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Censorship Struggle Underway In Iceland
jon jonson writes "Information from the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing has been leaked to WikiLeaks, revealing billions in insider loans, and the bank has been working day and night to censor the information contained in the document. Last night at 6:55pm GMT, they served an injunction against the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, five minutes before the 7pm news was due to be aired. The TV station just displayed the WikiLeaks URL instead. They've also injuncted Iceland's national radio, banning all discussion about the contents of the document, and they are actively trying to censor the rest of the Icelandic media along with WikiLeaks."
Kaupthing had fallen over and if they hadn't tried to stop people finding out, it wouldn't have been posted to Slashdot and I and many others would never have known. We need a name for when attempted censorship leads to wider distribution of the information. The Kaupthing effect, perhaps?
Good thing WikiLeaks is still alive and kicking
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
revealing billions in insider loans,
Like most wikileaks documents, I've found it nearly impossible to verify the high level claim (insider trading) off the information provided. They always seem to drop the ball on writing down their analysis...or letting others (otherwise, it's NOT a wiki!). I expect several pages of summary and analysis, but instead, just broad claims with little or no references or supporting facts.
For those of us who aren't experts in Icelandic corporations and banking, here's a sample, after some googling- one of the listed parties is a Robert Tchenguiz.
If the claims in that blog posting are true, 500BN of Iceland's citizens' money flew out the door in "loans" to tax haven countries.
Please help metamoderate.
Someone is just begging for the Streisand Effect to set in, it seems.
The bank is a private company. He has nothing to do with out government.
I repeat, our government IS NOT censoring things.
'nuff said
-- Computers are not intelligent. They just think they are.
The bank is owned by the goverment.
Exception Duck - may or may not contain chicken.
When the government starts censoring things, I find that it is usually because of national security issues more than anything else.
I've seen quite the opposite. Censoring is much more likely to be about covering your ass than about national security.
You do know that national security is a synonym for political embarrassment, don't you?
Someone post the leak onto /.
The police that are mandating the censorship are also owned by the government.
And to complete the farce, the newsroom being censored is ALSO OWNED BY THE STUPID GOVERNMENT.
Jag pratar lite svenska.
If it was a bunch of lies, then the bank officials would have pointed that out. That they are scrambling to censor is proof this is absolutly 100% legit. kind of nice of them to remove any doubt eh?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Yes, that was probably Ireland.
On another note, the news story you can see above is about ICELAND.
Jag pratar lite svenska.
Don't forget about the children.
Won't someone think of the children?
Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
>>>"Iceland" == "Ireland"
False
Pirate Party UK
* Main Entry: 2censor
* Function: transitive verb
* Inflected Form(s): censored; censoring \sen(t)-s-ri, sen(t)s-ri\
* Date: 1882
: to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable ; also : to suppress or delete as objectionable
If a company tries to flex its muscle to influence lawmakers, it is. Indirect, but still.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
There's no such word as injuncted. "to issue an injunction" is to "enjoin", so the form needed here is enjoined.
To protect private interests against the public's need to know.
This is the stuff that we should be angry about. Not putting some trailer-trash families in rehabilitation programs discussed about in the recent front page article (That's the one with the hyperbole about 24hr surveillance BTW).
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
We (in the USA) still have no idea where our TARP funds went. And no documentation likely to appear on Wikileaks either. When our gov't asked the banks what they did with the money we gave them, they just replied, "We'd rather not say".
Have gnu, will travel.
Right. Probably the leaked documents contain child porn or something.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censoring
http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censorship
What part of those definitions require that governments be involved again?
And no, just because it doesn't fit your needlessly restricted definition of censorship doesn't mean that it isn't censorship.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
But wait, there's more! According to my favorite Icelandic blogger, the commissioner who issued the injunction has a son who is or was a spokesman for the bank, and another who was an executive and the recipient of one of the no-payments loans.
Iceland is a close-knit society. The anger there is fueled by a sense of betrayal that people from big heterogeneous countries can't fully appreciate.
Once this shit hits the internet - it's out there. There is no undo button or magical legal action you can take to cover it up anymore.
You'd be better off to admit you fucked up and spend your efforts cleaning up the mess instead of trying to cover up this crap.
