Slashdot Mirror


Finnish Minister Wants To Expand Pornography Censorship

New submitter jdela writes "Finnish Minister for Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson backs expanding FInland's child pornography blocklist to also include websites with animal porn and largely-undefined 'violent pornography.' Her proposal does not have the unanimous backing of the Finnish government, with Minister of Interior Päivi Räsänen doubting the need to expand pornography blocks. Under current law, adopted in 2006, the Finnish NBI maintains a blocklist of foreign sites linked to child pornography. This blocklist is enforced on Finnish Internet users."

270 comments

  1. and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the way to hell is paved with good intentions

    1. Re:and so it begins... by JavaBear · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly.

      I really, REALLY hate these cases, because you can't really oppose them without being labelled as a pervert, this is why lawmakers love to bundle their censorship laws with provisions like these.

      Outlaw and block child porn. No one in their right mind can find fault in that.
      Protect the children, implements blocks to do that.
      Outlaw animal porn, it is after all filthy, right?
      Outlaw porn altogether.
      Outlaw writings about porn.
      Outlaw religious satire
      Outlaw religious criticism
      Outlaw criticism
      Outlaw free speech.

      All of these have been seen before in various countries, It is a slope lawmakers won't admit, but it is invariably the end result.

    2. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Too bad there's no "+1 depressing" - so you got an insightful instead.

    3. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I could easily find a fault in outlaw child porn.

      For starters, the abuse that comes from it, like people that lose their job and whole their social life because somebody planted child porn on their pcs, which isn't really common, but its not unheard off.

      Secondary, children themselves that send pics of them naked to their boyfriend/girlfriend. At the age of 16 or even 14 in many countries they can fuck, but if they send a picture of themselves naked, they are distributing child porn. Its not so much a fault with blocking child porn as their is a fault with the rules made. If you allow sex at 16 but down allow naked pictures of 16 year olds... I mean, legally I could go fuck a 16 year old but I would be a pedophile if I recorded it.

      Oh, and lets bring in our friends the RIAA and MPAA, the free distribution of movies devaluates movies and costs the industry several times the BNP of the world each year. Thus if we allow free distribution of child porn, not for profit, we are effectively devaluating the child porn industry, likely bringing them debts of trillions per year, destroying the whole business. At least, that is if the MPAA and RIAA are correct in their analysis, but aint nobody that doubts that.

    4. Re:and so it begins... by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      But the express subway to hell is bad intentions. Or maybe the rails are the bad intentions...

      I'm bad with analogies and metaphors. My point is that greed, ACTA, big content, that will infringe on your rights much more substantially and more rapidly than this will. Fight both of course, but I hate that saying basically. Seems like many people on the internet view hypocrisy as the worst thing ever, that people on moral crusades like this are the worst of the worst, and the saying fits into that. I always have found the RIAA/MPAA etc much more loathsome than anyone who actually thinks they need to clean up society. Both are scum, but the moral crusaders are usually too deluded to do much damage to my rights.

      Again, both need to be countered of course. Sorry for the tangent.

    5. Re:and so it begins... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed.

      Only cowards use censorship.

    6. Re:and so it begins... by kelemvor4 · · Score: 1

      I could easily find a fault in outlaw child porn.

      For starters, the abuse that comes from it, like people that lose their job and whole their social life because somebody planted child porn on their pcs, which isn't really common, but its not unheard off.

      Secondary, children themselves that send pics of them naked to their boyfriend/girlfriend. At the age of 16 or even 14 in many countries they can fuck, but if they send a picture of themselves naked, they are distributing child porn. Its not so much a fault with blocking child porn as their is a fault with the rules made. If you allow sex at 16 but down allow naked pictures of 16 year olds... I mean, legally I could go fuck a 16 year old but I would be a pedophile if I recorded it.

      Oh, and lets bring in our friends the RIAA and MPAA, the free distribution of movies devaluates movies and costs the industry several times the BNP of the world each year. Thus if we allow free distribution of child porn, not for profit, we are effectively devaluating the child porn industry, likely bringing them debts of trillions per year, destroying the whole business. At least, that is if the MPAA and RIAA are correct in their analysis, but aint nobody that doubts that.

      So tighten up the law that currently allows screwing 14 year old kids. Problem solved, right?

    7. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Which is my first argument. By making it so god damn illegal and being so much against it, its an argument nobody can say anything against unless they are anonymous. As I am. I wouldn't want my username to be linked to defending child porn.

      But if we allow free, not for profit distribution of child porn, we could have some benefits. Of course it has to be entirely not for profit, aka, a site with ads can't have ads on a child porn part, or whatever. Pretty much only things like bittorrent being legal sharing methods. That way, you could reduce the profit margin for child porn, as is an argument for drugs and so on. By making it legal, and especially legal only when its completely without being for profit, you can ensure the profit for making child porn is very low or none.

      I am not arguing we should make MAKING child porn legal, thats bullshit, although the age put on it is somewhat shitty, given I can have sex before having a naked photograph of myself. Making child porn, at certain ages is completely wrong because children, on average do not have the needed understanding to know what the fuck is happening. Child porn that is made however, I would argue, does not further damage a child, once made, its just another picture. There should be some statute of protecting of course, don't want pictures made, illegally, in the past to be brought up again and further damage the child/now adults life.

      That said if also opens up some benefits of research. There is no way you can now research if giving a paedophile child porn will reduce or encourage the chance he does something to children. Maybe having the porn satisfies the needs, maybe having it encourages the needs. If its the latter, that is a very good argument against making child porn legal, and one I would agree with, although if you make the creation of child porn legal, there would be no need to ban the actual child porn. However we can't test these things because its highly illegal and of course very unethical to posses child porn.

      I don't need child porn, nor want it, I like my tits nice and juicy, or maybe not my tits but the ones on the pictures and videos and occasionally real life. But you could certainly, in a real argument argue that child porn isn't necesarely that evil. Of course those arguments will be subject to a slightly modified godwins law, after which the argument is pretty much over. Ain't no arguing with people who will call you paedophiles for every argument.

      This is what leads to the internet and free speech getting locked up, the fact that you can argue any move is needed to protect children, and if you are againt the move, what are you, a child abuser?

    8. Re:and so it begins... by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Well, that's one way. The real problem is the inconsistency.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    9. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Different countries have different rules. I personally don't know enough about the psychology of a child to know at what age it is screw ready.

      I think that 14 years is probably too young, but then again, I am hearing about a lot of kids that are 14 year olds that had sex with OTHER 14 year olds. So legally both of them are raping children.

      IANAP, so what age is right? I don't know. I know I have checked out my first porn before the age of 12, and by the age of 14 I have been checking it out more regularly.

      At what age is a child ready for sexual experimentation? The age for sex is defined by the general population, in the past, 14 was a very acceptable and possibly even late age to marry and have children. In the future, maybe 25 will be an early age. Try reading "A brave new world". Pretty good book and it touches the subject a very little bit, but already enough to make people uncomfortable, as is seen from the book having been banned several times in different places.

      Maybe the worst part about this law would be, how far does it go? If you make violent pornography forbidden, there are a lot of movies out there that have a rape scene, not all of them are bad movies, but they could fall under being forbidden. Its a slippery slope.

    10. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      I really, REALLY hate these cases, because you can't really oppose them without being labelled as a pervert, this is why lawmakers love to bundle their censorship laws with provisions like these.

      Outlaw and block child porn. No one in their right mind can find fault in that. Protect the children, implements blocks to do that. Outlaw animal porn, it is after all filthy, right? Outlaw porn altogether. Outlaw writings about porn. Outlaw religious satire Outlaw religious criticism Outlaw criticism Outlaw free speech.

      All of these have been seen before in various countries, It is a slope lawmakers won't admit, but it is invariably the end result.

      This is one of the benefits of having a written constitution: There is a clear bright line where the censorship stops:
      Outlaw animal porn, it is after all filthy, right?
      Outlaw porn altogether.

      Outlaw writings about porn.
      Outlaw religious satire
      Outlaw religious criticism
      Outlaw criticism
      Outlaw free speech.

      America's First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press - both of which are word media, the significance of which is that word media is necessary to communicate ideas and rational thinking.
      The founders knew about porn - how many naughty sculptures and paintings did they have? And how many colonies had rules about them? Yet when they listed what was protected, they stuck to words.
      Porn movies and pictures aren't words. If you want to argue they should be legal, you can write about them and describe them - that's protected. But if you want make dirty movies then the local society has some say in what may be done based on their standards of decency.
      But of course the benefits of a written constitution can be undone by the arrogance of a supreme court determined to supplant the Constitution and consensual government with the jurists own ideas and values - which is why it has somehow become the case that porn is largely protected "speech" while political speech is regulated - turning the constitution on its head.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    11. Re:and so it begins... by Zumbs · · Score: 1

      The real problem is the inconsistency.

      That, and hormones.

      --
      The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
    12. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      I really, REALLY hate these cases, because you can't really oppose them without being labelled as a pervert

      I feel your pain on this. I think a business owner ought to be able to hire and fire based on whatever stupid reasons she wants without the government dictating those reasons, But of course you can't oppose the government interference without being called a racist.
      I think the owner of an apartment building or a hotel ought be allowed to decide who she is willing to rent her rooms to but I can't really opposed laws restriction such freedoms without being labelled a homophobe.
      I think a anyone ought to be able to decide for themselves whether or not their religious beliefs allow them to financially support procedures like a and vasectomy, but of course to support that right gets me labeled "anti-woman".

      The difficult thing about freedom is that is must always include the freedom to engage in behaviors that cannot be rationally defended and behaviors that society might not approve of. So a consistent defense of freedom must always lead to a defense of behaviors that, on their own, are indefensible but that must be defended for the sake of the greater good.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    13. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The founders knew about porn - how many naughty sculptures and paintings did they have? And how many colonies had rules about them? Yet when they listed what was protected, they stuck to words.

      Actually printing presses did pictures before they did words. Gutenberg's advancement was in "movable type" which let him efficiently print arbitrary text rather than having to do a custom carving for every unique combination of text. Woodcuts and other forms of pressed images predate the movable type press signifigantly, and images were frequently included in printed materials of the time.

      There's nothing about "freedom of the press" that implies words only. Therefore a printed book full of pornography should be protected. It is from there not obvious why digital equivalents should not be afforded the same protection.

    14. Re:and so it begins... by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      I am hearing about a lot of kids that are 14 year olds that had sex with OTHER 14 year olds. So legally both of them are raping children.

      Yes, but they're both minors so the law can't touch them.

      --
      No sig today...
    15. Re:and so it begins... by lgw · · Score: 1

      Age of consent is different in different places (and should be - the demands and responsibility that lead to adult decision making cability come early in some cultures, and late in others), but there's only one internet.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    16. Re:and so it begins... by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Then enforce your rules on your population and leave other countries alone.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    17. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ironically, the interior minister is a vocal Christian with conservative values while the justice minister is from the party which has been traditionally liberal.

    18. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You pervert!

    19. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just traveled back in time from the year 2135 and here's the new bitmap standard:

      "On the top left, there shall be a pixel which is sixty percent red, eighty one point two percent green, and twenty point three seven percent blue. The next pixel shall be..."

    20. Re:and so it begins... by drkim · · Score: 1

      I think a business owner ought to be able to hire and fire based on whatever stupid reasons she wants without the government dictating those reasons, But of course you can't oppose the government interference without being called a racist.

      I think the owner of an apartment building or a hotel ought be allowed to decide who she is willing to rent her rooms to ....

      So, you're cool with, say, every business owner in Mississippi refusing to hire anyone who is black, regardless of qualifications; or every apartment owner in Alabama refusing to rent to anyone who is black?

      You don't think that's racist?

      What do you think 'racist' is?

    21. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 2

      I think that's very racist. And very wrong. And very immoral. And evil. And I would try to avoid patronizing any establishments that so discriminated.

      But "wrong" and "illegal" are not and should not be synonyms.



      The economy wouldn't support the situation you describe. There would be people opening hotels to serve people who otherwise couldn't find a place. There would be money in it after all. And I strongly suspect the segregation that occurred in the American south would not be readily repeated unless it had government support like it had before. We've never had a time in our country the government didn't force racism. I think we should try allowing people to choose not to be racist.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    22. Re:and so it begins... by drkim · · Score: 1

      I think that's very racist. And very wrong... But "wrong" and "illegal" are not and should not be synonyms...

      So, just to be clear, you think it should be completely legal for, say:
      McDonald's' to refuse service to anyone who is black?
      An airline to refuse to carry any black passengers?
      Any private hospital to refuse care to anyone who is black?
      A real estate development to refuse to sell houses to any black family?
      Any private college or school to refuse entry to any child because they are black?
      It's OK for a company to hire a less qualified white applicant over a black applicant?
      It's OK for a company to pay a female employee less than a male employee for the same work?

      I understand you think it's 'wrong,' but you think a black, or hispanic, or jewish, or female refused service at a restaurant, or hospital like this, should have have no legal recourse for being treated this way?

    23. Re: and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also... Blocking child porn does not protect the children. It merely hides the problem.

    24. Re: and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thou shall not. But why'd anyone want to do that? If McDonalds refuse to serve black people, they'll get obliterated by press and people saying they are racist. They'd lose tons of customers. And there would nÅ a free space on rhe market for others to fill. We are not in 19th century anymore you know?

    25. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If there is already an enforced blacklist, the contents of which are secret, then it's not beginning, it's already well underway.

      This is the norm in many nations by the way.

    26. Re:and so it begins... by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      I really, REALLY hate these cases, because you can't really oppose them without being labelled as a pervert, this is why lawmakers love to bundle their censorship laws with provisions like these.

      Don't forget tacking on a hefty pay raise for themselves at the end of the bill.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    27. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 2

      If you're having a backyard barbeque where you're giving away beer to some people, and I walk by and ask for a beer, should I have a legal recourse if you refuse to give me beer?

      McDonald's should be free to choose who they will and will not serve (although the requirement to give free water should still apply regardless of race).
      An airline should be free to refuse carry black passengers.
      A private hospital may be a necessity so they should be required to serve anyone up to the point they are required to do so when people can't afford to pay.
      A real estate developmer should be free to refuse to sell his houses to any black family/
      etc.
      And I think you should, when handing out free beer in your backyard, have the right to decide who you do and do not hand the beer to.
      And if there is money involved when you decide to play poker, you should be free to decide who you will and will not play poker with.
      And when a woman indicates a willingness to have sex, either by previous sexual activity or by provocative behavior, she should still have the right to decide who she will and will not have sex with.



      I do think it would make sense to require restaurants, hotels, etc. that may want to discriminate to clearly say so - a truth in labeling sort of thing. You can't advertise something and then not provide it. Someone advertising hotel services creates a reasonable expectation that a black family can stay there. If they wish to retain the right to refuse service to black people then they should be required to say so prominantly and clearly so that black people won't have their time wasted trying to get a room at a place that won't give them a room. (It would also make boycotting such places easier for other people).

