Slashdot Mirror
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?
Really a shame on this. I'd argue that we need more Irish porn in the world :(.
Such as....
Oh God! I'm done.
Not sure about that one. How about creamp.ie?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
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 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).
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
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 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
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.
Irish Domain Registry Banning Porn Sites
So they're getting rid of the internet?
Help fight spam