Oh yeah - and piss off the media - that helps your case too.
The whole Iceland has got less citizens than an American shopping mall. 500BN is perhaps possible, given the assets were from investors from abroad. However 500BN of assets is not proportional to the size of the Icelandic real economy - it is not plausible that the citizens could have lost such amount.
I think it actually is going to be more about national security. Few people want to leak actual national security secrets though, so whenever there's a leak its always about something horrible.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
Per the cease and desist order, it appears that the lawyers on behalf of Kraupthing are doing their job.
The laws themselves appear to be there to protect the client's confidential information. Paraphrasing (IANAL, IANAL, IANAL!) they are:
58. Banks are not suppose to disclose their customer's financial information.
59. Exception #1 - if there is a risk to a parent company
60. Exception #2 - if the customer(s) say it is okay to disclose the information.
So basically the bank and the bank lawyers are doing the job they are legally obligated to do on behalf of their customers.
If it was a bunch of lies, then the bank officials would have pointed that out.
And when a guy stands in the driveway of a GM plant screaming that alien technology is being used to make Corvettes, does that mean it's true because GM refuses to answer questions from him or reporters and then kicks him off the property? Of course not.
First off, I didn't say the claims were lies. I said there was no explanation or analysis, and thus no way for me to verify them. There isn't even any explanation as to why they believe the documents are authentic. I was lamenting, in general, at the lack of explanations and analysis of documents posted to Wikileaks as a whole. Putting down a list of companies and calling it "analysis" isn't.
Second, it does not logically follow that if someone doesn't deny something, it is true- in part or whole. 5th Amendment, anyone? Same goes for trying to get something out of the public spotlight. Maybe the whole reason they want to suppress it is because it IS bullshit, and letting it spread would make it difficult or impossible to find impartial jurors in a criminal or civil trial- or harm existing companies that have done legitimate business with them.
Lastly, very often a public relations effort involves not even acknowledging claims, regardless of their merit. There are a variety of reasons why. For example: sometimes the claims are bullshit but you don't feel you can convince the public otherwise. Sometimes you want to keep a low profile and hope people will get bored and move on to shinier news items. Sometimes you cannot say anything because of pending legal action- either because it would be risky to comment, or you've been told not to.
But hey, feel free to play out the simple Hollywood conspiracy movie plot. The world is rarely that simple.
Please help metamoderate.
>>>"Iceland" == "Ireland" False
Iceland's sheep == shaggy
Ireland's sheep == shagged
http://www.dattaway.net/images/kaupthing-bank-before-crash-2008.pdf
That was Ireland, you inconsiderate clod!
ooooh! Where's my mod points?
That was Ireland, sometimes called "the green island", which should not be confused with Greenland, though, as Greenland is more like Iceland than Ireland. I hope you're less confused now.
Ezekiel 23:20
Especially if it describes how the country's currency became worthless.
Just because you are in ICEland doesn't mean you can freeze the free flow of information.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The AC parent of this post deserves better than a 0.
Pfffst, haha, they should have known better than to trigger the Streisand effect. But then again... KAUPTHING BANK - Beyond thinking.
Thank God for WikiLeaks.
[Citation needed]
Of course they are trying to censorship this. They have been hard at work since the bank crash trying to hide all the stuff that can show the illigal stuff they where doing. And this was not the only bank of the 3 that went down that had very questionable (amounts over what was legal) loans to insiders.
So when the government starts freaking out and censoring things left and right, you can bet that there's something important contained in the leaked files.
Precisely. Keep in mind that we're talking a bank here, not a military research laboratory or something else of strategic importance. A bank, in fact, whose proper management (or otherwise) is of significant importance to the lives of millions of ordinary people.
This is all about money, and when the government "starts freaking out" in a situation such as this (and I mean any government, not just the one to which us unfortunate Americans are subject) it is invariably due to criminal behavior on the part of government officials. Corruption, in other words. In such cases "national security" means making that information public so that the bastards can be rooted out and put in prison where they belong. It's not in the best interests of the citizens of any country that national security be synonymous with coverup. That's what usually happens when government types go too far, and by burying any and all evidence against them under the seal of "national security" they not only escape prosecution for their crimes but get to keep their jobs.