      Again, you shouldn't be able to go running to a lawyer every time someone refuses to do what you want them to.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    28. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 1

      It's OK for a company to hire a less qualified white applicant over a black applicant?
      It's OK for a company to pay a female employee less than a male employee for the same work?

      To quote Jefferson on another subject of freedom, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." The money I might not get paid wasn't mine to begin with, and it still isn't mine. I'm not physically hurt either.

      Besides, I don't want to work for a company that wants to hire less qualified candidates nor do I want to work for a company that pays other people more money for the same work. I'll go work for someone else whose company acts more rationally. Why would you want to work for someone that doesn't want to hire you?

      I'm not saying racism is "OK" in a moral sense. It is wrong and immoral. But so are a lot of other things that are perfectly legal and should remain so.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    29. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, much of the "free world" already doesn't have free speech.

      People go to jail in England for saying mean things about Pakistanis, people go to jail in France for contradicting the official narrative of the Holocaust.

      People go to jail in China for contradicting the official narrative of a variety of things, people go to jail in Thailand for saying mean things about the king.

      It's the same justification in all cases, we must have a harmonious society and all that.

    30. Re:and so it begins... by pantaril · · Score: 2

      The economy wouldn't support the situation you describe. There would be people opening hotels to serve people who otherwise couldn't find a place.

      You realy believe that? Check out how many bars/restaurants did the economy open for black people in the past when it was legal and common to ban them from such premises.

    31. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      That said if also opens up some benefits of research. There is no way you can now research if giving a paedophile child porn will reduce or encourage the chance he does something to children.

      That is like saying that we should make murder legal so that we can study the fascinating psychology of serial killers more easily. Some things are just wrong, and if people choose to do them they should be punished. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter why someone wants to torture and murder people, they just need to be stopped from doing so if possible.

      By making it legal, and especially legal only when its completely without being for profit, you can ensure the profit for making child porn is very low or none.

      People who make and distribute child sexual abuse imagery do not do so primarily for financial reasons. It is (quite rightly in my opinion) a highly risky way of making money.

      Also, I don't see how you can possibly stop people making money from it if is legalised.

      The whole notion of internet freedom is irrelevant in all this. If something is illegal in real life, it is illegal on the internet. If you live in a country where criticising the emperor/party is illegal, then doing so over the internet is illegal too. If it's illegal to possess printed photos of children being raped, it's illegal to have them on your computer.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    32. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Age of consent is different in different places (and should be - the demands and responsibility that lead to adult decision making cability come early in some cultures, and late in others), but there's only one internet.

      There is nothing magical about the internet. If something is illegal in your country/culture, it is illegal over the internet too. If the age of consent is 14 in your country, then porn with 14 year olds shouldn't be illegal anyway. That doesn't mean that if the age of consent in your country is 18, you get a free pass to download porn with 14 year olds just because it's on the internet rather than in a printed magazine.

      The whole thing about it being legal to have sex at 16 but not take naked pictures of yourself at 16 is just a case of stupid, inconsistent laws, it has nothing to do with actual child abuse.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    33. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Then enforce your rules on your population and leave other countries alone.

      Isn't that what Finland are doing?

      They're not saying they want to censor the whole internet, they're just saying that they'll block access to certain sites in Finland.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    34. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I am hearing about a lot of kids that are 14 year olds that had sex with OTHER 14 year olds. So legally both of them are raping children.

      Yes, but they're both minors so the law can't touch them.

      Bullshit. Do you really think that if a 14 year old (say) murdered someone, they would be untouchable by the law? They might not be tried as an adult in an adult court, but there are youth courts and so on.

      In most normal countries if the age of consent was 15 no one would bother prosecuting two normal 14 year olds who had consensual sex , because that is a totally different case from a 30 year old having sex with a 12 year old (or whatever).

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    35. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between believing in vile things and acting them out in real life. You can have fantasies about torturing and mutilating children and animals, that doesn't mean society has to permit you to actually do that so as to avoid impinging on your precious freedom.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    36. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Ah yes, of course the free market will sort everything out. The Invisible Hand, as long as it is untouched by "government" makes everything right by magic.

      Grow up, you libertarian buffoon.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    37. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      To quote Jefferson on another subject of freedom, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

      Was he talking about slavery I wonder?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    38. Re:and so it begins... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      People go to jail in England for saying mean things about Pakistanis

      No they don't, you stupid arsehole. You may go to jail for racist abuse, that's not the same thing as saying "I don't like Pakistanis because of X".

      It's the same justification in all cases, we must have a harmonious society and all that.

      That is one way of characterising an attempt to be civilized.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    39. Re:and so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is like saying that we should make murder legal so that we can study the fascinating psychology of serial killers more easily.

      No, it isn't, and you damn well know it.

      It's like saying that we should make the possession and distribution of *depictions* of murder legal.

      Oh, wait, it already is, in most places.

      You could at least try to be honest when discussing these things, or you'll simply devalue any argument(s) you're trying to make. Actual child porn is horrible, as is any porn where any participant is forced to partake against their will, for that matter. People producing and selling such material should be found, and be put in front of a court, and tried in accordance with the proper set of laws. That's not a point of contention. Do try to keep up.

    40. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 2

      To quote Jefferson on another subject of freedom, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

      Was he talking about slavery I wonder?

      No. He was talking about a freedom

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    41. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 1

      The free market isn't perfect, but 99% of the time it is better than the government at sorting things out. I do believe race relations in the south wouldn't have become so horrible, and would have improved over time, if the government hadn't been interfering by requiring racism.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    42. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 1

      You mean back when schools were required by the government to be segregated? When there were laws banning interracial marriage? When the government used countless ways to keep black and white people apart?

      Of course in such a situation the racism would be common in the private sector too.

      I don't know the precise annswer to your question, but I have heard of the Harlem Renaissance and the blues clubs. Obviously there were some places that catered to black people despite the racism that the government encouraged.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    43. Re:and so it begins... by readin · · Score: 1

      When the creation of child porn requires the participation of children than it should be illegal. It also makes sense to outlaws against distribution of such porn so as to discourage its creation. These aren't limitations on freedom. If your "freedom" requires two people, then both people must consent otherwise one of them is being denied is freedom. And of course children can't consent to porn.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
  2. What are we going to miss out on? by concealment · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So you can't get animal porn and violent porn. Are you missing anything important?

    If anything, this act is pure sanity by defining "free speech" not as any speech, but as political speech, which was most likely the original intent.

    Pornography isn't speech.

    1. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Define animal porn. Will Animal Planet be banned?

    2. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by guruevi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Says who? It's sexual freedom at the very least which is a form of free speech. Having undefined "violent" pornography one could easily find consensual BDSM, rough sex, rape play, homosexuality and other sexual acts which are very normal.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    3. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, You are a pro-censorship anti-others' sexuality asshole. Pornography has been repeatedly ruled as free speech, too, so you're a shitty lawyer on top of that. go die.

    4. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by zixxt · · Score: 0

      Pornography isn't speech.

      The hell it isn't

      What fascist organization do you represent?

      --
      ---- GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    5. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

      well the problem is what happens if you decide to make a semipolitical comic blog featuring a family of Vulpine Anthromorphs??

      Would you land up on the block list if a comic featured a pool scene (with the young daughter in the pool) and the Father had a shovel/rake/bat in his hand??

      but anywho

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

      the text in question is

      "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

      and says NOTHING about political speech

      --
      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    6. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a. Slippery slope. First, it was child porn (and I claim basically noone with a sane mind would disagree that it's _bad_). Now it's animal porn (not in the same league as child porn, though the majority is pretty unlikely to disgree with the block) ... and "violent porn" (yeah, right, we're splat in the middle of citizen rights here because this would match BDSM and othert violent practices between grown-up consenters!).

      b. Generally speaking: Yes, pr0n deserves to be protected. Or rather: the state's got to keep its fingers out of it unless it can prove (!) that it's detrimental (and detrimental above a certain threshold).

    7. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

      but anywho http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_amendment

      This Slashdot submission is about Finland. It's a different country. Different countries have different consitutions. The First Amendment to the US Constitution does not have any legal force in Finland.

    8. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      So you can't get animal porn and violent porn. Are you missing anything important?

      I don't need animal porn on the Internet, I can just observe my cats and dogs in the privacy of my home. As for "violent", well, they bite sometimes.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    9. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fighting for free speech is always hard, because it's offensive speech you always have to defend. A beautiful poem that doesn't offend anyone will never get banned.

      That doesn't mean that free speech shouldn't be fought for.

    10. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Expression should be free, not speech in particular. Speech is a particular form of expression, as is porn. We often use "freedom of speech" to refer to "freedom of expression", so it shouldn't be taken literally - or you can end up with just freedom of speech and not writing, or debating whether ASL is speech or not, etc.

    11. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Define animal porn.

      Female human, Muppet drummer.

    12. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by kh31d4r · · Score: 2

      but anywho http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_amendment

      This Slashdot submission is about Finland. It's a different country. Different countries have different consitutions. The First Amendment to the US Constitution does not have any legal force in Finland.

      This comes as a shock! Time for US to invade Finland?

    13. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      :-) Nice one!

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    14. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by obarthelemy · · Score: 1

      Define pornography then. It's easy to slide from repulsive stuff to weird stuff to kinky stuff to vanilla stuff to any sex stuff to nudity to romance to clothing and social situations.

      IMHO, if it is between consenting adults, it should be allowed to happen, and to be filmed. That does rule out child porn, and I'm not sure about animals (I'm not a fan of that kind of porn, but then, animals probably prefer doing that to going to the slaughterhouse). As for violent porn, what I've seen was very obviously fake and consensual. I'm assuming anything really hurtful would fall in the "non-consensual" category ?

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
    15. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you can't get animal porn and violent porn. Are you missing anything important?

      If anything, this act is pure sanity by defining "free speech" not as any speech, but as political speech, which was most likely the original intent.

      Pornography isn't speech.

      Well, it depends on whether this "you" considers animal porn or violent porn "important". This is his or hers to decide, not yours. I wholeheartedly hate the Twilight franchise, and personally don't think much would be lost by banning it. However, I have enough empathy for lesser minds that I can understand the unjustice of such a ban.

      Speech is communication, and communication is anything and everything. What you are saying is that banning Twilight saga would be OK, since lousy literature is not "political speech", and thus not covered by free speech.

    16. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

      mind giving us the Chapter and Verse for the Finnish version??

      --
      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    17. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by paiute · · Score: 1

      So you can't get animal porn and violent porn. Are you missing anything important?

      If anything, this act is pure sanity by defining "free speech" not as any speech, but as political speech, which was most likely the original intent.

      Pornography isn't speech.

      If the girl is wearing US flag stud earrings, it's political speech. Hell, if she's even thinking about her tax return while blowing the guy, it's political speech.

      Otherwise, who gets to define what is politica,l protected speech and what is not?

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    18. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by TapioNuut · · Score: 5, Informative
      Sites like http://lapsiporno.info/ by Matti Nikki (an older summary in English: http://lapsiporno.info/english-2008-02-15.html ). This guy has been fighting against the censorship and got his site listed on the secret blacklist.

      The law actually says the list is supposed to be used against sites outside Finland. Not sites residing in Finland. And even then this particular site has no child porn on it. And why would you block a local site ineffectively when you can just go and take the server out?

      Remember the censorship and blacklist has been in use for years. Matti Nikki found out that many of the sites are totally within laws and has been compiling a list of them. Curiously, many of the false positives contained gay porn.

      This story is about expanding the censorship, but it's already being used to block other than child porn sites. I'm not quite sure about the situation nowadays but originally there was no way for you to file a complaint about ending up on the list. If I recall correctly, Matti Nikki found out that apparently the police compiling a list does not constitute an official ruling, so there's no way to complain about it.

      You know the major ISPs in Finland already block The Pirate Bay? It's painful for me to say, but the good thing in TPB block is that at least it got done by a court order. One way or another, sites like lapsiporno.info and TPB are going to get blocked. Then there are the online casinos, "extremists" and you know, all the Bad guys(tm)...

      --
      Tapio 'itn' Nuutinen
    19. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by psmears · · Score: 1

      Here's the Finnish constitution, translated into English. I haven't read it all, but it doesn't seem to say a lot about freedom of speech other than in the context of the parliament.

    20. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah I wanted to mod you up so badly...Why did you not post with a username.

    21. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The same happened in Denmark.

      The DNS blacklist was introduced as a "BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!11!" (and with a "it will only be used to block child pornography" reassurance). Fast forward to now, and it's being used to block online-gambling, pharmaceuticals, The Pirate Bay and more. There's no warning, no legal process, the list is secret, the domains are not reviewed, and a leak sometime showed that it contained domains not even covered in the above - it was recently used to block a site for alleged trademark violation.

      At least it's just a DNS blacklist. For now.

    22. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by ultranova · · Score: 1

      So you can't get animal porn and violent porn. Are you missing anything important?

      Presumably animal porn and violent porn are important to people who access them since they do so. Simply disagreeing on the importance of particular material is not justification to deny others access to it, nor is finding it personally distasteful.

      If anything, this act is pure sanity by defining "free speech" not as any speech, but as political speech, which was most likely the original intent.

      Since we have a politician pushing for a law denying access to specific materials, these materials have been politicized, even if they weren't political originally. Anna-Maja just made posting pony porn a political act. I'm sure the various imageboards will be extremely pleased with her.

      Pornography isn't speech.

      Accessing or hosting pornography is communication, and it's dangerous to start excluding forms of communication from being (free) speech, since what's to stop the tyrant from excluding anything he won't want discussed?

      But even ignoring that argument, just why do you think either you or a politician should have any say in what third parties are allowed to communicate to one another? Who are you to judge something important or unimportant on someone else's behalf?

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    23. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's the Finnish constitution, translated into English. I haven't read it all, but it doesn't seem to say a lot about freedom of speech other than in the context of the parliament.

      Section 12 - Freedom of expression and right of access to information
      Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive
      information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone. More detailed provisions on
      the exercise of the freedom of expression are laid down by an Act. Provisions on restrictions relating to pictorial
      programmes that are necessary for the protection of children may be laid down by an Act.
      Documents and recordings in the possession of the authorities are public, unless their publication has for compelling
      reasons been specifically restricted by an Act. Everyone has the right of access to public documents and recordings.

    24. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Section 12: Freedom of expression and rights of access to information
      Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone. More detailed provisions of the freedom of expression are laid down by an Act. Provisions on restrictions relating to pictorial programmes that are necessary of the protection of children may be laid down by an Act.

      Documents and recordings in the possession of the authorities are public, unless their publication as for compelling reasons been specifically restricted by and Act. Everyone has the right of access to public documents and recordings.

    25. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is that expressions that don't come out of your mouth can be political. Oppressive regimes often restrict what a painter can put in his or her paintings, for instance. A buddhist monk setting himself on fire to protest against a regime is making a very strong statement without using words. Even if some form of expression wouldn't be a political statement in a free country in it can easily become one as soon as the regime starts prosecuting people for it. Every expression implicitly carries the opinion that the expression should be allowed. As soon as a government forbids it anyone still expressing himself that way is making a political statement or comes extremely close to making one. Making the distinction requires reading minds, and that we can't. The safe assumption to make is that expression is protected speech, and it should only be limited when the expression results in the violation of other rights, and the importance of those rights should be weighed against each other in such cases.

