As a Dane who has worked in most of Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland, UK and with a plethora of nationalities from around the world - English is the language of choice for any technical discussion. Even among fellow Danish developers its toe cringing to try to speak in Danish as the words either don't exist or are 'old fashioned' direct translations. Which means if we're talking anything really technical - just switching to English is convenient and mutually understood anyways.
So either its fully Danish or we have a hybrid language where all technical terms is spoken in English. I wouldn't be caught dead saying 'peger' instead of 'pointer':).
And I'm not kidding, I live here at the moment, although I come from mainland Europe. This country is backwards. Think 1940es style, backwards.
I dont know why that is, perhaps its the general repression during British rule, the famine, the isolation from europe, and the dominance of the catholic church, but its so conservative you wouldnt believe it. Women have to go on special ferries to get abortions in the UK - and they risk all kinds of hell if anyone reports it back home. I see teenage mothers all over the place and every day theres new details about the catholic church raping (literally) the entire society. And on top of that, the last 3 taoiseachs has been openly corrupt, and probably longer back than that.
I just have to say youre batshit crazy America. Why are you so afraid of sex, its a deep part of human nature, its not going away, it happens to wake up around 13-14 earlier/later depending on individual maturity. That doesnt mean teenagers have sex at that specific time, we all know that. But some will, many, will before they become 16 (age of consent in Denmark) - better they know how to protect themselves. No?
Interestingly you can buy a pack of cigarette, a six pack of beer at the age of 16 here and then go out and fuck like a rabbit. But they just dont do it, what gives ? Why dont they censor swearing and titshots on TV here ?
According to your legislators our society would be run by demented, raving alcoholic sexperverts raping everything with a pulse and not one of the safest places in the world. I know im generalizing here:), but its always weird to look across the pond (the UK is bad too), and see how much the people with a higher sense of moral right is dominating the news (that reaches us).
How on earth did anyone manage to become adults before, without being constantly molested or our minds corrupted by such evils as pictures of nipples and reproductive organs.
Thanks to all the silly "think of the children", "beware of terrorists" laws lately i feel SO MUCH SAFER. George Orwell would weep.
I believe that this goes against pretty much any nation of EUs constitutions. You are innocent until proven guilty.
France with their Dear Facist Leader, Sarkozy can fuck off.
Ofcourse not, I was merely reflecting what I have been led to believe based on many IRC chats with American friends - which may have been a part of an older school of thought:). There is something to be said however about how less time in some countries lead to higher scores which I find interesting - and I hope that is a research topic, it could be a cultural thing or a certain emphasis on some areas, like the old Soviet block focussing on the hard sciences, disregarding other parts entirely.
I think learning is a hard subject as people react differently to different methods and you have a classroom of 25-35 pupils, theres no easy way to find a single method that works equally well.
Why do you think other countries outscore America even if they spend less time in school? It is because they put emphasis on learning how to think and not to remember random trivia. I've been schooled in 3 different European countries, and not one of them has ever asked me for a multiple-choice test. Rather, heres a problem. Solve it or explain why it cant be solved. I am under the impression that the US focus more on trivia style learning. Correct me if im wrong ?
Learning to use tools and learning resources and learning how to learn/teach yourself concepts means you can solve many things without being told howto. Thats the way to do it, in my opinion.
Does a TPM module matter? Afterall if the code runs we must assume its decrypted in memory, a debugger will quickly dump the decoded blocks to disk.
Might take some re-assembly to recreate the PE file, but nothing that hasnt been done before. Afterall SecuROM already reads a 128bit TEA encryption key of the disk.. To decrypt sections in the executable but it still leaves pages decrypted (it needs to run.. afterall) and theres your entry point.
Its futile.
Etc. And more from the early 90es and 80es. And as far as i remember, some of the early Polymorphic virus engines etc.
I think every country with teenagers+computers got some of these kids who dream in assembly code. And some of them might be eager to earn some easy money.
The worst thing is, you're probably right.
The really make it hurt for these multibillion dollar companies, you need to strike with either excessive fines, or - demand responsibility from the management, and ship them to jail. You cant enjoy the money you gained unrightfully if you're in prison.
But, this is the whitest of white collar crimes. But the bloke on the street who cheats for 500 euro in taxes, gets punished very hard in comparison.
Thats pretty much how it goes.
It sounds like it works much like modern game protections, with full blown Virtual Machine, P-Codes and all that shizzle.
Problem is, it can and will and has been cracked before. And once you crack 1 player, well. It'll be on Bittorent/FTPs before you can say, "gotcha!".
Do No Evil -> To Be as Evil as Everyone else.
But what can you expect from public companies anyways, and an American system thats no more democratic than a banana republic anyways.
As far as I know, its legal in Denmark too. If you're on a public area, and you get photographed, say tourists posing in a photo and you happen to be in the background, and this photo is published on the Web, you cant demand it to be taken down.
Next thing you know, they'd have to blur all the audiences at sports events, because *gasp* they might be televised ?