So, coverup. Let me tell you, that is exactly what this affair smells like to this unfortunate American (we get a lot of those here.) If the Icelanders play this smart, they won't do what we've done here in with our recent government bailout of the private sector. That is, allow the people responsible for this disaster to remain in control and prosper after all the damage they've caused.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
A UK social services bureaucrat, are you? hahahah....you're exposed.
But they also don't take him to court and file a gag order against him or issue takedowns.
Posting a document marked "private and confidential", which were protected by confidentiality agreements signed by the employees who leaked them (or were obtained by breaking into computer systems or bypassing security systems), believe it or not, is not legally defensible. It may be morally correct or even honorable in your eyes (and possibly in mine, I'm on the fence), but one man's morals do not make another man's actions legal.
Furthermore, if the guy is on public property and not interfering, they can't really do anything. (Right to free assembly.)
Way to focus on issues not germane. Aside from the fact that I said "driveway" and "property", you missed the point of the example- or you were hoping to be modded up for comment coattail-riding. The crux of the example was that there are many times when it is a perfectly acceptable course of action to ignore something.
Please help metamoderate.
"Censorship is when a government stops a person or organization from disseminating information"
The Mafia, among other organizations, would thank you for this definition. Executing an entire family, or even an entire village, to prevent the dissemination of sensitive information wouldn't be considered "censorship", unless the government assisted in the executions. Thank you, sir.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Could you at least read the article summary?
Could you at least recognize that I obviously accidentally wrote "trading" when I meant to say "loans"? I can't believe you got modded up, even if you are an anon.
Please help metamoderate.
Mod parent up! Although, I think the grandparent may have been sarcastic? It's not obvious if so.
Censorship is almost always *officially* about national security, but 99.9% of the time they're actually trying to suppress information which is embarassing or damaging to some particular junta.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
... and mutes, too
Or rather, it is one letter and six months. They had exactly the same thing happen at Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society.
"I'm in charge of the nation and it affects MY job security.... so 'national security' applies!"
The government *as such* is not censoring anything here. Kaupthing Bank is. While Kaupthing is now owned by the state, it is not controlled directly by politicians.
in one of the scandinavian countries which are renowned for modern liberties and freedoms ?
Read radical news here
I'm an American so this rule doesn't apply (national security is a euphemism for "because I said so, that's why; questioning the HSA is Counterfreedomary!")...but given the history of the sort of people who censor WikiLeaks I have to question whether or not I trust anyone who does.
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
I think you're confusing Ireland and Scotland.
Wikileaks says:
The slashdot summary is making unproven claims, with the only source cited the WikiLeaks article. I think we'll see a correction of this article summary at some time. The Iceland Weather Report article doesn't mention insider trading either.
Damn, I already moderated this topic. Now I'll have to log in with my sock puppet to comment.
No, it would be murder. Last time I checked, that crime was at least an order of magnitude worse than "censorship."
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
You know, it's really refreshing to see a story about censorship and (presumed) government corruption that's *not* about America for once. Go Iceland! :)
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I don't know from Iceland, but presumably the bank does not actually employ a military or police force capable of censoring broadcasts? So the governement is the one doing the censorship, because the bank asked nicely? It would be kinda cool if I'm wrong here ...
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
to be fair, neither is a news article, or at least should be
Actually, it would include a LOT of different crimes:
Genocide (wiping out a whole village of people)
Violating human rights
Conspiracy to commit murder
Conspiracy to violate human rights
Conspiracy tampering with witnesses
Conspiracy, obstruction of justice
Almost certainly multiple counts of unlawful imprisonment and/or kidnapping
Illegal use of weapons (probably firearms, possibly explosives)
not to mention, the rather minor censorship (in comparison) thing
The prosecutors may or may not ever get around to any question of censorship, but hey, remember, that was my whole reason for wiping out the village. To prevent my sensitive information being spread around.
If one prissy librarian with a puritan attitude takes books that she disapproves of, and burns them to prevent people reading them, THAT is censorship. The government doesn't have to approve of her actions for her actions to qualify as censorship.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
That's all right, because the government is owned by the Russians, so nobody from Iceland is censoring anything.
If only someone had got to you five minutes before...