    26. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Define animal porn.

      Humans are animals. To disagree would mean you don't grasp basic concepts like Plant vs Animal Kingdoms. Do you FUCK? Well, then you're an animal, and a video of humans practice-mating is thus animal porn. Bestiality is interspecies porn... They could have said interspecies porn. Oh, but white folks have Neanderthal DNA, so what then we outlaw the interracial porn too, eh?

      Will Animal Planet be banned?

      Who gives a fuck? You think banning anything actually keeps people from seeing it? Censorship laws are disgusting and ineffectual. They're simply the tools of a police state. The more stuff like this is illegal the more chance they'll find some excuse to throw you in jail if they don't have a legitimate reason, other than wanting you in jail.

      To the folks who don't care if "Child Porn" or "Violent Porn", or "Animal Porn" is criminalized: Any web site you visit the world over could have a 1x1 pixel iframe that points to barnyard or kiddie porn, and your browser will happily download that smut without you ever even knowing it. This shit isn't hypothetical, this is what script kiddies do for fun when they get a XSS or SQL Injection exploit to work -- You don't even have to be going to anywhere in particular to get illegal 1's and 0's on your hard drives now. Why would they do this? Simple: Point out how Fucking Stupid Censorship Laws are to regular folks. Joe Sixpack won't fight back until they feel the boot of oppression at their own throats. Cleaned this crap off a client's Wordpress install just last week, wiped it out of few phpBB install a month before that. They had CP, and Snuff sites in the URLs. I don't condone or participate in such malicious behavior, but I can sure as hell understand their motives.

      Now, go clean your web cache, you donkey molesting, murder masturbating, pedophiles. Don't forget to forensically shred the empty space on your drives to make sure it's really gone -- Got SSD? Bah, you better have already been running with whole drive encryption then. Oh your not a "pervert"? Are you sure that's what your Internet cache will always say? You trust the security of everywhere you go online? Oh sure, it was an "accident", you had no idea how that sort of illegal content got on your system. Then why do the logs show you regularly visited those perverse sites, at times when we know you were the only one at home to do so... Pray the site owners will back you up -- If you can even determine which ones they were in order to contact the sysadmins.

    27. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans are animals. To disagree would mean you don't grasp basic concepts like Plant vs Animal Kingdoms.

      As a person of a scientific mind I agree with you however through various encounters in my life I have learned that in general people differentiate humans from animals from rocks from both a religious and a legal definition. Both of which leads to a common definition. So in the context of biology class people will say humans are mammals and therefore animals, outside of it people will see humans as not animals. And if you think anecdote is an edge case, go ahead and ask google to define human for you, here's what its currently telling me what a human is:

      A human being, esp. a person as distinguished from an animal or (in science fiction) an alien.

    28. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by clarkkent09 · · Score: 1

      I can sort of get banning animal porn as the animal is not able to consent, but I would be interested in hearing why is it ok to kill them but not ok to fuck them? As for "violent" sex, please define it and we can talk. If all the the actors involved are consenting adults then why would you ban it?

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    29. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by readin · · Score: 1

      Not to disagree with you, nor even to suggest that you're a Democrat, but has anyone else noticed that sexual freedom seems to be the only kind of freedom Democrats still believe in?

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    30. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans are animals. To disagree would mean you don't grasp basic concepts like Plant vs Animal Kingdoms.

      Or alternatively, it means you are not using the scientific definition of the word. There is a much older meaning of the word to mean anything in the animal kingdom except humans essentially.

      Plus laws covering non-human animals will explicitly define "animals" to mean non-human animals within the context of that law. It is pretty easy to deal with, as has before. I disagree with the law, but arguing over such definitions won't amount to anything.

    31. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by dywolf · · Score: 1

      And yet most of the european countries, even if they dont say it outright or exactly as we do, have similar legal precedent and culturally accepted mores of similar individual freedoms. Many of those countries apply and their citizens expect rights very similiar if not identical to those Americans do, even if not explicitly spelled out. Our own constitution almost didnt spell them out, but then some folks decided they didnt trust anyone in power to not abuse something not explicitly stated.

      Oh, and, here....Finland Constitution, Section 12:
      Section 12 - Freedom of expression and right of access to information
      "Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive
      information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone. More detailed provisions on
      the exercise of the freedom of expression are laid down by an Act. Provisions on restrictions relating to pictorial
      programmes that are necessary for the protection of children may be laid down by an Act.
      Documents and recordings in the possession of the authorities are public, unless their publication has for compelling
      reasons been specifically restricted by an Act. Everyone has the right of access to public documents and recordings"

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    32. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by treeves · · Score: 1

      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      The country where I want to be,
      Pony trekking or camping,
      Or just watching TV,
      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      It's the country for me.

      You're so near to Russia,
      So far from Japan,
      Quite a long way from Cairo,
      Lots of miles from Vietnam.

      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      The country where I want to be,
      Eating breakfast or dinner,
      Or snack lunch in the hall,
      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      Finland has it all.

      You're so sadly neglected,
      And often ignored,
      A poor second to Belgium,
      When going abroad.

      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      The country where I quite want to be,
      Your mountains so lofty,
      Your treetops so tall,
      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      Finland has it all.

      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      The country where I quite want to be,
      Your mountains so lofty,
      Your treetops so tall,
      Finland, Finland, Finland,
      Finland has it all.

      Finland has it all...

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
    33. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Macgrrl · · Score: 1

      Define violent porn.

      Is it only where someone is being raped?

      What if someone gets slapped?

      What if someone is a bit enthusiastic and bites or scratches someone?

      Where do you draw the line?

      --
      Sara
      Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
    34. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless of course it's in a parked car.

    35. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you ever seen animal porn or been fucked by an animal? They definitely can give consent. In fact try stopping a dog trying to fuck you while he's horny. If anything it's the human being raped by the dog not the other way around. If the dog is going too rough on you and you tell it to stop, it won't. Technically the dog will be raping you. You've got a potentially heavier and stronger dog on your back with teeth, claws, and instinct. You're his bitch until he lets you go.

      Many animals have no problem fighting back when put into situations they don't like. Raping an animal isn't going to work unless you tied it up before hand. Animal bondage isn't a thing.

      Animal porn is much more complex than people make it out to be.

    36. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The exploitation of animals by sex-crazed humans violates the dignity of animals. It is also an offence against the Almighty, who verbosely banned human-on-animal sex. The Old Testament clearly spells it it out: men shall not mount animals, not shall women stand in front of beasts so that they get mounted, because those are acts of abomination, the perpetrators shall die by stoning.

    37. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh no! They're going to ban Fur TV! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL_lEvQ2Q38 (possibly NSFW, depending on how humour-deficient your boss is)

    38. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      LOL someone sounds a bit worried there.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    39. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Define animal porn.

      Humans having sex with non-human animals.

      Will Animal Planet be banned?

      Don't be an idiot.

      Look, if bestiality is illegal in your country, it is logical that animal porn is too. If you think bestiality should be legal, fine, try and convince your politicians to change the law if necessary.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    40. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Says who? It's sexual freedom at the very least which is a form of free speech. Having undefined "violent" pornography one could easily find consensual BDSM, rough sex, rape play, homosexuality and other sexual acts which are very normal.

      Sexual freedom is not absolute, otherwise you would be free to torture, rape and murder someone if you got a sexual thrill out of it.

      All the activities you mention are legal between consenting adults. Children and animals are not capable of informed consent, it's as simple as that.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    41. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by cbope · · Score: 1

      The Soviets tried that twice during WW II, it didn't go too well:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War

      Short version for those who don't want to read the link: The Soviets lost both times, to the tune of well over 1.1 million casualties, compared to ~300k for the Finns.

      It wasn't pretty.

    42. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Fair enough, but I would reiterate that animals can't give informed consent any more than children.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    43. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you actively ridiculing points contrary to your own simply because you lack the arguments to engage in an honest discussion, or what is the reason for you to act like such an ass?

      I suspect it is you who are worried, and that you are now projecting unto others what you are aware of regarding yourself...

      That would certainly explain a few things about your posting style.

    44. Re:What are we going to miss out on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first thing to be censored is always criticism about the censorship.

  3. Article 34 by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Funny

    animal porn

    Watch out, Finnish bronies.

    Päivi Räsänen

    Ok, now that's just umlaut abuse.

    1. Re:Article 34 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No mod points, but you did make me smile, so have some warm fuzzies.

    2. Re:Article 34 by rogueippacket · · Score: 2

      Ok, now that's just ümläüt abuse.

      Please, allow me to abuse yours...

    3. Re:Article 34 by Iskender · · Score: 2

      PÃivi RÃsÃnen

      Ok, now that's just umlaut abuse.

      (okay now Slashdot broke completely normal letters so I have to use weird typing hacks. Thanks for sucking ¥$¥[{, Slashcode!)

      Actually it's just vowel harmony, with a handy explanation including a Venn diagram available here:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish
      The vowels y, a:, o: can't be used together with a, o, u in the same non-compound word.

      Also those dots aren't diacritics: a: and o: are considered letters like any other.

      This post brought to you by the association of unnecessary language explanations.

    4. Re:Article 34 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      okay now Slashdot broke completely normal letters so I have to use weird typing hacks.

      Strange. For me, umlaut letters work quite fine: äöüÄÖÜ. Maybe there's something wrong with your browser?

    5. Re:Article 34 by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Päivi Räsänen

      Ok, now that's just umlaut abuse.

      Your post on the fine Finnish language has made me feel Really Bad, and I think words like "umlaut" should be banned.

      Seriously though, while I think the name of Päivi Räsänen goes well with the word "abuse", there are also sensible people with the same last name. Also, I salute anyone who can make international characters appear on Slashdot.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    6. Re:Article 34 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Päivi Räsänen

      Ok, now that's just umlaut abuse.

      That's not an umlaut, that's a diaresis!

  4. Stupid is as stupid does by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess they never heard of Tor?

  5. Animal porn? by sackbut · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think animals should be able to watch whatever they wish...

    1. Re:Animal porn? by sribe · · Score: 1

      I think animals should be able to watch whatever they wish...

      Especially pandas and hippos ;-)

    2. Re:Animal porn? by sackbut · · Score: 1

      Now that is disgusting!

    3. Re:Animal porn? by Svippy · · Score: 2

      In my freedom loving country, animals are even allowed to do it with humans.

      --
      Clicked pie.
    4. Re:Animal porn? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Think about the fish then! The Manta birostris receives constant rim jobs and whole body anal penetrations from the Naucrates ductor a while after feeding. The fish who swims behind will get quite a show.

  6. This is bull#%& by Blackajack · · Score: 2

    The blocklist is a joke that can be circumvented with a minimal effort, largely consisting of dead sites, legal(mostly gay) porn of various flavors and some real head-scratchers like this: http://lapsiporno.info/
    That is a page that analyzes and critizises the blocklist itself. It's now removed from the blocklist, but only after an arduous court battle. There is also some info in english.

    1. Re:This is bull#%& by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ===The title of this post contained animal pornography, and have been censored.===
      Regards, Finland.

    2. Re:This is bull#%& by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong. It hasn't been removed from the blocklist yet ... the court battle is still going on.

  7. This is false "speech" by concealment · · Score: 1

    Fighting for free speech is always hard, because it's offensive speech you always have to defend.

    I agree in that.

    However, pornography isn't speech. It's an entertainment product.

    If someone were writing books about how we should be able to violently love animals, that would be speech and should be protected.

    That's different from a bunch of people wanting their deviant porn, approval of which would suggest approval of deviancy and thus marginalize those of non-deviant lifestyles.

    1. Re:This is false "speech" by SourceFrog · · Score: 1

      That word "marginalize", I don't think it means what you think it means.

      The core question is whose rights are being violated by the existence of animal porn, that supposedly gives you the right to initiate force against those who view animal porn. Your rights do not get violated by the mere existence of the stuff, and to claim as such is an extraordinary stretch - how are your rights violated - are you unable to go out in public because there are posters of animal porn everywhere? Are you unable to go to work because animal porn posters adorn the walls of every business? I don't think so.

      At best, this is a question of animal rights. There might be an argument that creating animal porn constitutes cruelty to animals, because animals cannot consent in the way humans consent to sex. But that has more to do with the production of the porn than its consumption.

      --
      My other UID is three digits.
    2. Re:This is false "speech" by Reibisch · · Score: 2

      Careful, that arbitrary Crayola is a bitch to get out of clothing.

      Shame that a book can also be an 'entertainment product'. But we don't need to defend those, do we?

    3. Re:This is false "speech" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      approval of which would suggest approval of deviancy and thus marginalize those of non-deviant lifestyles

      Oh, you misunderstand ... you're not required to approve of "deviant lifestyles", just to fuck off an keep it to yourself.

      Or do you feel it's your right to tell everybody else how to live? Because if so, you're a totally FUCKING HYPOCRITICAL ASSHOLE, and all those places where you've said you're not a fascist is bullshit.

      Now go do what every other moralizing asshole does -- go beat on your wife, fondle your children, or otherwise act badly while claiming to be a saint.

    4. Re:This is false "speech" by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      What disingenuous, arbitrary twaddle. Watch this, you might learn something:

      An erotic fictional novel about interspecies intercourse you have said is speech.

      Add illustrations. Not photographs, but graphic artists' renderings of actions described in the novel.

      Reformat it into a comic book ('graphic novel' for all those pretending to be more dignified than consumers of comic books) such that all action is illustrated and all dialogue is still text.

      Use the comic book as a storyboard for an animated movie. Poof, you have a hentai, completely rendered by artists as art, accomplishing all the evil deviancy you disparage, and good luck arguing that isn't speech.

      Making the whole thing live action only introduces the ethical question of whether it's ok for the animals. Considering we can raise them in cages without enough room to turn around and then slaughter them by the scores of scores and consider it ethical, I think it would be ludicrous to pretend that copulating with one is as heinous as it is claimed.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    5. Re:This is false "speech" by np2392 · · Score: 1

      approval of which would suggest approval of deviancy and thus marginalize those of non-deviant lifestyles.

      Ignoring the fact that you can't actually marginalize non-deviants, your statement is incredibly hypocritical. According to you, it's okay to take away people's rights (thus marginalizing them) to do what they want with their lives, because this somehow marginalizes people who are not affected by it at all. If we allow "deviants" the freedom to do what they want with their private lives then "normal" people are somehow marginalized, but if we ACTUALLY marginalize the deviants then it's okay because we're on a moral crusade?

      The solution is to just say fuck it and let people do what they want with their private lives. Do I particularly approve of someone who wants to sit in their basement and masturbate to animal porn all day? No. Does this affect me in any way? Do their actions have any influence on my life? NO! It is their life and their choice to do what they want. Who am I to say what is right and wrong for them to do with their lives?

