Slashdot Mirror
TorrentFreak Blocked By British ISP Sky's Porn Filter
judgecorp writes "TorrentFreak, a news site covering copyright issues and file sharing news, has been blocked by the porn filter of British ISP Sky. As TorrentFreak points out, the filter is provided by Symantec, and doesn't block Symantec when the company reports malware news: 'Thanks to their very own self-categorization process they wear the "Technology and Telecommunication" label. Is their website blocked by any of their own filters? I won’t even bother answering that.'"
From the TorrentFreak article: "Our crimes are the topics we cover. As readers know we write about file-sharing, copyright and closely linked issues including privacy and web censorship. We write about the positives and the negatives of those topics and we solicit comments from not only the swarthiest of pirates, but also the most hated anti-piracy people on the planet."
The question is whether this was always the plan. First put in place the infrastructure for censorship -- eek, porn! -- and then slide on down the slippery slope.
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
Ignore me. Turns out the blocking only occurs if you have the under-18 filter turned on - which I managed to get from the article :)
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It's not Europe. It's UK. The country that likes to take the worst of the US, the worst of the EU, mix them together and implement.
Yes, you can claim that the liberals are crying "Censorship!" and "Oppression!" without warrent right now because they can indeed turn the filter off. But the problem lies in the fact that the filter exists in the first place. Any filter that is optional now, can, with the backdoor nod of an elected official, become mandatory over night.
Let's not forget either that these filters have not be democratically put in place. There was no vote in parliament *at all*, and instead was simply done on the advisory of David Cameron. If optional filtering can be put in place without a vote, so too can mandatory filtering.
There in lies the crux of the issue for us liberals.
I claim, preemptively, that such claims are bullshit. The censorship is intentional, and will get reversed, but it will be cited as a mistake. Mark my words.
Smaller sites that are just as innocent will get blocked, but won't get unblocked because not enough people will complain. This causes real damage. It costs site owners real money.
Ignore me. Turns out the blocking only occurs if you have the under-18 filter turned on - which I managed to get from the article :)
True, but it is the default for all new internet connections. Many people just leave things at the default, and may not even know that you can have it disabled.
"though the only paper brave enough to print the truth these days is Andrex"
Fixed that for you!
And so it begins....
And then blame Europe for it when the public complain.
It's Europe's fault prisoners may have to be given the vote!
No it's not, it's our fault for deciding that human rights might be something worth actually giving a damn about and recognising that denying prisoners the vote and then imprisoning political opposition is a common tactic for seizing power that we may wish to avoid in our country. All Europe has done is confirm to us what we've said we agreed with previously. It's not their fault we can't get our message straight, that we legislate one way and then bitch, moan, and complain that we want it another.
Either Mr Cameron lied or the ISPs have radically over-reached in the level of national censorship.
Have a read of this article - David Cameron's internet porn filter is the start of censorship creep - and make your own mind up. For example this quote:
"The category of 'obscene content', for instance, which is blocked even on the lowest setting of BT's opt-in filtering system, covers "sites with information about illegal manipulation of electronic devices [and] distribution of software" – in other words, filesharing and music downloads, debate over which has been going on in parliament for years. It looks as if that debate has just been bypassed entirely, by way of scare stories about five-year-olds and fisting videos. Whatever your opinion on downloading music and cartoons for free, doing so is neither obscene nor pornographic."
The government wants everyone to be asked if they want the filter on or off. Otherwise they can't build an accurate database of known perverts.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
So the UK is slowly removing itself from the Internet by censoring itself. No loss. And "OMG it has the word torrent in it, it must be evil!".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.