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Most people in the US can barely contain their rage about the AIG bailout.
From any practical standpoint, you're quite wrong. I just spent a couple of hours going through the massive FOIA disclosure of the Air Force's internal emails dealing with the aftermath of the Air Force One flyby of the Statue of Liberty back in April. Much of the 553-page document is concerned with detailed observations of bloggers' reactions, even to the point of discussing the rate of change in "tweets per minute" criticizing the White House and USAF.
The US government, at least, takes amateur online journalism very seriously. It's safe to say other governments do as well.
That makes them a "proper source."
The super rich stole from all of us and then used their government connections to force us all to pay for their prolifigate spending.
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
I think you're confusing Scotland and England.
In this context, it is important to distinguish between the "State" and the "Government." If you were arrested for drunk driving by an ordinary policeman, you would hardly say that the Government was arresting you.
The more secrecy, the more privacy, the more that crime and evil prosper. Censorship is a criminal's finest friend.
Yeah, unless, of course, it's the blogs that break a story.
Like Monica Lewinsky, Dan Rather's Memogate, the doctored Reuters pictures of bombings in Lebanon, the firing of U.S. prosecutors, "Macaca", etc. etc.
Face it, the relationship between bloggers and the mainstream media is not parasitic anymore, it's symbiotic.
It's true, most blogs (including my twitter feed) contain only marginally useful information, if at all. But so do most newspaper articles or TV shows, that merely recite the stuff fed to them by corporations and governments.
Good investigative journalists are a rare kind. Some of them blog.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
it's never a proper source if you're a journalist writing an article.
It's a perfectly fine source for a discussion among friends.
It's a perfectly fine source for posting on slashdot. After all, this is a blog.
Your nation's not secure if everyone's laughing at your leaders, especially if those laughing are thinking "With buffoons like that coordinating their defense, let's invade!"
Consider yourself warned, Iceland.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
No, it would be murder. Last time I checked, that crime was at least an order of magnitude worse than "censorship."
Quite a few people in history have risked their lives because they believed otherwise. So you might want to check again.
Shaggy shags shorn sheep on the soggy soil?
The hills are alive...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
There are viable alternatives, temporary as they may be...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Eve online? Is this games imitating life imitating games?
This is the exact reason why whistleblower laws exist: to prevent people from being sued for exposing ethics violations.
You can say that again, whistleblower laws are there for a reason but there must also be due process. The allegation in this case is that the owners of Kaupthing bank effectively loaned them selves and connected parties, specifically the owners of a local company named Exista, ISK 500.000.000.000 which at the time would have been the equivalent of about c.a $6 billion. This money was loaned to shell companies in Holland and the tax haven of Tortola, allegedly in order to pump up the share prices of Kaupthing and Exista in a desperate and deluded bid to postpone the inevitable collapse of the bank. _IF_ these allegations turn out to be true (and personally I'll wait until the prosecutor has finished investigating this before I make up my mind) Kaupthing's management and it's owners and their business partners practically robbed their own bank and used the proceeds to commit massive market manipulation offences.
You have to remember that in Iceland there is still a lot of anger against the people who are perceived to have caused the banking collapse with US style "free-market fundamentalism" and the the news media does have a tendency to surf on waves of public anger. When the Icelandic banks collapsed and all the puss started flowing out of the wounds of the dying banks the Icelandic people ringed the parliament building and pelted it with yoghurt cans, eggs and vegetables. That may not seem like much to somebody in the US or UK but it is a remarkable event for a nation that hasn't seen a really major public protest since a grand punch-up between communists and police in 1949 over the parliament's decision to join NATO. This injunction is probably more of a knee jerk reaction born out of fear of even more public unrest than anything else. I was and still am surprised that neither the US nor UK citizenry turned out in force to egg their parliament buildings after the humongous bailouts in those countries. The UK citizenry in particular has proven to be remarkably docile considering that it is Gordon Brown who is to blame more than most others for the policies that led to the banking mess in that country. Given the amount of taxpayer money he has handed out to fat-cats in the banking system you'd think Britons would be lining up to tar and feather him.
I think you're both confusing all the geographically challenged Americans quite terribly
People willing to trade their freedom of expression for temporary entertainment deserve neither and will lose both.