However, that is not to say i approve of what Google is doing, i think the basic idea is good, I think some effort to at least blur out car registration plates and faces should be done. When they do it on such a large scale, and especially the whole thing about unmarked vans doing it makes it feel kinda creepy. If it said GOOGLE STREET VIEW PICTURE CAM-VAN and wasn't secretive about doing it, it would upset me that much.
I find it disturbing that Games and Firearms are mentioned in the same sentence, as if you should educate kids about both.
Personally id educate them about games.
Firearms, maybe if they choose to pickup hunting as a hobby - and it let the licensed instructor do that - or let the sergeants do that if they're called for the army.
Exactly, we weren't. It was a normal news story here in Denmark, it was on the news the day it happened, and then I never heard about it again until now.
It was a sad story, no doubt.
The only school shooting we ever had in Denmark, was a mentally ill man shooting a woman at Aarhus University, it didn't rile up the country at all. It was a sad story, too. But such things happen, except most of our mentally ill citizens don't have access to guns, and usually use knives, hands, blunt objects etc. instead. It reduces the amount of damage they can inflict before they're stopped. So theres not much to discuss when it happens, except, what could we have done to prevent it happening in the first place, which of course sparks allot of debate how to handle and treat mentally disturbed people. But i dont remember people being outraged about gun control, and that we should have campus police and metal detectors and compulsory mental health tests and so on.
Sad things like this happen. I doubt very much that more control and regulations would prevent it.
Blaming games and violent movies is perhaps just a convenient scapegoat. Such actions runs alot deeper than computer games and movies. While people with certain mental disorders or scars might obsess about it and carry out their fantasies in these games, the underlying problem is their mental disorder or hate towards women, society or whoever treated them wrong in the past. Its not the games/movies themselves. Thus, we gain nothing, while restricting our own freedoms. I, for one, wont accept that. Id rather spend more tax money on anti-bullying initiatives in schools, treatment of schizophrenia etc. than regulating games/movies. Thats the parents job.
Germany loves regulating everything you can and cant do. Whats appropriate for you etc. Sweden & Norway is in the same boat, hell you cant even buy alcohol outside of state owned shops there.
On the other hand, this type of thinking just doesn't fly with other members of the European union, where you're expected to be smart enough to tell your kids what they can play, watch and do. And supervise them if you feel thats necessary.
I think a German friend of mine explained how some videoshops work, please do correct me if im wrong, but it went like this:
The store, like say, Blockbuster - would have all the typical movies out, but all horror movies, adult movies, and violent movies etc. would be on display, available for browsing, but you would have to go ask for it directly in the shop. And it would be sortof "under the counter" thing.
Example, Denmark is a member of the EU. But Danes are generally don't hold high regards to authority - theres "recommendations" on videos/games like this:
A: All, can be watched by all.
7: Might contain scenes unappropriate for kids under 7, like peoply dying. (Even disney movies contain characters dying etc.)
11: "Children ages 11 to 14 is generally good to understand the different between fiction and reality, and can relate to many things, movies with suspense and action are therefore suitable" - rough translation from the official site.
15: "Children and adults above 15 are expected to have a solid genre understanding, and to know the difference between fiction and reality". Also rough translation from the official site.
15 is the last age these recommendations target. But these are recommendations, they have no legal standing. Of course most parents would probably decide for themselves what their kids can see/play. And i think, 99.99% of all parents have sense enough not to show the chainsaw massacre to their 7 year olds.
Authorities shouldn't regulate this, parents should. Recommendations like above, is a good guideline, but enforcing it, wouldn't stop anything. These people shooting other people don't have good parenting to begin with, and they'll find a way to get the games regardless. Hello, Bittorrent.
Its not the politicians business to tell people how-to be parents.
IANAL - But, usually when you agree upon a contract, its for the terms as presented at the time, and any change, like this - would void the contract?
No?
So the coupons are invalid with the introduction of GPLv3?
From what I understand, a black hole compresses all mass into a singularity (mathematically speaking of course), surely this means death. But what about the event horizon? Say I took a nose dive into a Black Hole, wouldn't it in theory take me an eternity to actually get to the point of my body collapsing into the singularity itself. And wouldn that mean I would be traveling in space and time itself? Since from what I understand, and I am clearly no astrophysicist, time is warped around the event horizon and thus acts like a "time machine" if you will, where a second outside the EH might be a millennium inside it.
Wormholes are easy to visualize (hell pen+paper, wrap it, push pen through it) - black holes seem pretty complex with what it does with space/time. Except being heavier than yo' mamma, what else it does?
Its always easier to blame it on something that people don't really understand and/or already fear. Remember the fear of brain tumors from cell phones? Now when a Journalist or whatever hears bees cant find their way home, they obviously feel compelled to link it to the fearsome x-rays (I call them x-rays in the sense that x is unknown and scary rays of course).
Surely, such "news" - "sell" more than some boring research into fungi. Nobody, cares about fungus. They care about scary invisible rays.
Its comical, like Flanders wife in Simpsons. Because, just because some student guns down some people because hes batshit crazy, and happened to also write something down on paper, that you'd have to arrest some poor kid for writing something down on paper aswell. What has society descended into?
And I find the comments from the EU hatespeech laws thats been proposed a few days ironic compared to this incident. Some poster said free speech was alive and well in America, well my dear friend.. Not anymore apparently.