      In the words of Frank Reynolds from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "Who gives a shit if gays want to be miserable like everybody else and get married? Let 'em do it! It's no skin off my ass!"

    6. Re:This is false "speech" by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      approval of which would suggest approval of deviancy and thus marginalize those of non-deviant lifestyles.

      LOLWUT? Do you discuss porn preferences around the water cooler and shun co-workers who are into weird stuff? You could, but you don't.

      Let's say that we live in your world where most people are closeted furries and BDSM fans just waiting to let everyone know about it once the deviants take over, presumably once a certain number of weird porn vids have been uploaded to the Internet (???). The positions have been switched between the "squares" and the deviants.

      What does this change? In a tolerant first-world society with free speech...nothing.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    7. Re:This is false "speech" by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      At best, this is a question of animal rights. There might be an argument that creating animal porn constitutes cruelty to animals, because animals cannot consent in the way humans consent to sex. But that has more to do with the production of the porn than its consumption.

      It's the production that's the problem, you silly person, just like with child porn. Serious consumers of either need help, IMHO, but the main moral issue is with the fuckbags who make the stuff.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    8. Re:This is false "speech" by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The solution is to just say fuck it and let people do what they want with their private lives. Do I particularly approve of someone who wants to sit in their basement and masturbate to animal porn all day? No. Does this affect me in any way? Do their actions have any influence on my life? NO! It is their life and their choice to do what they want. Who am I to say what is right and wrong for them to do with their lives?

      That isn't a great argument. As a white adult male, I suppose I could say that it wouldn't affect me if the government passed a law calling for the killing of all black female babies.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    9. Re:This is false "speech" by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Let's say that we live in your world where most people are closeted furries

      Then humanity is doomed, and the USA and others should do us all a favour by detonating every H-bomb they have.

      I'm OK with putting paedophiles in jail for a few years, laughing at dog-fuckers and so on, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  8. I figured this would come about by concealment · · Score: 0

    What fascist organization do you represent?

    When you can't win on the merits of your argument, call your opponents fascists, Nazis, racists, elitists, rich, privileged, etc.

    That's the classic ad hominem attack:

    "You shouldn't listen to this guy because he's a fascist!"

    In addition, if you're over 13, it's a pointless and recognizably played out tactic.

    People who argue like that are the people who slow down society and ruin workplaces by consistently opposing any notion of quality control.

    1. Re:I figured this would come about by zixxt · · Score: 0

      What fascist organization do you represent?

      When you can't win on the merits of your argument, call your opponents fascists, Nazis, racists, elitists, rich, privileged, etc.

      That's the classic ad hominem attack:

      "You shouldn't listen to this guy because he's a fascist!"

      In addition, if you're over 13, it's a pointless and recognizably played out tactic.

      People who argue like that are the people who slow down society and ruin workplaces by consistently opposing any notion of quality control.

      U mm okay so you yourself do not deny you're a fascist?

      --
      ---- GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    2. Re:I figured this would come about by ultranova · · Score: 1

      When you can't win on the merits of your argument, call your opponents fascists, Nazis, racists, elitists, rich, privileged, etc.

      That's the classic ad hominem attack:

      "You shouldn't listen to this guy because he's a fascist!"

      Comparisons to various dictatorial ideologies are perfectly valid in a discussion about censorship. After all, controlling what is and is not allowed to be discussed is what allowed totalitarian ideologies to wield sufficient power to perform their atrocities, and the justifications to establish such censorship in the first place are similar to those used by those who want to censor pornography.

      Pointing out that a politician is sounding like a fascist is not an ad hominem, it is a perfectly valid political argument.

      In addition, if you're over 13, it's a pointless and recognizably played out tactic.

      This, on the other hand, is an ad hominem. And one that hints that you are still unsure of your own status as an adult, for why else would you instinctively assume that an unknown audience would assign any importance on whether they're thought to be at least on their mid-teens or not?

      People who argue like that are the people who slow down society and ruin workplaces by consistently opposing any notion of quality control.

      That made no sense whatsoever.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    3. Re:I figured this would come about by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Pointing out that a politician is sounding like a fascist is not an ad hominem, it is a perfectly valid political argument.

      Not really, because "fascist" is used by most people as a vague term of abuse, especially on the internet where "liberal" can mean anything from "classical laissez faire capitalist" to "extreme left wing revolutionary" depending on who's using it.

      Fascism in the proper Franco/Mussolini sense has fairly specific characteristics, e.g. see here for a quickly googled list which looks about right.

      Simply approving of a partial restriction on absolute freedom of speech and action does not make you a fascist, although the slippery slope libertarians would disagree.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  9. Just a moment. by zugmeister · · Score: 2

    Let's think about this. They're looking at expanding an anti-child porn blacklist to include animal porn and "violent" porn. Unless they're referring to young animals or violence against kids, this is no longer a child porn issue. At this point it's just a matter of a block being put in place because the subject matter offends someone using the umbrella of "think of the children". Never seen that one before!

    1. Re:Just a moment. by jgrahn · · Score: 1

      Let's think about this. They're looking at expanding an anti-child porn blacklist to include animal porn and "violent" porn. Unless they're referring to young animals or violence against kids, this is no longer a child porn issue. At this point it's just a matter of a block being put in place because the subject matter offends someone using the umbrella of "think of the children".

      No it's not. They argue that animal porn is animal abuse. (If the discussion goes in Finland like it does in Sweden.) At some point in the past decade, people fucking sheep went from being harmless weirdos to a menace to society ... It's unclear to me how it happened, although the wave of horse mutilation may have something to do with it.

  10. Animal Porn?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this proof of rule 34?

  11. Back to commons ense by concealment · · Score: 1

    well the problem is what happens if you decide to make a semipolitical comic blog featuring a family of Vulpine Anthromorphs??

    This is a drawn comic, right? Like in the Mike Diana case?

    I think the point is that filmed pornography and written/drawn content are quite different and merit different rules.

    I always wondered about the sanity of the jurists who convicted Mike Diana, since his comics were obviously very fringe and not purely for prurient gratification. Same way with the court cases for Ulysses and Naked Lunch

    Those however had something of literary importance to contribute. Porn contributes nothing. It's another product.

    1. Re:Back to commons ense by tragedy · · Score: 1

      So where do you stand with traditional animation? CGI animation? Combination live action and CGI? How about books on tape?

  12. Re:Science time. by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    Indeed. And I find your willingness to arbitrarily define things as "not speech" to be deeply unhealthy. For my children's sake, please go offline immediately.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  13. Of course this makes sense! by fredrated · · Score: 1

    Think of the animals!

    1. Re:Of course this makes sense! by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Oh, we are. Believe me, we are.

      Yum, tasty animals, getting it on.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  14. Well, that's a surprise by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    I thought Finland was one of those "free" countries that we always hear about.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:Well, that's a surprise by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      This is exactly why international control of the internet is so dangerous. At least until the US start doing the same bullcrap (and the DOJ domain seizures are the thin edge of that wedge). The internet really needs to be kept as far from government control as possible, but good luck with that in an increasingly statist society.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  15. Re:Science time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Define healthy behavior.

    Does it include never seeing something "wrong" and thus not know its "wrong"?
    Sure you could explain them that its "wrong" behavior. But we all know that always works great.

    Also, depending on what you believe is wrong behavior, if it includes things that are very much accepted as not wrong by the majority, for example gay porn (depending on the country you are in), you would be quite a hypocrit to tell your children not to watch and do such wrong behavior since the act of telling them its wrong behavior is seen as wrong behavior by a lot of people.

    I personally don't see the problem with animal porn or whatever else on their either. Sure an animal can't really consent in any written or oral form, but if two humans are horny and want to fuck, they can go at it without each side having to totally confirm the other really, really wants to either. I am against abuse of animals in every way, but if you lay down and the dog fucks you, or whatever, I find it hard to believe its abuse. Same with "violent" porn. I am against rape, but its not impossible to think there are two or more people that share a fantasy in which one of the sides may experience a bit of pain. Otherwise we really should start forbidding sports like boxing and so on.

  16. Re:Science time. by Kielistic · · Score: 1

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    Yes, no unhealthy behaviours like homosexuals, mixed races, ugly people, fat people.

  17. Re:Science time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Do you have any science for your definition of "healthy behaviours"? I know that God killed many kittens for my behavior, but my behavior isn't unhealthy: God's reaction is.

  18. Remember when ... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... Finland was seen as the world leader in free and open internet communication? This would be bad news anywhere, but coming from .fi it's particularly sad.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    1. Re:Remember when ... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I doubt that the vst majority of people in Finland care whether or not they can access child or animal porn over the internet, as they've probably never even tried. And the ones that have are breaking the law anyway, so what's the big deal?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    2. Re:Remember when ... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      the big deal is that the censorship list is secret, you can't complain and includes regular random porn sites as well(mostly those actually, it seems).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  19. Re:Science time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    We want people to go experiment elsewhere...

    And if they actually found somewhere else you would insist on trying to enforce your morality on that place too!

  20. Re: Science time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist."

    "We want people to go experiment elsewhere..."

    Idealistic bullshit at its finest. Are you saying you'd prefer that these people went to another planet? Or just that youd prefer them to hide in the deepest darkest hole possible?

    Sorry bud, things dont work that way. Fuckin' yuppie.

  21. Re:Science time. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

    It seems like you've made a political decision here, which is that every behavior should be accepted.

    Not everyone agrees.

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    And here we have a perfect example of someone willing to impose their viewpoints on others while bristling at the thought of others exposing him to things he thinks are "bad". What a hypocritical control freak that doesn't have a clue what he's proposing.

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  22. Well by Murdoch5 · · Score: 1

    I 100% agree with blocking ALL child porn, it's a horribly offensive and wrong media type. However even though I don't take part in Animal or Violence porn they don't fundamentally violate the rights of a non defend-able group. I don't think it's right to block access to something which isn't fundamentally wrong.

    1. Re:Well by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Given the worldwide slave trade, and the large number of those slaves forced to work in the sex industry, are you really entirely sure that the violent and/or animal sex you're watching is completely consensual?

      Censorship sucks donkeys but personally I don't download, watch or buy pornographic films or images. Provenance is just not possible and I'm very much against slavery.

    2. Re:Well by Murdoch5 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, your perfectly correct. I was auto assuming she was referring to "normal" porn aka not slaves forced to have sex porn, I shouldn't of made that assumption!

    3. Re:Well by Cederic · · Score: 1

      She quite possibly wasn't making that distinction.

      My point is that unless I'm present at the filming I can't make that distinction either, so I'm erring on the side of caution.

    4. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I 100% agree with blocking
      The you are already brainwashed. The illegal sites should be taken down, site admins jailed, everybody related investigated. Blacklist are as good in fighting child abuse as completely ignoring the problem.

    5. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After a friend got caught in some prank on a TV show, and another got an interview edited to change what he said and was lied about it us, I can't be certain any person on filmed media was fully aware and consensual of the use of their image. So I try to error on the side of caution, and refuse to watch any form of TV or movies, or even Youtube.

    6. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "... Animal or Violence porn they don't fundamentally violate the rights of a non defend-able group."

      Animal porn does.

    7. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It must be exhausting being completely informed about every single good you consume all day. Pretty much everything from China is off the table!

    8. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As much as I applaud your commitment, do you not buy clothes and sneakers in case child labor was used in its manufacture? I'm not trying to be a dick here, I am seriously curious. Where do you draw the line?

  23. Enforced only by larget ISPs by puhuri · · Score: 3, Informative

    The child porn blocking is enforced only on DNS servers. It is not mandatory, so ISP may opt not to block traffic. And of course you can run your own name servers (provided your ISP does not block port 53) even if your ISP blocks child porn.

    I would assume in "circles" it is known how to circumvent this blocking. And I guess many will use TOR or some VPN to hide their tracks. DNS-level blocking just makes it more difficult to police to pick the "easy ones" who would not use any hiding techniques if everything would just work by default.

    And DNSSEC breaks with DNS blocking, as designed.

  24. Hypocrite. by concealment · · Score: 1, Troll

    And here we have a perfect example of someone willing to impose their viewpoints on others while bristling at the thought of others exposing him to things he thinks are "bad".

    Isn't that what you're doing to me?

    "Accept animal sex, or you're a fascist!"

    You're joking, right? or are you 13?

    1. Re:Hypocrite. by Antipater · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I see this argument a lot in gay marriage debates, and it's always baffled me. It's about the definition of "impose".

      I've never quite understood how you can say "Allowing (x) to happen imposes your viewpoint on me". If you have a viewpoint, that's your viewpoint. You're free to judge people who do (x). You don't have to do (x). Meanwhile, you're perfectly willing to see a law stating "You cannot do (x). (x) is now illegal." All the people who want to do (x) must now conform to your viewpoint or be criminals.

      How is "You may do this, or may not, depending on your choice," more imposing than "You may not do this"? How in the world is freedom more imposing than restriction?

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    2. Re:Hypocrite. by Spectre · · Score: 1

      I see this argument a lot in gay marriage debates, and it's always baffled me. It's about the definition of "impose".

      I've never quite understood how you can say "Allowing (x) to happen imposes your viewpoint on me". If you have a viewpoint, that's your viewpoint. You're free to judge people who do (x). You don't have to do (x). Meanwhile, you're perfectly willing to see a law stating "You cannot do (x). (x) is now illegal." All the people who want to do (x) must now conform to your viewpoint or be criminals.

      How is "You may do this, or may not, depending on your choice," more imposing than "You may not do this"? How in the world is freedom more imposing than restriction?

      +1, Insightful

      Restricting others from doing things you don't approve of, actively anti-freedom.

      Allowing others to do things you don't want to do yourself, do not accept as moral/proper/right, is being a passive advocate for freedom.

      Fighting for the rights of others to do things you don't approve of is being an active advocate for freedom. < People that do this deserve extra kudos!

      --
      "Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
    3. Re:Hypocrite. by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      Oh look, a straw man. Couldn't find something to argue against, so had to make something up.

      In case you're lost, please point to where your quote comes from. Secondly, please coordinate your responses with respect to the generally defended standard of acts between consenting adults in a private room.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    4. Re:Hypocrite. by X0563511 · · Score: 2

      "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." comes to mind!

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    5. Re:Hypocrite. by readin · · Score: 1

      The problem of "imposing homosexuality" comes when people lose their right to disapprove of it and to show that disapproval by refusing to extend the same benefits to people whose behavior they disapprove of as they do to people whose behavior they find acceptable.

      Think hiring and firing, subletting an apartment, selecting members and leaders of your organization,

      I figured out as a kid back in the 1980s that outlawing sodomy was stupid and unfair. But it is also unfair to tell someone that if they are going to hire someone to watch their adolescent boys out in the woods that they can't take that person's sexual preferences into account. It is even wrong to tell someone who is renting out an apartment what criteria they may or may not use in selecting a renter.

