Slashdot Mirror
Posting Porn Link Judged Unlawful in Hong Kong
hkxforce writes "Can you imagine posting a link to a website that would get you arrested by the police? In Hong Kong, a middle-age man has been heavily fined for posting a porn link in an adult discussion forum. 'A court in the Kwun Tong district of the city heard that Woo provided a hyperlinked message on the forum which, when clicked, would enable other forum users to access an overseas pornographic website showing the photos. But Internet Society chairman Charles Mok Nai-kwong said the court case raised several concerns. 'In this case, the court has given a new direction to the public concerning the responsibility of internet users,' he said. Mok added that he also believed the case could damage the freedom of information on the internet. 'This man posted a link on the internet which now becomes an act that constitutes the breaking of law, and my question is whether a link is being regarded as the 'obscene article,'' he said.'"
How about flooding the forum in question with, let's say goatse links posted by users registered from outside the courts juridiction?
# ~: no sigs today
If posting a picture of nekkid women in Hong Kong can get you arrested, I don't wanna imagine what happens to whoever is brave enough to post a link to Goatse there. Oh, my eyes!
Is telling someone the correct way to the red light district also illegal then ?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
So when can we expect to see CSI: Goatse Victims Unit?
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
So it's OK to post a link to a non-porn site that posted a porn link? Like this link?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Direct link to recording between the cop and 911 (warning: very funny):p .mp3
http://media.freep.com/audio/2007/0510potcop_free
Yes I can. If I posted a link to hard-core snuff porn on a primary school web-forum, it wouldn't suprise me. In my world of analogises, that would be like walking into a primary school and handing the stuff out on DVDs, and I'd hope most people would want that to be an offence.
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
someone posts a link to a perfectly innocent thing; the host for which later either changes the image maliciously or as a result of a security breach into something forbidden.
Would they hold the person who posted the link at fault then?
I can tell I've spent too long reading American websites. I saw the name "Woo" and my mind filled in the missing "Yay. Hoopla"
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The thing about goatse is though, is that it's NOT porn.
It's probably more akin to horror. It's eye violence, eye rape. It actually is offensive to most people, it's design and utilization is to shock and offend.
Not so with porn. While that does offend right wing religious fascists and left wing womens groups (what a nightmare combination), it does not offend many other people - most people, in fact.
The object of porn is enjoyment. Thus it should really be embraced and encouraged as long as (some) controls are in place to ensure it gets to its appropriate audience. Arresting people for pasting links is not appropriate control.
And since this thread can be safely considered NSFW, and is going to be a NSFW link free-for-all, then here's my preferred site.
That would be illegal because murder is illegal. If you were to dress up as Mickey Mouse and tell children to go out and kill for Allah, that would be bad because murder is bad, not Mickey Mouse. Though I could understand the confusion.
Yes.
However, there is a pornographic element to goatse, is there not?
Remember this when you buy all that cheap Chinese stuff at the stores that it is helping to maintain what is in fact a slave nation.
Too lazy to create a sig...
There is explicit nudity. I wouldn't call it pornographic in the slightest.
Not all nudity is porn.
No problem here, then.
Yes, I am the one with the legendary sig.
If you don't think that is porn then you missed the full photoset. In fact, that is gay porn. Other images show him with buttplugs and other sex-toys.
I find this very odd - I didn't think that HK had such a strong stance on moral issues, particularly compared with the rest of China (which is very strict.
When I was in HK a couple of years ago, free weeekly magazines (which you could pick up in coffee shops, etc) carried columns with advice on personal issues, sex, how to get better oral sex from your partner, etc - it was quite explicit. I'm really surprised that posting a link to porn was such a major offence.
Ewww. I definitely did not want to know that. I hope you enjoyed yourself investigating it.
So I'm reading the summary: why on earth we have a made up word for this kind of material.
'Pornographic photos'
First of all, can photos not be "graphic". Any "sonic photos" you've seen recently or something? So we're left with:
'Porn photos'
Why have a made up term for this "porn". Erotic photos seems descriptive enough. Sex photos if they're more explicit.
Is it because having a special term "porn" makes it sound more evil? "Pornographic" also sounds more scientific, something that could be written in a law.
Since going to jail for posting a link to "sexy photos" would be too absurd, but going to jail for "pornographic material" (OMG!) is just fine.
I don't want to type it out again so http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=234461&thr eshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&pid=19094737#19 094947
China's government apparently doesn't realize they are causing a problem on themselves.
Why spend all the resources to restrict people from viewing porn? So you can then spend all the resources to reduce birth rate.
