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Taiwan's IP Office Proposes Blocking Foreign Sites Infringing Copyright
New submitter thomas8166 writes "The Taiwanese Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) recently proposed draft legislation that would empower it to block foreign websites that it deems infringing. The proposal has been likened to SOPA, and has drawn heavy criticism from website operators such as Wikimedia Taiwan. The TIPO stresses that it will only target well-known infringing sites, but Taiwanese netizens are concerned that this power can potentially be abused for political purposes."
Any blocking for any particular purpose is fit for any other blocking purpose too. And so there is no reason at all, at all, to keep the "but only for this, we pinky-swear with a cherry on top!" promises, especially not to other pressure groups who see the blocking thing and want it, too. Such promises are just words, the blocking is the real thing, of course.
So we cannot afford to have any blocking at all. For any purpose. Not for "noble" causes and not for plain greed, like here. If you have one, the other kinds will be sure to follow. As they have done elsewhere already. This is not surprising unless you choose to believe that your cause is somehow more special than other people's causes. It is not. You're just human, and have no right to tell other humans what access they should or should not have.
This is one of the clearest cases yet where we absolutely have the technology but absolutely cannot afford to let anyone have it so they can lord it over the rest of us. For if we let one have it, we let everyone have it. Maybe not right away, but in time, in time. So nobody can have it, not ever.
You make a good point. The problem with making so much stuff illegal is that you water down the effectiveness of the law. When only a few things are illegal then laws are very important. When there is a law against every little thing then the law becomes a joke and everyone ignores it.