      A few months ago a lot of people were boycotting Chic-fil-a because it had donated some money to a campaign that indicated a displeasure with homosexuality. That is fine, let anyone who wants to boycott any organization whose behavior they find immoral. But by that same token Chic-fil-a, or any organization or person that finds homosexuality immoral, should have the right to boycott homosexuals. It should take two to tango. If either person chooses not to tango, then there should be no tango. One person should not be allowed to force the other.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    6. Re:Hypocrite. by Antipater · · Score: 1

      A landlord is not allowed to turn down someone because they're black. However, they are allowed to turn down someone because they're a registered sex offender. This is because a person's criminal history makes a statement about how they will affect the society around them, whereas their race does not. Does homosexuality have a detrimental effect on the surrounding society? That should be the debate! Note that I'm not taking one side or another in that debate - I'm simply saying that "I disapprove" is not enough. Your disapproval doesn't give you the right to deny their rights. You have to show objective harm.

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    7. Re:Hypocrite. by readin · · Score: 1

      We're not talking about the society around them, we're talking about the landlord's property that the landlord paid for with his own hard work. He bought it, he paid for it, it's his to do with as he likes whether he wants to share with everyone, no one, or just some people that he selects based on his own criteria be it logical or stupid.

      The landlord does not "deny their rights" unless there is some right for anyone to go use anyone else's property without their permission.

      Does (x) have a detrimental effect on the surrounding society? No. Refusing to rent an apartment to someone you disapprove of does not prevent that person from renting an apartment unless the landlord has a monopoly (and if he does then anti-trust laws and regulations can kick in and we discuss that situation).

      I will say that as a slashdotter I find your theory has some value. Let's see, I want to have sex with a young lady I met. Will my having sex with her have a detrimental effect on surrounding society? Is she willing to have sex? Well, if she's willing to have sex and my having sex with her won't have a detrimental effect on surrounding society, then I don't think she should have a right to refuse me just because she doesn't like the way I look, or just because she doesn't like that I don't have a lot of money, or just because she doesn't like that I don't buy her expensive gifts. These traits don't have a detrimental effect on surrounding society, and that, after all, is the the debate we should be having. This nonsense about the freedom to do what with our own body and your own stuff is a just an attempt to hide bigotry.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    8. Re:Hypocrite. by Antipater · · Score: 1

      Refusing to rent an apartment to someone you disapprove of does not prevent that person from renting an apartment unless the landlord has a monopoly (and if he does then anti-trust laws and regulations can kick in and we discuss that situation).

      It does if every landlord around you shares your beliefs as well. If landlords could do that, no black person would ever be able to rent a nice apartment in Mobile.

      However, your point about the young lady is well taken, and I should clarify that personal relationships are legally very different from business relationships. IANAL. But I believe that when money changes hands (or is proposed to change hands) between the two parties, it fundamentally alters the legal framework regarding turning someone down. Perhaps someone legally trained could clear that up. In addition, you may have found an interesting legal hurdle regarding the perennial proposals to legalize prostitution.

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    9. Re:Hypocrite. by readin · · Score: 1

      Refusing to rent an apartment to someone you disapprove of does not prevent that person from renting an apartment unless the landlord has a monopoly (and if he does then anti-trust laws and regulations can kick in and we discuss that situation).

      It does if every landlord around you shares your beliefs as well. If landlords could do that, no black person would ever be able to rent a nice apartment in Mobile.

      I disagree. First, the culture isn't that racist anymore. Second, when it was that racist it had the government promoting racism. Third, there is money to be made renting nice apartments to people that no one else will rent to.

      However, your point about the young lady is well taken, and I should clarify that personal relationships are legally very different from business relationships. IANAL.

      So if you're choosing someone to work beside you day in and day out, to share your dreams and aspirations as you build your business, to trust with all your hard work and to share your success or failure 10 hours a day 6 days a week - its not personal so the government gets to decide.

      But if it is just a 15 minute fling then the government has to stay out? Don't your values seem a little illogical? And who gives you the right to impose your values on everyone else???

      But I believe that when money changes hands (or is proposed to change hands) between the two parties, it fundamentally alters the legal framework regarding turning someone down. Perhaps someone legally trained could clear that up. In addition, you may have found an interesting legal hurdle regarding the perennial proposals to legalize prostitution.

      You're likely right about the law as it is written, but the law as it is written sucks. People should have freedom running their own business and not just when the government decides to give it to them.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    10. Re:Hypocrite. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate how everyone is always so disingenuous about this issue.

      Some people want the institution of marriage to be changed to include gay marriage. Others don't.

      Yes, it is an imposition to change the ancient and venerable institution of marriage. Doesn't make it a bad idea.

    11. Re:Hypocrite. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." comes to mind!

      There is a difference between saying something and acting on it. The problem with child abuse imagery is that it is a record of an actual crime, i.e. the rape of a child. It's gone way beyond free speech.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    12. Re:Hypocrite. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I figured out as a kid back in the 1980s that outlawing sodomy was stupid and unfair. But it is also unfair to tell someone that if they are going to hire someone to watch their adolescent boys out in the woods that they can't take that person's sexual preferences into account.

      You have, perhaps inadvertently, shown up the problem with "freedom".

      Your freedom to decide that a gay man is potentially a predatory paedophile and therefore can't be a Scout leader directly affects his freedom . It stops him from pursuing his interest in helping young people. If you extend it to teaching (which you could if there was no law against it) it would potentially stop him from earning a living at the thing he does best.

      If you can't see the difference between "convicted paedophile who shouldn't be left alone near children" and "gay man I disapprove of" you're being obtuse.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    13. Re:Hypocrite. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      It does if every landlord around you shares your beliefs as well. If landlords could do that, no black person would ever be able to rent a nice apartment in Mobile.

      I disagree. First, the culture isn't that racist anymore. Second, when it was that racist it had the government promoting racism. Third, there is money to be made renting nice apartments to people that no one else will rent to.

      First, t's not as racist anymore largely because it's illegal to be blatantly discriminatory in many areas. Second, what the fuck are you talking about? Do you mean that trying to level the playing field was unfair on all those poor white people? Third, if society was allowed to be blatantly racist, people in nice areas would be forced by social pressure to be racist too.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    14. Re:Hypocrite. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you arguing that we should outlaw recording a crime?

    15. Re:Hypocrite. by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Fair and true. Where it gets murky is... was it illegal or considered wrong where it was recorded?

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    16. Re:Hypocrite. by readin · · Score: 1

      I figured out as a kid back in the 1980s that outlawing sodomy was stupid and unfair. But it is also unfair to tell someone that if they are going to hire someone to watch their adolescent boys out in the woods that they can't take that person's sexual preferences into account.

      You have, perhaps inadvertently, shown up the problem with "freedom".

      Your freedom to decide that a gay man is potentially a predatory paedophile and therefore can't be a Scout leader directly affects his freedom . It stops him from pursuing his interest in helping young people. If you extend it to teaching (which you could if there was no law against it) it would potentially stop him from earning a living at the thing he does best.

      If you can't see the difference between "convicted paedophile who shouldn't be left alone near children" and "gay man I disapprove of" you're being obtuse.

      I have no right to decide that a gay man can't be a scout leader. I do have a right to decide that he can't be a scout leader for my kids. And if I run a scoiuting organization I have a right to decide whether he will be a scout leader for that organization. But I don't have the right to decide whether he will be a leader for someone else unless of course that person has entrusted with that decision making (e.g. by electting me leader of their organization).

      It is very simple. Your freedom to tango is restricted only by your ability to find a willing partner. This is necessary because potential partners have a right to choose not to tango. And if they choose to tango, they have as much right to choose their partner as you do.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    17. Re:Hypocrite. by readin · · Score: 1

      There is a possibility that you are correct, that if we stop regulating which kinds of racism are required and which are forbidden that people would return to the racist ways of the past. However American history suggests that when the state takes no official position on racism it tends to go away over time. New Orleans, according to what I've heard, used to be very integrated before the state started imposing segregation laws. There used to be a lo of discrimination against Irish and Italians, but it reduced over time without government help. The most enduring racism occurred when it was required by law. Racism is still required by law but in different ways. The new racist laws have been less harmful than the old racist laws, but they still prevent the kind of trust and sense of fairness that is required for racism to go away. I'm not sure I understand your question about poor white people.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
  25. I support discrimination against the obese by concealment · · Score: 0

    fat people

    I don't think obesity is normal or should be encouraged.

    The rest of your ad hominem attacks were ignored, since we're adults here.

    1. Re:I support discrimination against the obese by plus_M · · Score: 1

      I don't think that Kielistic was trying to imply that you believe that homosexuality, mixed-race relations, etc are unhealthy or bad. S/he was pointing out that if you asked 10 different people what behaviour is unhealthy and should be banned, you would get 10 different answers. Who are you to decide that X should be banned, but Y should be allowed? Moreover, who are you to judge people who are considered by society's standards to be overweight?

    2. Re:I support discrimination against the obese by Soluzar · · Score: 1

      There was nothing in that post that can be described as an "ad hominem" attack, or even as an attack of any kind. As for obesity being 'normal', I suggest you take a look around you. The word 'normal' doesn't mean "they way we want things to be", it means "the way things are".

  26. Freedom of speech in the Finnish constitution by grimJester · · Score: 4, Informative

    Section 12 - Freedom of expression and right of access to information

    Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone. More detailed provisions on the exercise of the freedom of expression are laid down by an Act. Provisions on restrictions relating to pictorial programmes that are necessary for the protection of children may be laid down by an Act.

    Documents and recordings in the possession of the authorities are public, unless their publication has for compelling reasons been specifically restricted by an Act. Everyone has the right of access to public documents and recordings.

    1. Re:Freedom of speech in the Finnish constitution by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      So, in other words, "Your freedom of expression is absolute, except in those cases where the government deems it necessary to restrict it in order to protect children (necessary and protect being defined by the government)."

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    2. Re:Freedom of speech in the Finnish constitution by grimJester · · Score: 1

      In practice it's about restrictions on at what time of day you can show TV programs that have age limits. Dunno how widely it's possible to interpret.

    3. Re:Freedom of speech in the Finnish constitution by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      So, in other words, "Your freedom of expression is absolute, except in those cases where the government deems it necessary to restrict it in order to protect children (necessary and protect being defined by the government)."

      There are no absolute freedoms in real life. The US does not have absolute freedom of speech, it is just a lot freer than most other countries, and that brings with it its own problems (e.g. Westboro Baptists).

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    4. Re:Freedom of speech in the Finnish constitution by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      The difference being that in the U.S. the government has to justify going against the clear wording of the Constitution in order to limit speech: "Congress shall make no law ...abridging the freedom of speech,..." There is no clause in there saying, "except in those cases where the government deems it necessary..." One can certainly argue about the way that the Constitution is applied, but the wording leaves no wiggle room. Actually, I would argue that the people of the U.S. have decided that they no longer care about the Constitution, they want a government that "gets things done" and have election after election voted for people who are willing to bend the Constitution until we have reached the point where the President can do what he likes as long as those responsible for following his instructions are willing to go along with it. For example, our current President has offered waivers to legal requirements that there is no legal basis for providing waivers to. He has stated that he is not going to enforce certain laws that he does not like. He has promised companies that the government will pay the penalties for not complying with certain laws where their compliance would have been politically detrimental to him. He has ordered people to pay for services that are a violation of their religious beliefs. Understand that these examples are merely to show that we have arrived at the point where the President no longer feels bound to give anything more than the most transparent lip service to the Constitution, not an indictment of this particular President. We got to this point bit by bit. This President's predecessor signed a law that he felt was unconstitutional because he felt it was politically necessary, stating at the time that he expected the Supreme Court to overturn the law.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  27. Re:Science time. by burni2 · · Score: 1

    Actually I would call you being very close to Taliban and well the Taliban are a control group. (also the iranian revolutionary guards are!)

    If you want to have no unhealthy behaviour you actually need to extingush all unhealthy behaviour or what you define it as.

    And when it comes to death penalty, most pro-lifers become very con-life.

    And the funny thing is you actually speak "NAZI" language, and perhaps you have been acused of being a facist more often (judging by your post history)- but wrongly a facist is the inbetween of oligarchy and government - however you expressions are discriminating - HOWEVER you are free to do so thanks to FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

    HOWEVER we - the liberal anti control group - use our freedom of speech to show you the darkness and evil which lies in your soft toned words.

  28. Obviously ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    Any law like this, no matter how well intentioned, becomes used for something else and gets expanded.

    Who wouldn't object to child porn being blocked? Who wouldn't object to violent porn being blocked? Who wouldn't object to animal porn being blocked? Who wouldn't object to gay porn being blocked? Who wouldn't object to all porn being blocked?

    These things seem to pretty much always go through scope creep in the worst possible way.

    It becomes the morality clause.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Obviously ... by treeves · · Score: 1

      These murder laws! Just a slippery slope I tell you. Next thing, they'll say it's unlawful to kill a lobster, then to kill a cockroach! We'll be infested with teeming vermin, unable to do anything, lest we be hauled off to jail, or given a death sentence!

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  29. Movie ratings by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    In older times, movies were subject to censorship.

    The history is long and involved, a struggle between powerful parties, but the long-and-short of it was that many state and local "censorship boards" would cut movie scenes which were below the community moral standards.

    Predictably, this led to inconsistent views applied across wide geographic areas - censors bragging about how they had cut "the kiss" from "Gone With The Wind", and so on. ("You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.")

    The end result was a mess. No two areas saw the same movie, artists complained bitterly about the integrity of their vision, movie makers were discouraged from breaking new ground and so on.

    Around the 1960s the movie industry adopted a saner approach: allow any movie to be made, and assign content ratings so that people know what to expect.

    That put the decision of "what to see" in the hands of the individual viewer - it neatly sidesteps the conflicting viewpoints of community standards. Everyone gets the freedom to make their own decisions, there is no need for centralized control. Community standards are what the community chooses to see.

    ===================

    Perhaps we should adopt a ratings standard for pornography. With computers and the internet, a ratings system should be straightforward; for example, with four levels of explicit and some attached categories for style.

    The porn industry might welcome such a standard: it would help their customers better navigate the topics, and reduce accidental outrage. It would present a framework for automated control at a personal level; ie - parents can set the computer to prevent displaying sites/movies with certain ratings to the kids.

    The only debate would be in assigning (and enforcing) the ratings.

    With a clearly defined set of descriptions, that's a much simpler task than censoring the internet.

    1. Re:Movie ratings by misexistentialist · · Score: 2

      Movies are still censored, because ratings are censorship. They aren't there to help audiences make informed choices, they are there to prevent audiences from seeing content. You can't make any movie you want, because it won't be advertised or shown unless it follows the guidelines. Scandinavia has degenerated into feminist extremism, and the goal is to prevent men from seeing sexual content as a way of controlling their thoughts and behavior. A ratings system that constrained the availability of porn to unshaven chubby lesbian soft-core might be implemented, but it wouldn't be about giving viewers choice.

    2. Re:Movie ratings by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      I'll just leave this here.

      Pray I don't make you rate more.