The child molesters have that covered, so we're free to think about other things.
In your other pants.
Oh wait...it already IS but our media are too focused on important shit like Michael Jackson: http://market-ticker.org/archives/1283-Is-The-FDIC-Broke-And-Covering-It-Up.html
Here are the MD5 checksums I calculated for various downloads:
The difference impacts the rendering of the document beginning on page 16. It appears to have HTTP headers inserted into the file. The same difference is seen across these download programs: firefox, lynx, wget. There may be a bad replication to that site. Maybe they used a bad HTTP client.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Having been exposed to Icelandic arrogance for the three years I've been using Eve Online I can only say that this scandal is not a surprise, nor are the attempts to suppress the information. I sincerely hope that all Icelanders end up with raw, bleeding new bungholes, bankruptcy and long-term personal shame, although I think they are too arrogant to ever feel shame.
As learned from my security clearance indoctrination; sensitive information includes anything that can be seen as harmful or damaging to the government/country if released to the public/enemy.
Logically, that includes things like covert mission plans, cryptography keys, ingredient list for radar absorbent paints, technical readouts for this battle station, and gross misappropriations of federal funds.
greed@All_Evils:~#
True: the population of Iceland about the same number as the student enrolment at the University of Buenos Aires.
Anybody want a peanut?
..... that such a basket case would arise in the fringes of the civilized Western European area of influence.
What you describe is typical of tin pot dictatorships ....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
it's never a proper source if you're a journalist writing an article.
A blog or any article in print or a newscast is not a source because it is by its nature filtered. But blogs have the benefit of being able to include full source material more often than newspapers or tv. And any medium can lead you to the sources of information if the reporters include enough detail.
How the elite don't control the media.
The attempts to censor the information looks suspicious, and therefore there needs to a very deep and detailed investigation. They may be trying to cover up illegal activities, or trying to protect sensitive customer information. Either way, they should realize that their efforts to suppress the information are only making sure that it is spread much more widely than if they had not tried to suppress it.
"..I've found it nearly impossible to verify the high level claim (insider trading) off the information provided."
Geez, try to find banksters involved in this situation where insider trading isn't involved.....
Americans are just conditioned to be politically angry: they're like trained monkeys, throw-in 'corporation' and they become a ravenous mob--probably too glib to realize that any non-individual entity recognized by the government is basically a corporation: corporations are not evil, they can be evil, or they can be otherwise: but nuspeak has conditioned so many to associate them with being so. AIG was living-up to legal obligations: they could have done that, or gotten sued and payed even more: and it was the very top ordering-down to put the dang 'loophole' (i.e. it wasn't a loophole) in there in the first place. But one can expect Americans to be outraged: it's like they know they have a part to play in a giant, pretensious, stage in a giant, fake, show. And they are fake. Signed, An American.
Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
It's worth noting that the bailouts for banks became necessary due to the government (ahem, the current ruling party in fact, ahem) ordering them through legislation to give high risk loans for houses; those kinds of loans are meant for enterprise, i.e. starting businesses, not for buying personal houses; they decided to examine loan records and from it they 'felt' there was a disproportionately small representation of loans to certain demographics, particularly minorities (i.e. potential voters), and forced a percentage of loans to be so made, as well as set-up quasiprivate (federal) lending-control institutions that conveniently fed money back into their own campaign covers; the catastrophe arising from 'bank' mismanagement was congresses fault, particularly the firggin' dems who decided force loans to be made to those who's financial data demonstrated they couldn't afford the loans, and the institutions they set-up to route more money to that cause. The global 'crisis' was set-off by the fact that the mortgages that were in those (rather BRILLIANT) packages, each consisting of potentially thousands to millions of little slices of mortgages to probabilistically reduce risk, were of this sub-prime type; to top it off they all (both parties) decided to over-relax lending regulations to encourage this market even more, such that an entire industry just to carry out their wishes (and make a lot of dough) popped-up. The traditional banks aren't typically into this sort of thing, yet they had no choice about it: they had a gun to their heads. There was one bank, strangely, that's now rather notable because of this, that somehow did resist, did not get murdered by the fairness-police pretending to play government for it, and they're now in a perky and grand situation. I've forgotten the name, incidentally, and if anybody here recognizes it (or that of a similar institution similar), let me know.
Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
Good investigative journalists are a rare kind. Some of them blog.
And some of them are just ordinary folks who notice something of importance while the "real" journalists are all gushing over a dog and pony show.
The whole equation only works out if it is guaranteed that the public's need to know always wins, and it is known that it always wins.
Then, there is always going to be pressure on information like this to be released, and hence it is always and only the fault of the bank if it breaks enough moral rules for the information to be forced out in the open. Morally, the bank is always the guilty party.
Jag pratar lite svenska.
There are no "real" journalists anymore. If there ever were. Ask yourself, who broke the news that the sinking of the Maine was an inside job? Was it some historian 100 years later? How about the Reichstag fire? Did the "journalists" report that for what it was at the time? Forget 9/11. It'll be a century before anyone in the mainstream has the guts to call that what it was. "Journalists" just report the official line, no matter how absurd it is.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
Monica Lewinsky was broken by a blogger? Really? Which one? Kenneth Starr had a blog? Maybe Linda Tripp? Neither was the firing of the US prosecutors broken by bloggers - that was just an old-fashioned shit-storm.
Bloggers are sometimes useful, but really not in the majority of the cases.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Keep in mind that we're talking a bank here, [...], whose proper management (or otherwise) is of significant importance to the lives of millions of ordinary people.
Hundreds of thousands, not millions. This is Iceland we're talking about.
I'm sure not every Icelander was involved in this. Too bad they are all going to be suffering the effects for the stupid decisions of a bunch of capitalists and socialists.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
"Joe, get my picture out of there" ... "That's like trying to get pee out of a swimming pool."
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Especially Iceland. Who is/are Iceland's enemy/-ies anyhow?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
As long as nobody listens, or nothing that matters is said. If something important is said, and people listen, suddenly there will be lots of opposition. To the speech, the speaker, the law, the speaker's physical safety, and whatever else allows the speech to continue.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
"Counterfreedomary" is now officially my favourite neologism.
Thank you good sir!
If censorship was the sole province of government , nobody would be talking of "governmental censorship" that would be a repetition. Which is why I mostly laugh when I see people getting their tie in a knot when governement censor some stuff (be it bad word, nude nipple, or violence) but when a corporation do the same , they shrug it off and go on their merry life. Now think about this: who has the best position to censor stuff : the governement which nowadays in western democracy own next to now news generator (radio, tv, newspaper) or the news mega corporation which are ultimately in the hand of a few ? Governement censorship you CAN fight it. Ballot Box. Soap Box. Munition Box. But news corporation censorship, since they nearlyalways mostly have a local monopoly or protect the same interrest ? Noper. No box sir. You can simply NOT USE the service, or accept the possible censorship.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Hmm, making children.
Iceland is a close-knit society. The anger there is fueled by a sense of betrayal that people from big heterogeneous countries can't fully appreciate.
New Zealand is also a small country and the fact that we all know each helps keep everyone honest. Many of us are only one or two steps removed from anyone in power, so abuses of power seem to be kept under control. Rich politicians can't deny poverty, because usually there are multiple people in their extended family getting welfare support.
I think the fraudsters will be dealt with - because in Iceland people can actually personally do something to affect the fraudsters - unlike a larger country where action is usually impotent.
Happy moony
So close-knit in fact that I know some of the current ministers, and they all oppose this line of action by the current CEO of Kaupthing, and my prediction is that he has maybe 2-3 months left in office. They will let this slide, then find some other reason to let him go. He's totally done for. This man is exceptionally stupid to think that he can stop Wikileaks from making the information available. The only defence he can possibly have, is if he was legally bound to try to stop it. Which is probably not the case, but it's coming up in court in Iceland this week. They got the ban for one week, and have to make a pretty strong case if they are going to upheld it.
I don't think it will happen.
Some people predict a revelution in Iceland if that happens.
I won't go so far as to call it a revolution, but hit will fhit the san.
Exception Duck - may or may not contain chicken.
