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Irish Domain Registry Banning Adult Domains
Karate Sid writes "An Irish adult website has blogged about the Irish domain registry banning adult domain names, including porn.ie and pornography.ie. The IEDR's reasoning is that the words 'porn' and 'pornography' are offensive and immoral. Of interest is how Sex.ie took legal action against the IEDR — and proved that neither word is offensive — yet still lost the case, as the IEDR are the highest authority in Ireland when it comes to deciding what is and isn't an offensive domain."
Really a shame on this. I'd argue that we need more Irish porn in the world :(.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
So this only applies to the domain name, and not the content, right?
Is there anything offensive about the name "goatse"?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Really. Who gives a shit? Nobody should.
This is just a TLD, which is obviously run by some governing body in Ireland. They get to choose what they want on the TLD, and I assume at some level it is supported by the politicians.
Now, if there are people that feel oppressed in Ireland, they can simply get a domain at a different TLD. They could also just move out of Ireland. That's a choice too.
The real problem is when Irish ISPs start blocking other TLDs and controlling what domains people can resolve on their networks. Then of course come all the blogs and posts about proxies/TOR/Freenet/OpenDNS.
Maybe I am triviliazing the issue, but being restricted on possible domains on a TLD that only applies to a single country does not seem as big of an issue as actually interferring with what traffic can reach a country. It's large scale censorship such as the Great Firewall in China that should be more concerning than this.
If the Irish people feel that they are being oppressed and it is a free speech issue, then they need to address that with their politicians. It's still largely ineffective.
It's still a government trying to tell its people what words they should and should not see, which is censorship and something to notice and oppose.
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Well, there goes my chance to register "p.ie"... by the way, isn't it already April 1 in Ireland?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Really a shame on this. I'd argue that we need more Irish porn in the world :(.
Such as....
Oh God! I'm done.
Or, maybe not.
Everyone knows that the official unit of excrement is the Couric.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The IEDR is a hotbed of infighting and interference. Started by a few select academics in Dublin's UCD, it is still being meddled with non-stop. I sure as hell don't care whether or not they want to register adult websites, but the IEDR are particularly nasty even to legitimate domain registrations. For example, a private citizen can't register a personal domain unless they're a company or publicly known celebrity like a politician. Leave the policing up to people better able to do the policing.
While I can agree with you on some points, this is still a "foot in the door", so to speak, for censoring, a foot in MY door, regardless of where I live.
What is next? Government editing of dictionary entries? Wikipedia? Banning the word "pornography" from all search entries? Will I still be able to park my soapbox on the corner and mutter the word "pornography" over and over without fear of arrest?
It's the same foot in the door(censorship), just with a different shine on it...slam the door on it before it gets in.
Is the obvious(everyone starts using a different word! Gasp!) that far from their mental grasp? Or is there ulterior motive here? Hrmm?
And yet it seems that nobody's registered usefirefoxinsteadof.ie.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I guess i shouldn't bother with my idea for ShitPissFuckCuntCocksuckerMotherfuckerTits.ie then, Huh?
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
This isn't exactly a huge surprise. Ireland is, in many respects, a fairly civilized country; but it has some hardcore traces of backwards popish hellhole around the edges. Of note, for instance, is the fact that divorce only became constitutional in 1995.
This is slashdot. Anything with IE in it is dirty and disgusting and offensive and downright immoral.
BTW, next they'll be banning slashdot.ie because it contains the word "slash", which is reminiscent of Jack the Ripper and violence in general. They've already banned OJ's domain - (W - W - W -SLASH - SLASH - BACKSLASH - SLASH DOT EYE EEE).
Didn't goatse.cx get similar type ban from the Christmas Island Internet Administration?
It seems like every day on the front page is another story of how some gov't or corporation or religious group is trying - and succeeding - to destroy free speech. I just can't grok how stupid and greedy people are that they will stifle one of the greatest ideals in the world because they are offended/moremoneymoremoney/think of the children! C'mon people, the more you can deal with reality the more you can grow and learn. Censorship breeds weak minded individuals.
I'm not trying to troll but I'm so damn tired of people that can't even imagine that they might be wrong and that their values might possibly not be The Supreme Laws of the One True God For Real Cuz He Told Me So. Freedom of speech and press is the only light keeping the dark of ideological slavery and hermetically sealed ignorance at bay.