Look at the other modern democratic countries: you can watch all the porn you want, and birth rate is so low that most of said countries rely on excessive immigration to keep the population numbers stable.
There's gotta be a connection here somewhere...
Osaka Poice arrests two guys,because they show URLs of pedophilistic websites at their own website.
Though I have no love for pedophiles,and strongly oppose child abuse...I doubt this arrest is "correct".
We discussed about this case recently
Oy! In other news, you can buy pizza in Italy.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
So he should be held accountable if he had pointed the way to a church too, then? Both are considered harmful influences in China.
(And while I personally think churches are much more damaging than porn, I truly believe that pointing someone to either should not be a crime.)
One problem here that I see, and which I can't see any commenting on, is that this is Hong Kong. As part of the early take-over agreement, China was supposed to not impose full Chinese restrictions on Hong Kong. Are we seeing China starting to disregard this now? If so, it's worth catching the world's attention.
Did anyone notice the guy posted on an adult board to begin with ? So in Hong Kong, theoretically speaking if you're in a sex shop and you point out one of your favorite DVDs to another customer, would they toss you in the slammer ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
> One problem here that I see, and which I can't see any commenting on, is that this
> is Hong Kong.
But this is the actual problem. It is in HK. Hong Kong is probably the most conservative cities among all modern cities concerning public expression of any content slightly remotely related to sex, with the only exception being academic studies. It has nothing to do with returning to China, its people are very conservative. In fact, I consider it even more conservative than mainland China.
Ironically, at the same time it leads to proliferation of many magazines, supposingly with general audience, using sexually explicit titles or at times photos in their cover page to attract attention.
I kid, I kid. Seriously, you made some good points.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
Unless you're into that kinda thing.
"...heavily fined for posting a porn link in an adult discussion forum."
5000 HongKong dollars equals approx. $650.00 us dollars. Just a shade more than double that of a parking ticket. By HK standards, at least, this is not a 'heavy fine'.
I think you meant:
1) Post a link to some (harmless) page
2) Owner of that page changes it to something the Chinese government considers non-harmless
3) You get arrested
4) ?????
5) Profit!
You're only posting a link (i.e. saying where to get illegal content) you've got no control over or responsibility for the content itself.
Is it illegal in Hong Kong just to tell someone where illegal goods are sold? It amounts to the same thing...
This stupid verdict sets the precedent that anyone sharing a link accepts legal responsibility for all the content. This itself is unworkable. Imagine what happens if you publish a link on a forum to a foreign website that only contains content that is legally acceptable at the time, but unknowingly to you, the criteria for legal acceptability changes or the website itself adds some 'illegal' content? Are you guilty by proxy? You might not even know but even if you did, forums don't usually allow you to erase your own old posts.
Could you educate me on if this applies to expats (foreign nationals residing in China)? I know of some families here (Shanghai) that could be in big trouble if it is.
OSx86 FTW
If you're German (if!) then you should think twice before starting to talk such rubbish in the public (I don't mind if you do this in your bathroom, though).
1. Most households already have a TV set before they buy a computer. In this case you are likely to pay the monthly fees already. The vast majority of private households is not affected by classifying computers as TV receivers. You don't pay twice. Nothing to write home about.
2. Running fora in Germany is not forbidden, even not de facto (and certainly not de jure). Otherwise heise.de would have had to close down already.
But I don't think you got the facts right to begin with.
Next time don't post anonymously, coward.
open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;
If a link to porn is illegal, how about a link to a link to porn? If that's illegal, then a link-to-a-link-to-a-link etc. Eventually any link becomes illegal, probably. Is there a way to get from any site to any other only by clicking on links? Probably.
Unicorn Setu. "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines".
Unlikely, it's probably only Chinese nationals. Anyway, you can have more than one child, but you need to pay a fee that increases per additional child. A 'child tax', if you will. It's not a strict one-child-only thing.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
...post the link that got the guy arrested?
It seems to me that in a forum where adults discuss the case, the answer "should be" no but in a forum where children come to play, the answer "should be" yes.
There's many practical problems with making these distinctions, and no doubt repressive governments get it wrong all the time, but as a general principle what's the difference between publishing a photo and publishing a link to the photo?
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
This requires an internet-using & participating patsy, of course, plus a partner to "witness" target's online postings...
Pi Ran Out
If you can read Chinese, here is the local news entry:
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/070510/12/276r4.html
The forum in question was inside the adult section of Uwants. There used to be a forum there that focuses on adult pictures, but that particular forum has been removed since the incident.
