelis kill people, yet we judge Israelis more harshly for it. We expect them to 'better', 'apply higher standards', 'be more careful'. The Russians implement laws that limit freedom and so does the US - not in the same way, and yet they're being compared. Why is that ? Because we expect the US to be 'better', 'more protected', 'less easily brought astray'. Anyone who has ever been in a debate must have encountered proportional judgement at some point. Haven't you ?
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
In fact, Kruschev changed directions so radically that he built the Berlin Wall and had would-be crossers shot!
The government can't save you.
Now, if a sizeable chunk of the Russian electorate had Internet connectivity and could read English, that would be a problem. Why is everybody assuming every Russian can read English? How many of us can read Russian?
The main point being, in a "nominal" democracy you need to control only 50%+1 of the electorate. Information channels that are available to only a tiny fraction of the population are irrelevant to censorship. In Italy (not as badly censored as Russia... yet) you can find bunches of books denouncing Berlusconi's mafia acquaintances, corruption, and the suspicious sources of his wealth in his own bookstores: that's because few Italians read books (or newspapers for that sake). Try say anything even alluding in that direction on television, and you get fired so fast your ass leaves skid marks through the parking lot. It has not even gotten much better now that Berlusconi is in opposition because he still retains his private power.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
So when will institutions learn that times have changed?
The lesson is that there is no longer one Internet. There are multiple internets, filtered to suit the needs of national leaders. They've proven that they can control their own tidy filtered internets. Don't believe me? Just ask Yahoo! about what the French government can do. The irony with the Yahoo! case is that the suit was originally brought not by The Government in France, but by a well-meaning French anti-Nazi group.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
notice all of the subject change comments in this thread to criticism of the usa/ bush. right over the head of anyone who makes such a comment or mods such a comment up is that... drum roll please... THEY CAN MAKE THAT COMMENT IN THE USA WITH NO REPERCUSSIONS
the issue here is that criticism of putin/ the russian government within russia is being censored. everyone get that? has the meaning of that observation sunk into your head yet? really?
now go ahead and bash the usa, criticize bush all you want, and mod such comments up... in this thread... about russian censorship
!?
you're absolutely free to do so. get it yet?
fashionable anti-americanism is no replacement for a functional brain. if in the context of commenting on russian censorship you still think it is somehow useful to bash the usa, all you are doing is making yourself look like a fool. you are just demonstrating your own lack of an elementary school level skillset at compare and contrast. it's amazing how prejudice blinds
now don't get me wrong, the usa does plenty of wrong in this world (and plenty right... how's that thunderbolt of moderation strike you?), but to criticize a country with much better freedoms than russia (i said much better, not perfect, do you understand that difference?), in a thread about russian censorship, is just pure idiocy on the part of anyone who does so. all you do is make yourself look like a moron
really, you're a moron if you think bashing the usa in this thread is useful, insightful, interesting, whatever. 100% unadulterated low iq cretin = you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I concur that initially the US would (most likely) not do anything too terrible with the DNS root stuff. That would be, however, yet another step in the wrong direction; should it continue, honestly, what is keeping the US from lowering itself to North Korea? When the US (or any other) government has full control of communications, democracy can very easily be circumvented.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
When the US (or any other) government has full control of communications, democracy can very easily be circumvented.
The government already has full control over communications, it just doesn't exercise that control. The US government could merrily call up all the telco's and tell them to install their censorship software or else US soldiers will burn their buildings to the ground and kill and rape the families of all the employees (they could also just threaten them with banking sanctions). Coercing telco's into doing it is trivial. The government has the power.
The issue is the exercise of power. If the US government couldn't exercise the power no matter how badly they might want to. The courts merrily strike down anti-video game violence bills and would be even more emphatic in striking down censorship for political purposes. The 'government' is actually split into multiple branches, all of which love to grind against each other. The legislative and executive branches of government in particular are easily swept aside every 2 - 6 years.
Finally, if by some insanity a president refused to follow court orders and passed legislation without a legislative branch, the military would start refusing orders (the military swears and oath to the constitution, NOT the president) he would be promptly dragged out of the Whitehouse kicking and screaming... most likely by his own secret service.
There is a lot that keeps the US from being like North Korea. To is laughable to suggest other wise.