I hope live to see the day that there is cheap spaceflight and the people that can deal with reality the opposite opinions without knee-jerk animistic reaction can go terraform of the Moon or Mars. I'll leave this planet to the ideologues to enslave and go practice free speech somewhere else.
/rant. It was a shitty day at the wage slave factory, so forgive me. Or not.
When I start seeing porn sites on .us, .gov, or .edu domains, then you have a point. Till then, this is a non-story. There are TDL's out there that are open to everyone. The nationally owned ones are solely responsible to that nation's government.
Slippery Slope arguements are fallacy's. There is no proof that one step forward equates the same thing as ensuring that someone is going to go the full nine yards, or even that if they were, they'd end up where you want to paint them as going.
There is a middle ground here, there are plenty of TLD's out there that you can register with that are open to all comers. Government TLD's, despite the recent trend towards poorer countries whoring them out, are meant for that nation's government's use. If the government of Ireland wants to nix porn on the government owned TLD, that's entirely their perogative (till they are no longer the government of Ireland).
Really. Who gives a shit? Nobody should.
[snip]
It's still a government trying to tell its people what words they should and should not see, which is censorship and something to notice and oppose.
I give a shit, precisely because it's not government performing these actions. I get worried whenever an autonomous body takes it on itself to be an arbiter of public morals, and even the courts refuse to step into the fray.
I've a number of personal reasons for finding this particular story interesting. My parents and extended family are Irish, and some of them have been fighting for a generation against the reactionary inclinations of some elements of Irish society. (That's half the reason I was born in Canada.) This sanctimonious approach to 'dirty' subjects is typical of the kind of thing that makes even a polite discussion about morality nearly impossible. How can you talk about something if you can't even use the word that most aptly describes it?
Second, I'm coordinating work on the creation of a governance mechanism for a ccTLD in the developing world. Society here is very conservative in nature, and this is exactly the kind of object lesson we need to learn from.
You may not find this an interesting or enlightening topic, but those of us who care about the places where technology and society intersect find stories like this fascinating, challenging and yes, definitely news for nerds.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
"Slippery Slope arguements are fallacy's. There is no proof that one step forward equates the same thing as ensuring that someone is going to go the full nine yards, or even that if they were, they'd end up where you want to paint them as going."
I've heard THAT bullshit before, and I'll respond the exact same way I do every time I hear it used.
While it may be true that a certain step, in a certain direction, MAY not end up with bad results, if it DOES, you then have to go back two steps, instead of one, to fix that which is broken.
That is PRECISELY the thought process these people are using to THEIR advantage. Take a little at a time, under the radar, infuse yourself into the "system", to the point it is too hard to undo the damage once everyone gets wise to the effects.
The A.I.G. mess is similar. Too big to fail? Not at all. Simply to big to LET fail...as was their intended goal all along.
If it offends you, don't type it into the damned address bar.
Like lu.scio.us?
AEIOU: open-source anonymous internet currency
If you think we've finally become so "civilized" that physical revolutions with shooting and bombs are no longer necessary to achieve freedom and equality, then it's you who are the fuckwit.
We're overdue for one in the United States. If the American Revolution - the first one - had happened in a political and semantic climate like we have today, more likely than not the Founding Fathers who started it would be branded terrorists rather than revolutionaries. No doubt the British of the period did mentally picture the Americans exactly as we now mentally picture terrorists, even if they didn't use the word "terrorist" to describe that imagery. "Terrorist" is now an emotional buzzword taking its place alongside other words like "eugenics" and "atheist", all designed to twist and manipulate popular perceptions.
Revolutions are hardly a thing of the past. The people who deserve to be victims of them have simply gotten a LOT more skilled at manipulating people to forestall their punishment.
It's still a government trying to tell its people what words they should and should not see, which is censorship and something to notice and oppose.
The irish constitution has some dangerous weasel-wording in it around that area. Lately it's been taken that european/international human rights law trumps more problematic aspects of the constitution, and it's important to remember that basically no sane irish person takes mere human law entirely seriously in the first place, but it just isn't particularly wonderful as constitutions go. May still better than still being ruled by the British I guess (I mean just look at Jacqui Smith...)...
6. 1. The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights, subject to public order and morality.
i. The right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions.
The education of public opinion being, however, a matter of such grave import to the common good, the State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.
The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.
Choice of masters is not freedom.
I give a shit
To whom? I don't want it.
