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Iceland Votes "Já" To Proposed News Haven

eldavojohn writes "The proposed rules shielding journalists harbored in Iceland are now official. It appears that sites like Wikileaks and Cryptome could have a friendlier home base. For those familiar with the Icelandic tongue, the voting results and legalese. Some of the details can be found at www.immi.is."

30 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by SnarfQuest · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would be nice to get something like this in the US.

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    1. Re:Wow by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't get it mods, why is this funny? It really would be nice to have this in the US.

      --
      "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
    2. Re:Wow by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow, talk about missing the point...

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    3. Re:Wow by Dragonslicer · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't get it mods, why is this funny?

      Commonly called absurdist humor

    4. Re:Wow by Tekfactory · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe sad and ironic because freedom of the press had been one of our hard fought for and cherished American institutions. This was back when journalists investigated and reported on stories, not just plagarized them, or made them up entirely. This was also before News who's job was to inform became Entertainment who's job was to grab ratings from other reality shows.

      Similar institutions include the now crumbling protections formerly afforded to whistleblowers.

    5. Re:Wow by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Man, Iceland is so lucky.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    6. Re:Wow by Crudely_Indecent · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...The idea that the US already had this, or the idea that they might actually get it?

      Fixed that for you.

      --


      "Lame" - Galaxar
    7. Re:Wow by SETIGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In a democracy (or a democratic republic) the government has no expectation of privacy or right of privacy.

    8. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One man's cliche is another man's peak of insightfulness.

  2. is it just me? by tomkost · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seems like the "socialist" Scandinavian countries are the most honest and "free". I've visited many of them and always been received with kindness. Yes, the women are as attractive and "fun" as stereotyped. Time to investigate moving there.

    1. Re:is it just me? by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 3, Informative

      But the beer costs $10 a glass.

      Yeah, but you don't get ridiculous jail time for minor drug possessions. It's a tradeoff.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    2. Re:is it just me? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

      But the beer costs $10 a glass.

      Well, at the dollar's current valuation, that doesn't surprise me.

    3. Re:is it just me? by sznupi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well...unfortuntelly, reality has a socialist bias.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    4. Re:is it just me? by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But they get stuff for their tax money. Instead of here were we get almost the same tax rate, but no healthcare, shitty roads, no real social services to speak of and a government that passes laws for the highest bidder.

      You may not like high taxes, but I would prefer high taxes and services to slightly lower taxes but nothing in exchange.

    5. Re:is it just me? by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 3, Funny

      And no, we don't have icebears in the streets.

      See, you shouldn't have said that. Icebears in the street is a good thing.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    6. Re:is it just me? by CallMyCards · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Well, there's places in US where beer might cost as much, it's not that expensive in everywhere in Finland for example. A sizable portion of that is taxes of course to cover the medical costs caused by alcoholism, since healthcare is essentially free. Same with taxing of gasoline (naturally not towards alcoholism), I think that 75% of the price is tax, currently at roughly 6.75 $ for a US gallon.

      Off topic: A funny detail is, that Nordic countries have this unofficial (maybe even official) agreement that in acute medical cases, citizens of other Nordic countries are taken care of for free, basically with no questions asked. No need to show travel insurance or anything, applies to operations, x-rays etc.

    7. Re:is it just me? by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

      Being half-Greek, I think you'll find that Greece's bankruptcy has more to do with being Greece than with being socialist. It's not even particularly socialist in practice. There's a huge private sector that pays effectively 0% taxes, and even the officially free health care in practice operates as quasi-private--- doctors work 2nd private practices outside their official jobs, and they uh, strongly suggest that you make an appointment with that one rather than with the free one. Oh, and they don't pay taxes on those private practices, either (cash-only payments, no receipts, no reporting).

      If Greece were more like Sweden, where rich people actually pay taxes, public services that are officially provided are actually provided, etc., its budget, and the country in general, would be in better shape.

    8. Re:is it just me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Calling socialism a Ponzi scheme gets you +1, Informative? Socialism is "we use a bit of your money to provide freely available healthcare to everyone of the same or greater quality than private healthcare, and at a lower cost, providing an overall benefit to society". Socialism is "we use a bit of your money to properly educate children to ensure that they can be productive members of society when they grow up, providing an overall benefit to society". Socialism is "we use a bit of your money to properly regulate companies so they don't do retarded, short-sighted shit that causes fucking global economic meltdowns, providing an overall benefit to society". Socialism is nowhere near "a Ponzi scheme".

      Take your head out of your ass. There are plenty of countries far more socialist than the US that are, by multiple metrics, far better places to live than the US. If you think far less government is the solution, you are absolutely insane.

