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UK to Ban Possession of Certain 'Violent' Pornography

Posted by timothy on from the oh-that's-a-great-idea dept.

Backlash writes "Massive surveillance? Check. Building a DNA database? Check. Laws against thought crime? Not yet, but coming very soon. The UK government is soon to pass legislation that would criminalise possession of certain types of 'violent' pornography, even if it was part of a consensual session between two adults. Lord Wallace of Tankerness pointed out an ideological schism during last week's debate in the House of Lords: 'If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence. ... Having engaged in it consensually would not be a crime, but to have a photograph of it in one's possession would be a crime. That does not seem to make sense to me.'" Combine laws like this with widespread computer ownership, and it makes a whole lot of (Orwellian) sense.

4 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. Godwin by electrictroy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nazis!

    --
    The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
  2. I doubt that any of them are willing by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

    to go through my porn folders to tell me if I am breaking the law or not.

      And before anyone here volunteers, you're going to need a fuckton of kleenex, eyebleach and anti-psychotic medication just to get through the folder names.

    1. Re:I doubt that any of them are willing by Dr.+Cody · · Score: 5, Funny

      He's not kidding. We had one of our lab techs to an expression search on his porn drives, and grep ended up deleting itself.

  3. Ban bread? by Kandenshi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From FTA: "Five years ago Jane Longhurst, a teacher from Brighton, was murdered. It later emerged her killer had been compulsively accessing websites such as Club Dead and Rape Action, which contained images of women being abused and violated."

    I agree that a substantial number of rapists and molesters and whatnot probably do get off on "violent" porn. But so do quite a few very normal people who will never rape someone. Consensual kink is a gorgeous thing, an expression of incredible trust. The fact that some rapists get off on it is insufficient to justify banning it, after all, last I heard quite a few rapists drink water and eat bread.

    Of course, this parallels some sex laws already enacted where I live. It's legal to have sex with someone who's 16, provided you're not in a position of authority over them... But have a picture of you having sex with your 16 year old girlfriend? Not a wise move.

    I think that both laws are ridiculous personally. If it's not illegal to do, then it shouldn't be illegal to represent digitally with a bunch of 1s and 0s.