I had dealings with the .IE crowd back in the early-mid-90s trying to set up some domains. At the time it was being run by a small cabal of jumped-up sysadmins-turned-pointy-haired-bosses hidden away in University College Dublin (one of the larger public universities in Ireland). They blocked basically every application for any domain name that was any way lucrative, exciting, or with a potential to make a profit, and took an amazing amount of time to actually get anything done. I am unsurprised but a little dismayed to see that the descendant of that dismal sinkhole apparently still possesses much of the same bureaucratic DNA.
Da Blog
Hear! Hear!
It's like a game of red light/green light, and the citizens are 'it', and blindfolded. By the time you hear gov't.'s footsteps running up on you...it's too late.
Those that ignore/don't learn history, are doomed to repeating it.
He will wake up one day, wondering WTF??!!?...Then try to blame his lack of attention on everyone else.
Unfortunately, most people are wearing blinders, and only pay attention to what is right in front of them; failing to notice that slippery slope just past their focal point.
Liberty, freedom, and justice all require constant vigilance. Always...Not only when affected, but always.
Keep up the good fight, sir! I'll be there beside you.(metaphorically, as I have no clue where you are at-no matter though...rts008 has your back and flanks in this fight:-)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Clearly you have no idea how the internet works.
Deliberate acts of censorship are interpreted as DAMAGE to the internet, which routes around it.
This means that the actions of the governmental body have caused irreperable harm to the internet.
Al Gore might very well sue. That's his baby.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
First they ban porno.com - next they'll be burning women at the stake because someone called them a witch.
tl;dr
can you try and keep your trolls short, i mean "i just shat an obama" see below, is short, to the point (horrendous display of stupidity and racism) and even partially successful as people will take a second to reply to the troll.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Who cares? Just because it hurts your feelings doesn't mean the government needs to do something about it.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
I get worried whenever an autonomous body takes it on itself to be an arbiter of public morals, and even the courts refuse to step into the fray.
Well, sure ... that always happens when the government happens to agree with what that autonomous body is doing, and is perfectly happy to let said body take the heat.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Princess she-lay-lee and the seven black Irish Dwarves!
(Stumpy, Baldy, Sleazy, Seamy, Kinky, Weirdo, and everyone's favorite dwarf, Erectile Dysfunction.)
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
Irish Domain Registry Banning Porn Sites
So they're getting rid of the internet?
Help fight spam
I just checked it out. It's possibly the most disappointing porn site i've ever seen. It doesn't have any porn on it, for a start.
I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
Bah. I don't browse websites with ie anyway. I use Opera on Ubuntu, you insensitive clods!
The government is democratically accountable, the IEDR is not.
The IE Domain Registry is not a governing or regulatory body, but provides a public service for the .ie namespace on behalf of the Internet community.
I am Irish and I'm more than a little bit outraged. For a start, neither of the words in question are taboo or offensive; they are english words of greek origin and are in daily usage. My main problem with this is that it claims to be on moral grounds but this body is in no position to determine what is or is not moral, nor are they under their own mandate a governing or regulatory body.
I never get used to these constant resurrections
Oh not this crap again. If I see some people take a few steps toward a cliff, I say "hey - that's dangerous where you're heading." I don't expect someone to leap out and try to stop me speaking shouting 'just because they've walked some way in a bad direction doesn't mean they'll keep on walking that way.' Well no, it's not conclusive proof, but when you have definite forces pushing for something and you see concessions starting to be made, then it's legitimate to speak out against them. And what makes the difference between whether those people walk off the cliff or not might just be those people warning at the start that they are starting to take steps in a dangerous direction.
Pointing out that we're on a slippery slope is a warning, not normally a prophecy. It says continue in this direction and it's going to come to a bad end. And the second point about the slope is that it's slippery. Once steps are taken, it can be hard to take them back - for example making an organisation un-ban words again.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
You see, some people have a really weird obsession with male chickens, and they like to imagine that there are cockerels so big they can jump on their back and outrun a car. This is another example of why I am always saying people are insane and you should never trust any of them.
The seriousness of the above post is not guaranteed.
Or the Roman mythology? They tell me that if I'm wrong by my girlfriend (i.e. she cheated) I have the right to slaughter a cow, bathe in its blood, and curse her. Do you think the government will let me get away with that?
No? So then we don't truly have freedom of religion.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Can I sponsor a visa for you to come to the USA? You would be a good influence on many of our 'Christians'.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
Is it really any business of those not living in Ireland to tell those living in Ireland how to live or how 'prudish' is OK?