    9. Re:is it just me? by conspirator57 · · Score: 3, Funny

      my reality has a conservative bias, i don't know how yours works.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_law

              * Conservation of energy
              * Conservation of linear momentum
              * Conservation of angular momentum
              * Conservation of electric charge
              * Conservation of color charge
              * Conservation of weak isospin
              * Conservation of probability

      --
      "If still these truths be held to be
      Self evident."
      -Edna St. Vincent Millay
    10. Re:is it just me? by dave420 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Idiot. If the US was a paradise of freedom with milk and honey for everyone, you'd have a point. As it is, in the US there are people dying from poverty, people losing their houses because they had the temerity to get ill, murder rates similar to developing nations, high infant mortality, and the highest jail population in the world. But please - keep on thinking socialism doesn't work. It's not as if the average American doesn't pay much taxes - they do! And what do they get for it? Fuck all. They still have to pay for healthcare (if they can), their police forces are full of under-trained idiots, and their armed forces are making more enemies than they can kill. The rest of the western world knows balanced socialism is the way forward, and will keep getting a better and better place to live. USA #1 - in delusion, it seems.

    11. Re:is it just me? by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 3, Funny

      But the beer costs $10 a glass.

      They have much to learn about balancing the needs of the people and the needs of the state.

      "Hey Svend, you'll never guess what I got this crazy American to pay for a beer ..."

      --
      If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
  3. Bandwagon anyone? by NervousWreck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to the article, Iceland did this to make it a more desirable server location. Seems like that market can serve as an incentive for more "data friendly" laws; Here's hoping other countries follow suit.

    --
    I do not have a sig. You are hallucinating.
    1. Re:Bandwagon anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They did this because Wikileaks posted bank records for one of their failing banks which showed they were transferring billions of dollars out into safe havens as they were going down. Seeing as how the big bank fiasco tanked their economy they didn't take to kindly to this misappropriation of funds and decided Wikileaks was a good thing.

  4. err, the rules are not yet official by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

    The proposal to draft some rules is now official. The rules themselves will now be drafted by a committee, and then the committee will present them to the legislature, which may then in the future enact them. The proposal is indeed promising, as is the strong (unanimous) support for tasking the committee with fleshing it out, but what exactly the committee will come back with could vary quite a bit.

  5. EU membership will undo this by jdesbonnet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That will probably be all undone as a condition to EU membership (which I think is inevitable at this point).

    1. Re:EU membership will undo this by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh! So you guys are trying to compete with us Yanks on that side of the drink. =P

  6. Wake up America! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And nobody should know about abuses of power either. Gosh, if the American public ever found out why so much of the world hates them, what would happen then?!?

    Terrorists attacked the USA, and the people have no idea why. You think "Freedom hating bastards! That's why they did it!" Perhaps if the American people understood that the government that (mis)represents them is what is getting otherwise innocent Americans killed, then it could stop.

    Please Americans, you need to pull your head out of your asses! For your own good as well as the rest of us. Blind Patriotism chanting "we're number one" does not make it so. If you only knew how far from number one you actually are, you could do something about it. Reclaim that title. America was wonderful, and a land of the free. So much has been lost, and ignorance of so much around you will erode what little is left. I fear it may already be too late. I hope it is not.

  7. A good idea for Iceland by Favonius+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For those small island states, especially broke ones, you need to invent a reason for people to care. This kind of freedom of speech could bring in money in one form or another and help remake Iceland. Good for them!

    --
    "Men willingly believe what they wish." - Julius Caesar
  8. Re:but just for people that look just like me! by arth1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Racially homogeneous? You have no idea what you're talking about. In Sweden, around 12% of the population are first generation immigrants, of which around 75% are from non-Western countries.
    That's much higher than the average for Europe, with around 6% immigrants, and about the same as in the US (38 million first generation immigrants out of 307 million in 2009).

    Looking at the largest Scandinavian cities, Oslo and Stockholm both have around 25% immigrants, most of whom are from non-Western countries. Compared to where I live in the US, I am the one living in a racially homogeneous area, with more than 96% crackers.

  9. The Real Story by andersh · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would like to correct some popular myths that suicide rates are supposedly high in Scandinavia.

    The following material illustrates that Scandinavia is at approximately the same levels as the US. In fact in some aspects the rates are lower in some Scandinavian countries. Norway has lower rates for male suicides than the US (15.7 vs 17.7).

    Suicides per 100,000 people per year:

    Scandinavian countries:
    Denmark 11.9
    Norway 11.5
    Sweden 13.2

    North American countries:
    United States of America 11.0
    Canada 11.3

    Nordic countries:
    Iceland 11.2
    Finland 18.8

    P.S. Finland is not Scandinavian because of its ethnic, historical and cultural background. In my opinion Finland has much more in common with its eastern neighbor, Russia, and the Baltic states. The supposedly higher alcohol consumption and cultural differences could be explanations for their higher suicide rates.

    Like Finland Iceland is not considered part of Scandinavia but the wider "Nordic" category due to differences in geography and language. The three Kingdoms (DK/NO/SE) share closer ties in a historical political, economic and cultural union.