  30. huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Animal porn is totally legal in Finland. Also, Päivi Räsänen is from the Christian party. I'm surprised she's against this..

  31. Re:Science time. by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    It seems like you've made a political decision here, which is that every behavior should be accepted.

    And you've made a political decision by saying it's up to you to decide what should be accepted.

    Not everyone agrees.

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    Some of us don't give a crap about your kids -- we don't wish them harm, but the existence of your children should not be a short cut to abridging the rest of our rights. Raise your children however you like, but you don't get a vote on how the rest of us live our lives.

    And if you're so deluded to believe that you will ever exist in a world where only healthy behavior exist ... you're a little out of touch with reality.

    We want people to go experiment elsewhere, and face the consequences of their experiments without dragging us down with them.

    Yes, it's called their own homes and lives, and you can mind your own damned business. Nobody is asking you to participate in any of this stuff ... but if you think it's your right to tell others what they can and can't do, you're mistaken.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  32. Bad Intentions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is why when you see ostensible "good intentions" which can be reliably predicted to definitely result in bad things, you shouldn't call them "good intentions."

    Child porn blocking is bad intentioned. Saying that doesn't mean you're pro-CP; it means that, because you're not a total clueless fucking moron, you know it will be used for things other than blocking child porn. Similarly, whoever proposes it, since he knows that it's not just going to block child porn, is outed as an asshole deserving the same level of scorn as -- you guessed it -- child porn makers.

    It's up to you and me to follow up on pointing out that deserved scorn. When someone in government thinks of censorship, we need to set the conditions so that if they come out in public and say that, or introduce a bill along those lines, they should know in advance that they'll be doing the equivalent of publishing a press release "I like to suck kiddie dick."

    If censorship isn't yet seen as equivalent to pedophilia, then we're not all doing our jobs.

  33. Re:Science time. by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    /signed another parent

    I've seen suppression and repression backfire over and over again, including with regard to my own parents' handling of me. When you make something as basic and integral as human sexuality a secret, taboo thing, it drives anybody with initiative and intelligence straight into it. I took it as a personal insult that fundamental knowledge was being hidden from me, so around the age of 10 I started a clandestine campaign to learn everything I could on sexuality. I was reading sexual self-help books in public libraries (this was before the internet was common) before puberty, riding my bike to convenience stores to scope out the smut mags, etc. Not because of peers, or "the sexualized media" or any of the bullshit moralists decry, but because of my parents' own apparent disrespect for me. I wouldn't stand for it, and, as an adult and parent now, I can realize that it was an unhealthy way for me to have explored human sexuality, alone and indignant.

    If a child is old enough to ask an honest question, they are old enough for an honest answer. That has been the lesson I learned from my parents' mistakes, and the philosophy I've lived by as a parent myself. The goal of parenthood is to make children as responsible as possible as quickly as they are up to the task. Children must know in order to understand, and understanding is the only way they can build a framework to live in the real world responsibly and safely. Prohibition and proscription DO NOT WORK. Each person, and children *are* people, must develop in themselves informed reasons as to why certain behaviors are not healthy for them. They cannot be made proxies for the mores and tastes of others by rote indoctrination, at least, not for long. Doing that sort of thing is like coiling a spring, and as soon as they break out on their own, all of that is very likely to explode, and some don't actually survive the experience.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  34. Re:Science time. by TFAFalcon · · Score: 1

    And how do you define 'healthy'? Wanting to exile everyone different from you seems pretty unhealthy to me.

  35. Re:Science time. by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 2

    Do you have some science for that?

    No, but enough anecdotes to be confident of the outcome of any study that would look into this. The exception would be homosexuality, which has been widely studied and found to be very normal - both in external behavior, as well as frequency across time, religions, social structures, genders and even species.

    It seems like you've made a political decision here, which is that every behavior should be accepted.

    No, the decision here is that behavior which has no visible impact on society at large should be accepted, and not be subject to random moral and religious whims.

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    Define healthy. Now compare and contrast that definition with the one from 10, 20, 30, 40, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 years ago. Considering we're still around, I'm pretty sure that your definition of "healthy" is irrelevant to the advancement of mankind and society. Finally, you want your kid to grow up surrounded by only healthy behavior? I suggest you kill off every other human being, because that's the only way your vision is going to come to pass.

    We want people to go experiment elsewhere, and face the consequences of their experiments without dragging us down with them.

    Sweet! That's what we all want. Oh, you mean that "elsewhere" does not include the privacy of ones bedroom? Or consensual acts between adults?

    Wow, so you're actually not at all saying that you're ok with people experimenting elsewhere. You actually want to control what people do. Here's a thought (and keep in mind you're a significant minority regarding your particular definition of "healthy"): move to an island somewhere, and be a control group there. Leave the rest of us to live our lives, and stop butting into consensual acts taking place between adults in a place you have no access to.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  36. Re:Science time. by jockm · · Score: 1

    Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    If I may quote you: Do you have some science for that? Do you have science to show that homosexuality isn't a healthy behavior? Or that rough sex isn't? Or anything else on that list isn't? Because we have had a lot of research over the last decades to show that so called "deviancy" isn't unhealthy. It doesn't lead to social ills.

    I think you protest too much...

    --

    What do you know I wrote a novel
  37. Already illegal, just not blocked by grimJester · · Score: 2

    Animal porn and violent porn are already illegal in Finland. Violent porn is obviously not completely undefined but it may be a bit unclear. I found a blog in Finnish with some references to clarifications. Violent porn that is "playful" or shows explicit consent is legal.

    1. Re:Already illegal, just not blocked by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Animal porn and violent porn are already illegal in Finland.

      No doubt they're perfectly legal, like child pornography, everywhere in the US, that bastion of absolute freedom, so all the Americans here can laugh at "Europe" being like Orwell's 1984.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  38. Finland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Back in the time when the internet censorship was first proposed in Finland, the governing parties used their power on biggest finnish medias, turning the "protest against censorship" into a "gathering of child porn proposers".

    The censorship system got implemented and watching child porn remained legal.

    Perhaps banning it would have disturbed the hobbies of the powerful ones.

  39. Acted in one by Frankie70 · · Score: 1

    May be she has acted in one of them and doesn't want the others to see it.

  40. Wikileaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks show USA interests working in Finland elections. The party currently in power was the one they favored. Of course, I'm not hedging any bets on how much influence those efforts ultimately had here, but it might make one think.

  41. It's not arbitrary. by concealment · · Score: 1

    S/he was pointing out that if you asked 10 different people what behaviour is unhealthy and should be banned, you would get 10 different answers. Who are you to decide that X should be banned, but Y should be allowed? Moreover, who are you to judge people who are considered by society's standards to be overweight?

    What a trivial and obvious "point," which defaults to an argument that health standards are arbitrary.

    I contend they are not, especially in the case of obesity.

    Even rudimentary data collection, doctors' experience, and so on, show us that obesity leads to health problems.

    It's not an arbitrary choice.

    The same is true of many other factors.

    Claiming that reality is subjective is the oldest fallacy in human experience!

    1. Re:It's not arbitrary. by plus_M · · Score: 1
      I am not claiming that reality is subjective. I am claiming that the fact that there is not a consensus as to what behaviour is considered acceptable is evidence that no one person can believably claim to have a privileged view as to what *is* correct. Reality is clearly not subjective, but ones interpretation of reality is, by definition. So, while you claim that certain behaviours are not healthy or acceptable, it ultimately comes down to being able to prove that the actions you are condoning (namely, prohibition of certain online content such as bestiality and violent pornography, as well as social stigmatization of obesity) will have a positive effect on society. And it is at this point that it comes down to what one values more, the sanctity of freedom of expression, or the need to preserve your personal sense of "morality" or "wholesomeness". Ultimately, YOU are the one who is pushing your personal and arbitrary standards on others by encouraging legislation that outlaws certain types of information.

      With regards to obesity, you point out that it is a scientific fact that obesity leads to health problems. That is all well and good, but my point was that who are *you* to *judge* others for their life choices? Smoking is also extremely unhealthy, but I don't go around pointing fingers at and chastising people for choosing to smoke. It is not your place to tell people what they should and should not do with their own body. Yes, people should be made aware of the consequences of their choices, but discriminating against them for making life choices that you find unsavoury is not acceptable.

    2. Re:It's not arbitrary. by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Fine then, remove obesity from the list. Now we're down to homosexuality, ugliness, and mixed-race.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    3. Re:It's not arbitrary. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Research has pretty clearly shown that extended computer use leads to various health problems. I hope you happen to use a standing desk, and are actually only here for a minute around your post times. If not, you could be setting an unhealthy example for kids and should not be allowed to post here more than once a day.

  42. Re:Science time. by corbettw · · Score: 1

    > Some of us want our kids to grow up in a world where only healthy behaviors exist.

    What's unhealthy about homosexuality or BDSM? And why do you get to define what "healthy" and "unhealthy" are when it comes to sexual expression? Maybe I think your prudishness is more a threat to my children's well being than seeing a man have sex with another man, should I be able to censor your views?

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  43. What about murders? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about videos of murders or other non-sexual violence? After all, it's all crimes and if you're going to ban videos of crimes shouldn't you ban them all? Also, should the penalty for having a video of the crime be proportional to the crime?

    What if somebody is illegally parked in the video? Should I get a ticket? Now bear with me here... If I have a picture of somebody cheating on their taxes while holding the camera and they point it at a mirror so that you get recursive images, how many fines should I pay? Maybe it should be based on the series that sums the pixel area of the images.

    Anyway, I hope they move fast on this. I'm sick and tired of feeling like it's OK to present evidence of some crimes to the police, but not to present evidence of others because the evidence itself is a crime. Let's cut to the chase and make all cooperation with the authorities dangerous.

  44. Christian Democrat defends pornography! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Semi-interesting anecdote on this case is that Minister of Interior Päivi Räsänen is head of local Christian Democrats, the only Finnish parliamentary party consistently basing itself on religious values (and in the case of her, not the most liberal kind). Yet, she has been one of the strongest proponents of freedom of speech in the current government, even when it comes to things such as pornography, which may seem rather surprising.

    My personal suspicions for the sudden interest in expanding coverage of this utterly dysfunctional child pornography blocking by Henriksson and her bureaucrat pals are that the primary point is expansion of coverage, not what would be blocked. Next on line are challengers to local gambling alcohol and gambling monopolies. Action to censor P2P search engines is already strong, although it has this far gone through somewhat more stringent process. For Henriksson, the prime goal is probably reduction of political freedom of speech - there are many topics they would rather like not to be spoken of anonymously among regular citizens. But yes, that's long way off.

  45. Re:Science time. by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

    "If you want to have no unhealthy behaviour you actually need to extingush all unhealthy behaviour or what you define it as.

    And when it comes to death penalty, most pro-lifers become very con-life."

    its very simple

    1 Existing is not a Capital Crime
    2 And Shepherds We Shall Be: for some things you do you do not need to continue existing

    (see The BoonDock Saints Courtroom speech for a discussion on this matter)

    --
    Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
  46. Any condition is an imposition in effect. by concealment · · Score: 0

    I've never quite understood how you can say "Allowing (x) to happen imposes your viewpoint on me".

    It's a good day to extend that thinking.

    Allowing (x) to happen does several things:

    1. Signals social approval of (x)
    2. Increases the frequency of (x) as a result
    3. Creates social consequences of (x)
    4. Disallows a society where (x) is not present

    Let's look at these one by one.

    First, your society is signaling to its own member that (x) is not just accepted behavior, but thus is recommended behavior. If we legalize eating raw octopus, we have said nothing is wrong with it; that puts it, in the binary of behaviors described by government, in the "approved" category by not being in the "disapproved category."

    Second, that means more people are going to do it

    Third, this means that all of us are going to experience the social consequences of it. We are all subsidizing it, in effect, even if we disagree with it.

    Fourth, you have eliminated my ability to have the society I want, which doesn't include it.

    Let's look at marijuana.

    1. We legalize dope. You now have no reason to tell your kids not to do it, since gov't thinks it's OK..
    2. People smoke more of it.
    3. Whatever social consequences of pot-smoking occur and we all pay for them instead of putting that money toward other things, like space exploration or ocean renewal.
    4. I lose the ability to live in a society where pot-smoking is not normal. I may want this for moral reasons, ethical reasons, or even scientific reasons. But either way, I'm deprived.

    You've fallen into a fallacy:

    How is "You may do this, or may not, depending on your choice," more imposing than "You may not do this"? How in the world is freedom more imposing than restriction?

    You're looking at a change in state of the law, not a change in state of society.

    Either way, permission or denial, a change has been effected and that changes the overall experience of the society.

    Calling it "freedom" (etc) is just a linguistic and political trope in this case, as it doesn't relate to the effect of what you're describing.

    Permissiveness is not victimless. It is simply a change in status, much like denial. Thus, any condition is an imposition in effect.

    Currently, our society has a bias in favor of permissiveness, using the "it's not a change to you" argument that you outlined above. However, this is fading, since people are seeing that all these permissive changes have long-term social consequences starting with the perception of approval.

    Hope that cleared it up for you.

    1. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by Antipater · · Score: 1

      First, your society is signaling to its own member that (x) is not just accepted behavior, but thus is recommended behavior. If we legalize eating raw octopus, we have said nothing is wrong with it; that puts it, in the binary of behaviors described by government, in the "approved" category by not being in the "disapproved category."

      Whoa there. That's a big leap you made there. Allowed/Illegal is not the same as Recommended/Illegal. Pickup trucks are perfectly legal; does that make them government-recommended? No - they're just another option that's out there. Talking about your kids and dope: I'm pretty darn sure there are no laws against bad oral hygiene. Yet you still teach your kids to brush their teeth, no? Do government laws/lack of laws really have that much influence on what values you impart to your kids?

      Second, that means more people are going to do it

      This may or may not be a problem, based on #3.

      Third, this means that all of us are going to experience the social consequences of it. We are all subsidizing it, in effect, even if we disagree with it.

      Agreed. So what would be the social consequences? The social consequences of allowing pickup trucks on the road are a decreased average mileage of all automobiles and a general increase in air pollution. To what degree? How much benefit would banning them create? Is that benefit worth the loss of freedom involved in not letting people choose their own car? That's what you should have your debate on. Debate the consequences, great! But don't say that allowing pickup trucks imposes on the freedoms of everyone who wants to drive a subcompact, because that doesn't compute.

      Fourth, you have eliminated my ability to have the society I want, which doesn't include it.

      Tough. That's not how a free society works, because everyone wants something different out of society. A lot of people want a society without black people, but they don't have the freedom to live in a society without black people. There is no imposition going on there.

      There are actions which are justifiably illegal. We restrict the freedom of pedophiles, of murderers, etc. We do that because of the societal consequences of their actions, as you stated above in point #3. So debate that. But please don't talk about "imposing". Nobody is restricting your actions or your freedoms by allowing something you don't approve of.

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    2. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Signals social approval of (x)...You now have no reason to tell your kids not to do it, since gov't thinks it's OK.