If you want a stake in how a place is run, have a stake in it. Live there. Join the 'rebels' attempting to over throw the government, do SOMETHING other than sit there outside it and criticize those in it for not being as enlightened as you. Till then, while the group running the domain isn't government controlled it is government sanctioned with a Sword of Damascus hanging over their head ready to fall should they decide to do things that the government doesn't like. That's sufficiently 'government connected' to me to count as being run by the government.
Why do we have the TLDs?
They seem to be meaningless and create problems like WhiteHouse.com/.gov. i'd much rather know that www.Coca-Cola belongs to Coca-Cola and not "Jeff who had 20$ and got to it first".
If we had some kind of enforcement of what could be on what TLD, it would make sense. As it is, only .gov, .mil and .edu are meaningful. Even the national TLDs are fudgable.
Having a TLD of .adlt or .prn would allow parents and schools to block pr0n from their kids. Then if a site had porn on it, and it didn't have an appropriate TLD, you could fine it or take it down for a day or two. This would be to the advantage of the porn sites because their customers could easily find the product. "in *.prn: Chasey Lane".
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
If (if, if, if) it ever came down to that, there is plenty of room for people like you. I would like to think that not every man would *need* to stand on the front lines, if such a thing could even apply in such a war.
Those that go to the "we will fight" even if they win, will fail. Fighting against something isn't enough. There has to be a plan way beyond that.
If someone says "I don't like the government, I will kill them", what do they plan for after that? Nothing. They have no plan, other than resisting what they don't like. Some sort of government is required to guide the people. We have the wonders of a capitalist society right now. People need, so someone else makes and sells. All is fine and dandy until ... well ... we're seeing the drawbacks of that. People need housing, yet housing is unaffordable. People need transportation, but they can't afford a car. They can't ride a horse. They can't walk because necessities are too wide spread. Greed has taken capitalism and brought us to the brink of of failure. The golden rule applies. He who has the gold makes the rule. It should be, the more intelligent people make the guidelines to which we live, for the benefit of society.
I'd love to go to a homeless shelter and say, "I will take every willing man and woman. We will build shelter together, and we will grow your food." That won't work. Land is owned, and people can't just say "I need 100 acres to help these people. These 100 acres aren't being used." Is it wrong to want to help people in such a way? They are working, and they are being paid for their work. It may or may not be in gold or dollars, but they are being paid. Of course, our government will want their cut. They want to tax because they use the land. They want to tax because they have improved the land. They want to tax because they have made a product (the food). They want to tax because the product was sold (food produced and sold to those who made the food). It quickly becomes unsustainable. Even a small utopian camp would be taxed out of existance, unless they had a rich benefactor (i.e., he with the gold). It would then grow into what I mentioned before. Peace through superior firepower. These subversives aren't paying their taxes. The would be arrested (nice men with guns), tried for tax evasion, trespassing, non-licensed food production, etc. The homeless you've given a better way to live are now back where they started jailed, and then homeless once released.
It's a game we can't win. I'm on the edge of it, as most of us are. I work hard, I make some money, and I will never be "he with the gold", therefore I will never make the rule.
So, we continue... until something happens.
I've read a few news stories about the government now trying to control and evict people from homeless "tent cities". Previously employed people who now can't afford anything, who just need a place to live are told they can't even live in a tent. I wish I knew what they (the government) expected all of us to do. Get a job? Jobs are fewer and fewer. Buy a house? Not without a job. Buy food? Not without a job. Get a job then. How?
I'm not one of the homeless yet. Well, technically I am. I live with friends now. I pay rent through labor and favors (buy dinner. buy cigarettes). I don't have a place in my name, because I don't have the money. But everyone else likes the money that I do make. They all ask for it. I just want to live and thrive. Is there anything wrong with that?
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Please read and quote the entire line.
>> You don't "have" to provide your SSN to anyone. Then again, they don't "have" to provide you
>> with the services you are requesting.
Nope, you don't have to put in your SSN. You don't even have to file a tax return. You are not forced to provide your information to the IRS. Then again, if you fail to do either part, they may not play very nicely.
By filing your tax return, you are requesting the service that they accept your paperwork and either allow you to pay, or refund your overpayment. By refusing to prove a SSN, they don't have to provide that service. Of course, they'll still come after you, so you're just out of luck.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.