In the story, the man offered information that nobody asked for
I have to ask because TFA doesn't say, so how do you know if no one asked for the links? Are you a member of the forum?
the the information made the provocative material very accessible
Being on the net, it's already readily accessible. Now whether it can be easily found is another matter, but obviously the person who posted the links found them.
People didn't ask for it
Again, how do you know no one asked for it?
FalconShould there be a Law?
So he should be held accountable if he had pointed the way to a church too, then?
Not all religions, er churchs and other places of worship, are banned or illegal. Both Christianity and Islam are practiced, in the open, in China. While there is religious persecutions in China and the authorities discourage religion they haven't made it illegal.
As for TFA, it's ironic the newspaper the TFA comes from is in United Arab Emirates which bans porn. Like Iran and other countries, the UAE has banned Flicker because some photos are considered bad influences.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I'd tend to agree that goatse is not porn simply because for all we know, it's not meant to arouse per se, but it's not designed to shock, either, even though it's been used that way. From what I know (not very much, admittedly), there is a bunch of people in the world (I'm not sure whether you should call them a "subculture" or not; that term seems to imply more than just a common interest, but I can't think of anything better) who are interested in anal dilation, and the goatse picture is simply one from a series by one guy who was showing off how far he had come.
So no, I wouldn't call goatse "horror" or describe it as designed to "shock and offend". (And certainly, I wouldn't call it "eye violence" or "eye rape", either. Come on, if goatse is the worst thing you've ever seen, you must've been living a VERY sheltered life indeed!)
butter the donkey
God, what is it with you americans and sex. Why is it dangerous to see two people have sex, but it is perfectly OK to see people be beaten up, maimed and killed??>
Because there is a vocal minority of prudes and Christian Talibans. Much like what they do to people that have sex outside of marriage in Iran, there are some Christians who want to stone people to death for having any sex outside of heterosexual sex in marriage.
I don't know how repressed you were as a kid, but when I grew up, 10 year olds were reading pr0n on paper. They were just curious and it would not make the world better to arrest them for a criminal offence, just because the pr0n is on DVDs.
At the same age, my mom gave me issues of "Playboy".
FalconShould there be a Law?
Hate sites should be legal. As much as despise whats spouted, I believe in freedom of speech
ie, "while I disagree and hate what you say, I defend your right to say it." Instead of oulawing hate speech it needs to be countered with facts.
FalconShould there be a Law?
On the streets of Hong Kong, you can buy tour guide booklets on where to find (affordable) prostitutes in Shenzhen, the city across the border in mainland China. I've never heard anyone selling those got arrest. and I recommend you get one next you visit there.
Well, if you post to a link on my site you might discover that the pretty butterfly you saw an hour ago is now goatse or anything else I might want to change it to. How is he responsible for my actions? How is he resopnsible for my site?
The reason we subjugate ourselves to law is to better procure justice. If law does not accomplish this purpose then it m
The press loves to tell us that China is now post-communism since it allows citizens to own businesses. There is still only one political party there, they have very strict policies against just about everything
Ah but China is post communist seeing as how communism is an economic system wherein the state owns all property and businesses and controls the markets. However China never was Marxist, which is political as well as economic, as Marxism focused on industrial workers whereas Mao and the Chicoms focused on peasants, farmers and farm workers.
Falcon
Ne how,Ne how ma?
Should there be a Law?
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
I don't need pr0n to fap.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
I have traveled to HK. They are pretty open about leaving porn magazines out in magazine stands uncovered from what I saw. They don't show much if anything on TV, but I wouldn't say they are "conservative". Go to some plaza where they sell video games and light porn posters are plastered all over the walls. This would never happen in any US malls.
What if someone posts a link to a webpage which is perfectly harmless, then the next day the webmaster replaces the webpage with hardcore porn.
Of course nobody believes that the "someone" posted an innocent link and so FINED..?
Don't panic
I can't define what constitutes a porn link, and I don't know it when I see it unless and until I click on it.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I've been ranting on other posts about Hong Kong's autonomy from the rest of China, so I won't repeat this here.
I'll just state a fun fact: not long ago our Chief Executive (roughly equivalent to a mayor) started an extensive campaign to encourage couples to raise THREE kids because of the low birth rate (a common problem of most modern cities).
So no, no population problem here. It's a small place though, and I'll grant you that we do have some overcrowding problem in this dense city.
Don't quote me on this.
I agree 100% with you. Porn is out there for your enjoyment. Check out my preferred site.....http://www.bestxxxtrials.com/