      The government hasn't outlawed sticking tweezers in electrical sockets or putting your hand into a flame, yet I've not had any problem telling my kids not to do these things.

      4. Disallows a society where (x) is not present

      Why should you get your society where what you don't want is not allowed, but not others shouldn't get their own version? This is pointless in the end, because it just says you should get what you want, versus others getting what they want, instead of making any actual point why one should be forced upon others. And it is not likely a law will give you this result anyways.

    3. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Your #4 sounds much like the bigot's call for tolerant people to tolerate their intolerance.

      And in your #3, do the social consequences suddenly pop into being when X is legalized? Usually X creates more problems when illegal and the problems can be addressed through legalization , as in the case of alcohol and pot.

      Your 1 and 2 aren't well-supported either. Most parents tell their kids not to do all kinds of things that are legal, personally I had no idea that legality ever factored into it. Religious parents will burden their kids with tons of rules about things that are otherwise legal.

      2 is a possibility and depends on what X is. If you legalize suicide I don't think the frequency will change.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    4. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First, your society is signaling to its own member that (x) is not just accepted behavior, but thus is recommended behavior. If we legalize eating raw octopus, we have said nothing is wrong with it; that puts it, in the binary of behaviors described by government, in the "approved" category by not being in the "disapproved category."

      That's a false dichotomy. Just because something is not prohibited does not mean it is encouraged.

      For example it is not illegal to amputate your own limbs. However there is not a lot of demand for elective limb amputation (there is some but i bet you hadn't heard about it before now), any doctor/parent/random person on the street will try to talk you out of it if you suggest that you're considering it (and they believe you), and no one is trying to convince you to amputate your limbs.

      Since your entire post appears to stem from this one fallacy you should probably rethink your position on the general case. You may find it to be irrational.

    5. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by curiousJan · · Score: 1

      Let's look at marijuana.

      1. We legalize dope. You now have no reason to tell your kids not to do it, since gov't thinks it's OK..

      Actually there are many reasons other than gov't thinks it's OK to support a parent telling their child(ren) to not do it, health being first and foremost.

      2. People smoke more of it.

      Citation needed.

      3. Whatever social consequences of pot-smoking occur and we all pay for them instead of putting that money toward other things, like space exploration or ocean renewal.

      Oh, you mean, like the costs of putting people in prison and paying to support them for non-violent offences that don't cause any more harm to society than offences related to legal activities like alcohol?

      4. I lose the ability to live in a society where pot-smoking is not normal. I may want this for moral reasons, ethical reasons, or even scientific reasons. But either way, I'm deprived.

      Deprived of defining society for me, instead of with me ... I say Hell Yeah to that. You don't get to choose for me when my choices don't bring harm to others!

      You've fallen into a fallacy:

      How is "You may do this, or may not, depending on your choice," more imposing than "You may not do this"? How in the world is freedom more imposing than restriction?

      You're looking at a change in state of the law, not a change in state of society.

      Either way, permission or denial, a change has been effected and that changes the overall experience of the society.

      Calling it "freedom" (etc) is just a linguistic and political trope in this case, as it doesn't relate to the effect of what you're describing.

      Permissiveness is not victimless. It is simply a change in status, much like denial. Thus, any condition is an imposition in effect.

      Currently, our society has a bias in favor of permissiveness, using the "it's not a change to you" argument that you outlined above. However, this is fading, since people are seeing that all these permissive changes have long-term social consequences starting with the perception of approval.

      Hope that cleared it up for you.

      So we're talking about the forward progress of a free society; seriously, don't let the door hit you on the way out into your controlled, utopian society, I'll stick with allowing people to choose for themselves and their offspring when those choices don't adversely affect others.

      Hope that cleared it up for you.

    6. Re: Any condition is an imposition in effect. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Fourth, you have eliminated my ability to have the society I want, which doesn't include it."

      The world does not revolve around you.

      Nobody lives in the exact society they want. There is always at least one item someone could find fault with. So why are you special?

    7. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by readin · · Score: 1

      Allowing (x) to happen does several things: 1. Signals social approval of (x)

      That is, unfortunately, a fundamental fallacy that our society has embraced.

      "moral" and "legal" are not synonyms and should not be treated as synonyms. They are separate concepts. Something may be moral and legal, moral and illegal, immoral and legal, or immoral and illegal. If more people understood that the culture war wouldn't be so bloody and we would have a much freer society.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    8. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by readin · · Score: 1

      So long as the bigot doesn't reach out and grab the object of his bigotry, then yes his intolerance should be tolerated. The bigot mustn't be allowed to force an unpleasant interaction, but neither should the person the bigot dislikes. Both should have the right to be left-alone by those with whom they disagree.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    9. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Let's look at marijuana.

      I wouldn't recommend that as a line of argument on slashdot. If there's one thing slashdotters like more than the freedom to watch child pornography (even though no one actually watches child pornography, of course) it's pot.

      You're allowed to say that pot is safer than alcohol or tobacco, and has no physical or psychological long term effects, but that's it. Otherwise, you might as well say that Windows is a better OS than Linux.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    10. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Allowing (x) to happen does several things: 1. Signals social approval of (x)

      That is, unfortunately, a fundamental fallacy that our society has embraced. "moral" and "legal" are not synonyms and should not be treated as synonyms. They are separate concepts. Something may be moral and legal, moral and illegal, immoral and legal, or immoral and illegal. If more people understood that the culture war wouldn't be so bloody and we would have a much freer society.

      Unfortunately, you're applying rational thought to an inherently irrational data set. The people that wish to control other people's actions care little for a free society, nor are their areas of control really rational, no matter what they say. The reason they're bloody is that those that wish to control must be defeated, no more or less than the Mongol horde had to be, for people to live free.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    11. Re:Any condition is an imposition in effect. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      1. We legalize dope. You now have no reason to tell your kids not to do it, since gov't thinks it's OK..

      I disagree with this very strongly because it implies a permission-based model of government, that only activities the government declares are fine are valid or moral, instead of a model where certain activities are banned by the government while everything else is allowed. It also places what is moral and what is not in the government sphere, and I object to that as well -- the government can only decide what is legal. It has historically been a terrible arbiter of what is moral, and I would tell my kids there is a big big difference between what you are legally allowed to do and what might be moral or wise to do. I personally feel that smoking, whether pot or tobacco products, should be legal, but I also strongly, strongly discourage it.

  47. It's anti-Soviet to think as I do. by concealment · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Restricting others from doing things you don't approve of, actively anti-freedom.

    Allowing others to do things you don't want to do yourself, do not accept as moral/proper/right, is being a passive advocate for freedom.

    Do you really think the world is this simple?

    Allow everything then; now you've got maximal freedom and all our problems go away.

    Right?

    Oh -- that's not so. How could that be? It turns out that societies are defined by their values, not by allowing everyone to do everything (having no values).

    The current dogma approved by your government, media and social group is that allowing any behavior is good, and restricting any behavior is bad.

    But life isn't that simple, unless you're talking about a loyalty test to an authoritarian regime.

    1. Re:It's anti-Soviet to think as I do. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      False dichotomy and reductio ad absurdium in one post.

      We can draw lines near where activities harm others. All the kinky porn in the world won't harm anyone (unless they were harmed in the filming...and didn't want that).

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  48. Forget about the blocklist. by jonfr · · Score: 2

    This blocklist does not make this problem of illegal child porn go away. Something needs to be done about it directly (taking the web sites in question down is a good start). The blocklist just makes it hidden. They do nothing to solve this criminal activity or prevent it. Something of that nature needs to be done. Current "solutions" are no solutions at all.

    What she is suggesting does in fact not solve anything and never has solved anything.

  49. Use the traditional test. by concealment · · Score: 1

    Use the traditional test: is it only for prurient interest (titillation) or does it offer some other content?

    1. Re:Use the traditional test. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the point is that filmed pornography and written/drawn content are quite different and merit different rules.

      and

      Use the traditional test: is it only for prurient interest (titillation) or does it offer some other content?

      are unrelated...

    2. Re:Use the traditional test. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Why make the distinction at all? Why is state censorship of pornography more acceptable than some non-titillating content? There are already laws in place to prevent the display of obscene material in public or to minors, why is state censorship necessary? Is the ability for those who seek it to access it too much for you to tolerate?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    3. Re:Use the traditional test. by tragedy · · Score: 1

      Someone else has already pointed this out, but I'm going to re-iterate. My question was related to your statement that:

      I think the point is that filmed pornography and written/drawn content are quite different and merit different rules.

      So your response in that context either just doesn't make sense at all or is inconsistent with your previously stated position.

  50. Still an ad hominem. by concealment · · Score: 1

    The form of ad hominem:

    "My opponent is an x, so his argument cannot be valid."

    Here's your statement:

    After all, controlling what is and is not allowed to be discussed is what allowed totalitarian ideologies to wield sufficient power to perform their atrocities, and the justifications to establish such censorship in the first place are similar to those used by those who want to censor pornography.

    Totalitarian ideologies also prohibit murder; should we legalize murder then to avoid being totalitarian?

    Your argument presupposes that the source of totalitarianism is censorship, when in fact the source of totalitarianism is total state control.

    Similarity in argument doesn't make a valid comparison.

    Then you reveal for the second time you don't recognize the ad hominem format. This is the statement you claimed was an ad hominem attack:

    In addition, if you're over 13, it's a pointless and recognizably played out tactic.

    Doesn't fit the form. An ad hominem of the same would be:

    "This guy is 13, so his argument can't be valid."

  51. You're confusing two things here. by concealment · · Score: 0

    Prohibition and proscription DO NOT WORK. Each person, and children *are* people, must develop in themselves informed reasons as to why certain behaviors are not healthy for them.

    You've confused prohibition and a lack of honest answers.

    I suggest honest answers, and a strong signal that certain behaviors are seen as bad for a reason.

    Letting kids "make up their own minds" before they're ready results in the kind of situation you found yourself in.

    When I had questions about sex, I did what any good nerd would do... I hit the encyclopedia and then, some of the more detailed sources in the library. It wasn't difficult to find and had no prurient content, thus didn't mislead me as you misled yourself.

    Don't blame prohibition for where you wandered off track, and definitely don't do the same to your kids by enforcing no standards in some kind of tantrum against the authority you blame for your own mistakes.

    1. Re:You're confusing two things here. by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're attempting to blame me for lacking wisdom while in a state of ignorance. For a child, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to wisely act while also being ignorant, hell, it's hard for a child to wisely act even with knowledge, but at least there is more rational case to be made for culpability/responsibility ("you knew better"). Parents are supposed to help children develop the circumspection and discernment necessary to approach things of which they are ignorant with some baseline of wisdom. What I had at age 10 was insufficient to the task and compounded by the fact that everybody around me was attempting to obstruct and suppress rather than enlighten and explain. It turned the effort into a battle, which is exactly what caused my 'overreach'. This is not a self-sourced catalyst no matter how hard you try to blame me. I, being an ignorant child at the time, did not have a framework in which to say to myself, 'I'm going to find out all the craziest shit' because I didn't even know what that was. My bumblings about were based on a elementary understanding of how to look for things and hearsay. So, your attempt to shift blame upon my child self is demonstrated false.

      What I am doing as a parent is nothing like having 'no standards'. The primary difference is that I refuse, under any circumstances, to suppress information when asked a direct and specific question. From there, I certainly am not going to say to a child 'go do whatever'. I routinely proscribe activities I feel my daughter is incapable of doing based on my assessment of her maturity and competence. However, I not only have no illusions that those proscriptions on action are temporary, but as soon as I feel she's up to acting I tell her so. (In fact at such points I usually *mandate* that she start acting.)

      Proscription cannot be treated as some kind of fire-and-forget solution to parenting, and I've seen that done both personally and to 3rd parties, frequently to great detriment (but that's the kids' fault, according to you). It further seems to be your attitude, since your hangups and repressions seem to range far afield to all manner of *adult* interactions.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  52. Marginalization. by concealment · · Score: 1

    That word "marginalize", I don't think it means what you think it means.

    I realize you're probably just typing in a meme by reflex action, but here's the definition:

    to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position within a society or group

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginalize

    Now let's look at the rest of what you typed:

    The core question is whose rights are being violated by the existence of animal porn, that supposedly gives you the right to initiate force against those who view animal porn. Your rights do not get violated by the mere existence of the stuff, and to claim as such is an extraordinary stretch - how are your rights violated - are you unable to go out in public because there are posters of animal porn everywhere?

    The point is that many of us don't want to live in a society where deviancy is the accepted norm. Legalizing animal porn takes that away from us.

    1. Re:Marginalization. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is that many of us don't want to live in a society where deviancy is the accepted norm. Legalizing animal porn takes that away from us.

      Then you need to find a different society to live in, bucko, because deviancy is all over the fucking place. Across all categories and interests there are outliers, and there are going to be people who think those outliers are bad, or deviant. But with the number of categories that you can have values in, assuredly in a handful are you an outlier. (Remember, 3 stddevs out is only 1:400 just for a single category in isolation, never mind across all X). Look within yourself, you know it to be true.

      Let me give you a hint: You're particularly fascist, you rascally deviant, you. I'm guessing you also like leather more than most.

    2. Re:Marginalization. by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      Ah.... I see what's going on. You're part of that group of people who feel that because they can no longer tell people what is right and what is wrong, they are now marginalized and persecuted. Let me guess - you are white and male, yes?

      The point is that many of us don't want to live in a society where deviancy is the accepted norm. Legalizing animal porn takes that away from us.

      Now it all falls nicely into place. Using animal porn (I assume you're actually referring to bestiality, instead of just images of horses fucking each other) as a fulcrum, you're arguing for deviancy to be forcefully removed from society. Except that you don't want to stop just with bestiality, as you clearly have issues with fat people, BDSM and quite a few other things. And not only do you have issues with quite a few things, your goal is to have a world without any content you object to. Now what would be necessary to achieve that? You having total control over everyone's life. In other words, a totalitarian state. I know, I know. It's all for the greater good - how could anyone object? And those who do object are deviants anyway who want to oppress you, so they can be expelled to some far off land. I hear Siberia is great for that. It's not like you're actually killing them. I mean, except for the truly dangerous deviants. Those deserve to be killed.

      Yeah, I know your type. Thank god you don't have the charisma necessary to actually rally enough like-minded people around you and enough political skills to implement your ideas, because otherwise Europe might have to repay its WW2 debt to the US sooner rather than later.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    3. Re:Marginalization. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is that many of us don't want to live in a society where deviancy is the accepted norm.

      Agreed. We need to restore the laws preventing blacks from mingling with whites. I don't want such sick cross-breeding happening in my country.

    4. Re:Marginalization. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I know that everyone on slashdot likes a good slippery slope, but seriously it is possible to wish there were less child and animal porn around in society, without your next action being the annexation of the Sudetenland.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  53. You're stupid. by concealment · · Score: 1

    I summarized your statement in the title, and turn it around on you:

    Or do you feel it's your right to tell everybody else how to live?