And it's often about covering your ass while *claiming* national security, thus preventing any kind of meaningful examination of the facts of the case.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drudge_Report#Monica_Lewinsky_scandal
here : http://www.alleycat.be/kaupthing-bank-before-crash-2008.pdf just in case ...
beware he who denies you access to information for in his mind, he already deems himself to be your master (SMAC-ish)
I love how the Icelandics had the audacity to blame the British for the collapse of their banks..
>>Frist Post!!11one
If only we could censor some parts of Internet... oh, never mind...
"an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often, quite often, picturesque liar" - Mark Twain
Greenland. That would be kickass war ;)
It's all a clever viking marketing ploy.
Greenland is just a marketing label, set to lure viking settlers to the place. If they called it "so cold you're gonna lose your sanity"-land, not many would've come.
Iceland, OTOH, was labelled such to keep people away from the relatively fertile lands.
How does the Icelandic gov. allow something like this to happen without any charges?
How does a company like this get insider trading secrets, and walk away without so much as a scratch?
Is there no FBI investigation into this, to at least file charges and make back some of the money owed?
If too many of these types do the same thing at the same time, does it not collapse our economic system....
oh....wait...I guess it did!
A non-militant country with no physical borders has no natural enemies.
And all of this story isn't about the gov.t. covering up shit, it's about the leaders of the bank wanting their own shit covered up.
The minister of education stepped forward in a newsbroadcase and said that although it was obviously a criminal matter, it's still an ethical question on because of the gravity of the matter, wether the nation hasn't the right to know - despite laws that say otherwise.
This signature is DRM protected. By the DMCA, you are not allowed to counteract or oppose to it.
Exactly. Security by obscurity is an even worse idea when it comes to national security.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
While Kaupthing is now owned by the state, it is not controlled directly by politicians.
That's even worse. It's owned by the state, so it is part of the government. But it's not controlled by politicians, so the democratic process cannot affect it. Sounds like an utterly totalitarian institution.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If you were arrested for drunk driving by an ordinary policeman, you would hardly say that the Government was arresting you.
Why not?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
What's the difference between the Mafia and the government? They both control territory, and enforce their will by the use of force.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Only pedophiles think about the children as often as some politicians claim to. Food for thought.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
The Mafia is more responsible with how it spends its money.
Redundancy is good And also good.
If you know some of Iceland's background, this story is extremely ironic. See, Iceland has been consistently ranked highest on the Reporters Without Borders, Press Freedom Index. That's much higher than even The United States of America! Furthermore, Iceland has also been rated highly for it's economic freedoms.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
You are confusing "censorship" and "first amendment violation". The first amendment only restricts government, not private parties, that's true. But it is still censorship when done by private parties.
politicians care what people talk about around the water cooler too, but that doesn't mean that water cooler talk is now definitive
Yeah but is my isk in Eve online ok?
If a tree falls in the forest and no politicians hear about it, are they more or less likely to regulate logging?
You mean AIU Holdings"? Or maybe Chartis?
The shell game goes on... and there are some pearls under the occasional shell. The point is to shuffle and shuffle until they have a skeleton company to scapegoat, the spinoffs keeping the pearls when it inevitably implodes.
When one talks of the "Government", one usually has in minds the upper echelons of the executive, not the petty beaurocrats and officials that make the whole battery work. These are usually collectively referred to as "the State." For example, we change our government regularly, every time somebody new gets elected into power, but the State (i.e. the aggregation of individuals that keep things running) stay mostly the same.
In theory, the government could assert direct control by passing special laws to that effect.
However, it is usually considered a bad idea to have politicians directly running and controlling state-owned companies. Tends to foster corruption, although in this context all talk of worries about corruption is pretty ironic. The whole bloody system was corrupt, and pretty much everybody was in everybody's pocket.
Latest news from Iceland: After a major uproar from the Icelandic public, Kaupthing has finally decided not to go through with the injunction against the press.
Here in Iceland your tax income is public record and details of loans for buying property are also public records. Also the Internal Revenue Directorate here in Iceland has access to details of all your bank accounts.
I personally have no problem with my loan information being public records, but then again I don't have anything to hide :)
Meh. That's a gross simplification. Many people in America are conditioned to believe exactly the opposite: the government screws everything up and corporations do everything right. I think most of the anger in the US comes from those who have had that little bubble burst.