Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Pirate Bay Launches Free Speech Blog

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the funny-we've-been-doing-that-for-years dept.

Chris Blanc writes "In their ever continuing battle to 'free the Internet', The Pirate Bay has now launched an uncensored blogging service, called Baywords. The service is intended to be a safe haven for bloggers who want to be able to write whatever they want."

6 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. biased enforcement by nguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The trouble with those laws is that they are enforced with a strong bias.

    For example, is it apparently perfectly OK for religions to tell non-followers that they are evil and are deserve to be tortured for all eternity for the way they live their lives.

    But if you try to tell a follower of a major religion that they are evil and deserve to be tortured for the way they lead their lives, those "hate speech" laws are going to come down like a hammer on you.

    If Sweden was really serious about "hate speech", they'd have to outlaw Islam and Catholicism as they are currently being practiced, because those religions are intrinsically in conflict with hate speech laws.

    1. Re:biased enforcement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A pentecostal preacher was sentenced recently in Sweden, for saying stuff about gays in a sermon. (Which caused Fred Phelps to declare that god hates Sweden.)

      I seem to recall that action has also been taken against an islamic radio station for stuff they said about jews, though I don't recall any details.

      Either way, those laws are designed explicitly to protect minorities, people who are ill equipped to fight back in a propaganda war if you will.

      So, I see no problem with it.

    2. Re:biased enforcement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Look at what Catholicism says: if you're gay, you'll burn in hell. That's doctrine. What could be more hateful than that? Yet, they have been getting away with this for centuries.
      Actually the Church says that sex outside of marriage, necessarily including gay sex, is a sin. The Church does not say that just being gay sends you to hell (it calls for compassion for those "afflicted" with a homosexual orientation). The Church also does not say that sinning will send you to Hell - like all sinners, that is to say, everyone, you have a chance to reconcile with God through Confession and Penance. It's still an intolerant line but not as hateful as you put it.

      Also, the Church has not been condemning "gays" for centuries since the idea of being "gay" is a modern political construct, although homosexual activity has been condemned since the beginning of the Church.

      --
      Posted by a gay atheist in the interest of accuracy
  2. Re:Free speech is a myth ... by toriver · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Free speech governs restrictions on the Government's part; after you successfully use your free speech rights you get to face the consequences, whether you get sued for hate speech, libel or what have you. But you were not hindered from "speaking", which is the important part.

    Just like most freedoms, freedom of speech has a duty of responsibility attached to it - as such, anonymous vents like /. really only cover the half where you speak not the other half where you stand for what you said...

  3. How close are we? by penguinbrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "In normal times, evil would be fought by good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil." The Chronicles of Riddick

    Anymore, pirates are a hell of a lot more trustworthy than ANY given government or corporation. If I had something serious to leak, or had some crazy theories on even a half way controversial topic - I would trust those flagrant, authority mooning thugs to resist big brother more so than anyone else. The reason? Everyone has there breaking point, regardless of how bad ass you are - you still have one. It's just a matter of who has the higher breaking point as to who I would trust - not to necessarily do something for me, but more to NOT DO SOMETHING.

  4. Only as good as its search engine by Simonetta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A global blog forum open to any subject is an appealing idea, but it is only as good as its search engine. Say you want to enlighten the world about your boss or company. There are a hundred million other people who are interested in doing the same thing. So how do you tell the world about your idiot boss John Smith and differenciate him from all the other idiot John Smiths (my apologies to all readers named John Smith, but you must run into this situation all the time).

        And how do you change the blog when the situation has changed? And what do you do about the douchebag (an American term meaning a person whose obsession with a particular topic has made them insufferable, not a French term for a camping solar-shower) who attempts to post 10000000 full copies of the Qu'ran or the ancient scrolls of BaBeezoo-Bub and take up a teraByte of Pirate Bay blog space?

        And who oversees this new global medium: who becomes the Pirate Bay's Rupert Murdoch? And how do we get rid of the Pirate Bay's new gossip site's overlord when he or she becomes hopelessly corrupt? When it becomes obvious that their personal tastes are affecting their editing decisions?

        And why don't Slashdot posters address the real issues that arise from each topic? The ratio of horseshit to insightful commentary is extremely high for such a smart group of readers.