    You're telling me I have to live around animal porn in a society that demands it be normal. Who gives you that right?

    See: you're stupid.

    1. Re:You're stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have the right to try to organise a community that will not tolerate animal porn, and exclude deviants from entering your property. But not to force your views on the person and property of others not involved in your voluntary decency arrangement.

    2. Re:You're stupid. by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Er, most places don't tolerate bestiality and/or animal porn already. It's generally though not universally illegal .

      Incidentally, I love that in Lebanon it's legal as long as it's heterosexual. No fucking perverts there, huh?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  54. Why do we need protection? by kawabago · · Score: 1

    Porn doesn't assault people online. It doesn't jump out from the shadows. Porn doesn't stalk people and attack them from behind. In fact, the viewer has to take some deliberate action to end up with porn on their screen. If porn itself isn't the problem, is it the children? Are they what we are trying to save? In that case wouldn't it be better to watch who goes to child porn sites and then investigate them to see if they are abusing children? Wouldn't that protect far more children than trying to ineffectually block porn sites? You CAN stop bank robbers by closing all the banks, but wouldn't that be a stupid solution?

  55. It's fallacy day on /.! by concealment · · Score: 1

    You said:

    An erotic fictional novel about interspecies intercourse you have said is speech.

    In reference to my statement:

    If someone were writing books about how we should be able to violently love animals, that would be speech and should be protected.

    I'm going to just leave this here to show how radically different the two are.

    Your entire argument rests on that misreading. I am sorry to inform you of this, but your argument just died.

  56. What no one answered. by concealment · · Score: 1

    So you can't get animal porn and violent porn. Are you missing anything important?

    I think it's interesting no one posted all the good things that were going to come of this. What you posted were fears (OMFG fascism) and somewhat circular reasoning about permissiveness.

    No one mentioned anything good.

  57. Not much different than the 1st Amendment. by concealment · · Score: 1

    In substance, not much different than the original 1st amendment:

    Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone.

    Basically, you can express any idea you want, no matter how unpopular.

    It has never had any bearing on pornography, which isn't an idea. It's just entertainment.

    1. Re:Not much different than the 1st Amendment. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Note also that the Finnish Freedom of Expression protects you against censorship by anyone. The U.S. equivalent protects you only against censorship by the Government.

    2. Re:Not much different than the 1st Amendment. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In substance, not much different than the original 1st amendment:

      Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone.

      Basically, you can express any idea you want, no matter how unpopular.

      It has never had any bearing on pornography, which isn't an idea. It's just entertainment.

      There is no mention of "idea" in what you quoted. What is explicitly mentioned is "information, opinions and other communications" and pornography certainly is covered by that.

      What were you really trying to accomplish there, I wonder? By blatantly lying, for everyone to see, I mean?

  58. With apologies to System of a Down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a violent pornography
    Choking chicks and sodomy
    The kind of shit you get on your TV

  59. Confusing consequential decisions with shopping by concealment · · Score: 0

    Now this is getting silly:

    Pickup trucks are perfectly legal; does that make them government-recommended?

    Decisions that affect the health of a society are different from the type of mundane shopping decision you're arguing. Do you really think drug use is on par with what type of car you drive?

    So what would be the social consequences?

    The main consequence is that it determines what type of society you live in: does it have standards and values, or not?

    That's not how a free society works, because everyone wants something different out of society. A lot of people want a society without black people, but they don't have the freedom to live in a society without black people.

    I think you're confused here as well. The point of a free society is that you're not compelled to do things against your values. That doesn't mean there are no rules or standards. If anything, you've shown why our society has become "un-free" with the adoption of forced pluralism.

    1. Re:Confusing consequential decisions with shopping by Antipater · · Score: 1

      I do think drug use is on par with what type of car you drive, in the sense that any debate on them should be focused on societal consequences rather than on a single person's belief system. A car that spews Sarin gas out the tailpipe would understandably be illegal, because of the danger to society. But "I drive small cars and I object to SUVs because I don't like the way they look" would not be a valid reason to make SUVs illegal. Likewise a drug that turns anyone who uses it into a zombie should be illegal, because of the danger to society. But "I have a value system that objects to it" would not be a valid reason.

      The point of a free society is that you're not compelled to do things against your values.

      And nobody is compelling you to do so. You're not being compelled to do anything. But your value system does not extend to that random guy walking down the street, unless he's actively causing you or society harm.

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    2. Re:Confusing consequential decisions with shopping by ZmeiGorynych · · Score: 1

      > Do you really think drug use is on par with what type of car you drive?
      Yes. Personal choice mainly affecting the user, with some effect on those around them (depending on the specific drug, minimal in the case of marijuana)

      > The main consequence is that it determines what type of society you live in: does it have standards and values, or not?
      If 'standards and values' means your prohibiting me things because you disapprove of them, even though they don't directly harm you, then please keep them to yourself.

      > The point of a free society is that you're not compelled to do things against your values. That doesn't mean there are no rules or standards.
      Rules preventing people from actively harming other people (rape, robbery, etc) are one thing. But you seem to think much wider rules than that are desirable, right? You value your right to 'live in a society where X is not normal', is that what you mean by standards? To me, that's naked, unjustifiable desire to control what other people do even when it's none of your fucking business, just because you say so.

      If that's an essential part of your definition of a free society, sounds like you're the one who's confused.

    3. Re:Confusing consequential decisions with shopping by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      The point of a free society is that you're not compelled to do things against your values. That doesn't mean there are no rules or standards. If anything, you've shown why our society has become "un-free" with the adoption of forced pluralism.

      I was sort of with you up to this point. But you're wrong here.

      Pluralism doesn't say "as a minority Muslim/Jew you have to eat pork because the majority of people here enjoy bacon." It says "as a minority Muslim/Jew, you're free to choose not to eat pork despite the fact that the majority of people here enjoy bacon".

      Now, if your views are that (say) homosexuality is appalling and should be illegal, tough, it's been decided by society that it's not. But no one's forcing you to have gay sex.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    4. Re:Confusing consequential decisions with shopping by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Now this is getting silly:

      Pickup trucks are perfectly legal; does that make them government-recommended?

      Decisions that affect the health of a society are different from the type of mundane shopping decision you're arguing. Do you really think drug use is on par with what type of car you drive?

      I absolutely do. Perhaps I don't approve of caffeine use. You don't use caffeine, do you? The horror! What about aspirin? Nasal sprays? Antibiotic soaps? Pesticides around your house? All chemical / drug uses that have significant effects on society and the environment around you. What? You don't agree? Shocker!

      I think you're confused here as well. The point of a free society is that you're not compelled to do things against your values. That doesn't mean there are no rules or standards. If anything, you've shown why our society has become "un-free" with the adoption of forced pluralism.

      The only confused person here is you. You are confused that your desires, even if it seems reasonable to you, and you feel should be universal, are not considered reasonable by us to be imposed upon others, even if we have no desire to do said activity ourselves. The only actions we agree should be restricted are some of those wherein actions harm others other than the actor. For examples where this is not done currently are the practices of piercing babies ears, or circumcision.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  60. Argument by appearance. by concealment · · Score: 1

    Your #4 sounds much like the bigot's call for tolerant people to tolerate their intolerance.

    Argument by appearance: found nowhere where the intelligent gather.

    1. Re:Argument by appearance. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Tell me how it's different. You're saying that you are intolerant of certain activities by others that don't affect you negatively (let's say a pot smoke cloud can be as easily avoided as the sight of homosexual affection), you don't want to change this, and you're implying that those advocating tolerance are being intolerant towards you by not accommodating your intolerance. The subject is different but the logic is the same.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  61. Again with the arbitrary argument. by concealment · · Score: 1

    Why should you get your society where what you don't want is not allowed, but not others shouldn't get their own version?

    Because it's not arbitrary. Some things work better than others. A society of obese people is going to have health problems.

    Further, you could argue that we need to break up into sub-societies for people to have their own standards. But that sounds awful like the states' rights argument the Confederates were advancing.

    1. Re:Again with the arbitrary argument. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Because it's not arbitrary. Some things work better than others. A society of obese people is going to have health problems.

      So now you're going to argue that obese people are outlaws? Next up will be people that have views they wish to force other people to follow.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  62. Re:Science time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You say some of us don't give a crap about his kids. But I care. This guy seems to think Internet should be a babysitter for his kids and not a place that allows sharing of experience, no matter how questionable to some of us. The expression "consenting adults" seems to mean absolutely nothing to him, so he has to babysit the whole Internet because he doesn't want to babysit his kids.

    Forgive me if you can, but I do give a damn. His kids aren't in the right hands. He thinks Internet should be a babysitter, and Internet doesn't work that way: it never has and never will. His/her children are in great danger because this person has no clue.

    I won't defend animal porn, but I'm willing to defend "violent" porn because that definition has no meaning. "Consenting adults" has much more meaning. But I'm not pleased when I see such ideas that border on paranoia (the Soviet bit was enlightening, a willful display of phylosophical, political and historical ignorance). I'm adult. I can decide. I want freedom, freedom to go where I want, look at what I want, freedom to report acts of real violence. And I want this without my freedom being destroyed by a clueless jacobine who thinks that Soviet Russia is still alive (a confusing metaphor, I know, but I ask for understanding).

    These individuals don't know jack about freedom. They just like "freedom as it pleases me". Yet, they picture themselves as anti-totalitarian when they don't even know what totalitarianism is (praise Amendola), so they talk about being anti-Soviet (which is hystorically ridiculous) and use their stance to defend freedom. It's hypocritical and disgusting. I care about his/her kids. They're not growing in a mentally sane environment. You should care about that too, poor children.

  63. You don't know what you're talking about. by concealment · · Score: 1

    False dichotomy and reductio ad absurdium in one post.

    Neither fits the form. Now you're arguing like an AOLer.

    All the kinky porn in the world won't harm anyone (unless they were harmed in the filming...and didn't want that).

    If ABC news dedicated its resources to publishing nothing but Nazi propaganda, and started gaining in popularity, would you have the same view?

    1. Re:You don't know what you're talking about. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      If ABC news dedicated its resources to publishing nothing but Nazi propaganda, and started gaining in popularity, would you have the same view?

      Is this some kind of analogy or just a gratuitous Godwin? We already have a world of laws around media ratings and public obscenity...if it's an analogy I just don't get it.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  64. I think highly of Finland. by concealment · · Score: 1

    Note also that the Finnish Freedom of Expression protects you against censorship by anyone. The U.S. equivalent protects you only against censorship by the Government.

    Thank you for that addition. It's an important point. In the US, anyone with enough popularity can lobby for their propaganda to be taught in schools, which then causes large interest groups to drown out legitimate opinions.

    It reminds me of something Stephen Pinker said in The Blank Slate, or maybe it was Socrates in The Republic. When something gets repeated enough, it builds inertia because people are personally terrified of not being part of the trend, and yet aren't brave enough to speak their minds otherwise, which is the one thing that could deliver them from their terror.

    1. Re:I think highly of Finland. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There may be a state law that prevents your employer from firing you for political reasons but it sure isn't in the U.S. Constitution.

  65. New domain by IwantToKeepAnon · · Score: 1

    This has been discussed for a long time, create an XXX or PORN domain. Block all porn on .com .net .org, etc... and "encourage" those domains to be used. Then it'd be a snap for each individual household to block or allow that content. Just like if I don't want to see that stuff in the book store or video store, I just stay out of that area. Same idea for the internet.

    I know it's not that black and white, b/c who decides what needs to be on the new domain .... but it's an idea to talk about anyway.

    --
    "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  66. Directly analogous by concealment · · Score: 1

    You are telling me that it's great if someone wants to publish violent animal sex pornography; I am asking if the same applies to propaganda of another sort, and to make it interesting, presupposing that it was done with the force of commerce.

    1. Re:Directly analogous by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      It's not directly analogous because in the US at least, Nazi propaganda would be completely legal to broadcast on TV while any kind of porn would be heavily restricted (time, ratings, etc - as I mentioned before). Also porn and propaganda are very different. You could have one that is both I guess, like a more hardcore version of the recruitment ads in the Starship Troopers movie...but I've never seen or heard of any. Both could fall under "things that a person could find offensive."

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  67. A better analogy by concealment · · Score: 1

    Actually, to look at it more clearly, you're arguing for people to create objectionable speech. I'm suggesting that it will change society in ways that may not be positive. To a bigot, their preaching of bigotry (let's pick a neutral target and say they are bigoted against global warming) is harmless to you. You, on the other hand, don't want to live in a society where that is the norm.

    1. Re:A better analogy by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      I'd rather live in a free society where people can say objectionable, possibly even bigoted things, and may even become the norm, than an oppressive censored one. IRL I find climate denialism incredibly stupid and it's certainly damaging to our society and environment, but I've never advocated or even fantasized about state censorship of climate denialist speech. I don't argue for the creation of objectionable speech but I certainly argue for its right to exist and be as freely accessible as anything else.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  68. Most disappointing line wrap ever by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

    Finnish Minister Wants To Expand Pornography

    Censorship.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
  69. Few corrections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > maintains a blocklist of foreign sites linked to child pornography. This blocklist is enforced on Finnish Internet users."

    The list contains both foreign and local sites. The list contains several non-child porn sites (perhaps even most of them, hard to tell because the list is secret). The blocklist is enforced only for some Internet users, e.g. I'm not affected by it.

    It is also worth mentioning that it is impossible to get off the list (the only known person who has tried it, has been trying to get off the list for almost 5 years, without a success. ). Quote "2011-05-23:
    The administrative court recently ruled that the police should've removed my site from the list when I asked them to. However, they also say police made no error when they chose not to remove me, so I'll have to pay the legal fees myself. The police is apparently considering to appeal the decision and I'm still on the secret blacklist"
    From: http://lapsiporno.info/

  70. You know what they say about people who protest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    too much. I bet that mother fucker has calluses on his dick.

  71. Re:Science time. by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    --
    Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a reward of US$50.00

    FTFY

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
  72. They should ban faggot porn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if faggot porn is banned. If it's not, it should be.

  73. The porn industry in Finland by Mr.+Lwanga · · Score: 1

    is finnished.

    1. Re:The porn industry in Finland by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Is there a porn industry in Finland? I've never, er, come across any Finnish porn.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    2. Re:The porn industry in Finland by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      look harder. there's some, but not much. you make couple of flicks and you're a celebrity basically.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  74. Re:Science time. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make, but are you suggesting that animal and child porn should be freely available as an educational resource for children?

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  75. Re:Science time. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    Sure an animal can't really consent in any written or oral form, but if two humans are horny and want to fuck, they can go at it without each side having to totally confirm the other really, really wants to either.

    That is a pretty feeble argument. Human beings can always say no. Animals can't.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  76. Re:Science time. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    That is a pretty feeble argument. Human beings can always say no. Animals can't.

    Heh! Well unless you tie ropes to it, a horse has some pretty emphatic ways of saying no, many of which are hazardous to your health.

    But I would be against bestiality for the same reason I'm against child porn -- all partners should be able to give informed consent.