FUD Is alive and well however, how can people live in a perpetual state of fear?
Jesus effing christ, how can we arrest people for writing things, even if its batshit crazy stuff like Manson/Son of Sam shit, thats hardly a reason to be genuinely concerned. Its highly unlikely the next logical step is to bring a gun to the school? Right.. Right?
The implementation of the EU proposals or "laws" are still susceptible to the individual countries constitutions.
In Denmark, theres very much free speech, but you have freedom under responsibility. We have active Nazi parties in Denmark, they try to get voted into our Parliament every time (failing, of course), nobody likes them, but they are free to hold their own beliefs. As long as they do NOT advocate violence in any way. You're free to deny the Holocaust if you want, but 99.9% of the population would probably just view you as the idiot that you are. We had a group of pedophiles here in Denmark, who organized themselves - and since they did not actually advocate child abuse per se - we couldn't shut them down (and they werent actually doing anything illegal either, like expected (swapping child porn or whatever)).
Cases like this, would be convenient to remove by law, but come to think of it, such laws would cause more harm than good, as it would soon be extended to all kinds of minorities who you might not like, but at least aren't doing anything illegal and just want to exercise their right of free assembly. Like a group discussing the legalization or Marijuana ? Euthanasia etc? Opinions you might not like, and which may be illegal under the current laws (ie: selling and possesion, or performing euthanasia). But thats the point of such groups no? To try to influence the current political system to accept their views.
I dont mind Holocaust denials, because they're such a small blip on the radar, like people who still think the world is flat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society . They are annoying, but mostly harmless.
As such - there is no need for a hate speech law, and it has been discussed alot in Denmark in the last couple of years and rejected. Although there are laws against racism, they are similar to the laws against slander.
Heres the current law:
Kapitel 27: Freds- og ærekrænkelser
266 b. Den, der offentligt eller med forsæt til udbredelse i en videre kreds fremsætter udtalelse eller anden meddelelse, ved hvilken en gruppe af personer trues, forhånes eller nedværdiges på grund af sin race, hudfarve, nationale eller etniske oprindelse, tro eller seksuelle orientering, straffes med bøde eller fængsel indtil 2 år.
Stk. 2. Ved straffens udmåling skal det betragtes som en særligt skærpende omstændighed, at forholdet har karakter af propagandavirksomhed.
In English:
Those, who publically or with intension to publicize in a wider audience, makes statements or other messages by which a group of persons are threatened, humiliated due to their race, color, national or ethnic origin, beliefs or sexual orientation, are punished by fine or prison up to 2 years.
Rougly translated - but anyways this is our current "hate speech" law in Denmark as of 2007, and while it restricts free speech, it only restricts parts where you humiliate or directly threaten a group of people.
From our constitution:
Any person shall be at liberty to publish his ideas
in print, in writing, and in speech, subject to his
being held responsible in a court of law. Censorship
and other preventive measures shall never
again be introduced.
I believe the EU laws are incompatible with our constitution, as censorship is not allowed. The part about responsibility to the court of law is the loophole where the racism paragraph is introduced (and slander). I dont think youre allowed to make threats to anyone in pretty much any country, especially not as a part of a propaganda system. Other than that, censorship is strictly prohibited.. Last I checked, America very much censor pretty much everything. So wheres YOUR free speech?
Ah well - i realize now its worded wrong. But i mean, religions are pointless in that nobody is either going to heaven or hell (The #1 selling point of religions). There is only the earthly consequences of actions.
My personal theory about religion is that it served as an early attempt to control the masses, so that it held society together around a set of principles, which prevented the early civilisations from decending into total anarchy. Now that most of us have constitutions and quite extensive legal systems to prevent this, i dont see why religion still has any importance to society. Especially not when it seems to harm progress, rather than promote it*
*This comment only reserved to fundamentalist groups who frowns upon science.
Slashdot Mirror
As a Dane who has worked in most of Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland, UK and with a plethora of nationalities from around the world - English is the language of choice for any technical discussion. Even among fellow Danish developers its toe cringing to try to speak in Danish as the words either don't exist or are 'old fashioned' direct translations. Which means if we're talking anything really technical - just switching to English is convenient and mutually understood anyways. So either its fully Danish or we have a hybrid language where all technical terms is spoken in English. I wouldn't be caught dead saying 'peger' instead of 'pointer' :).
So basically its a computer that makes up statistical computations and corrects them to fit the models on the fly? Lazy scientists, rejoice!
And I'm not kidding, I live here at the moment, although I come from mainland Europe. This country is backwards. Think 1940es style, backwards.
I dont know why that is, perhaps its the general repression during British rule, the famine, the isolation from europe, and the dominance of the catholic church, but its so conservative you wouldnt believe it. Women have to go on special ferries to get abortions in the UK - and they risk all kinds of hell if anyone reports it back home. I see teenage mothers all over the place and every day theres new details about the catholic church raping (literally) the entire society. And on top of that, the last 3 taoiseachs has been openly corrupt, and probably longer back than that.
Oh well, atleast the pubs are OK.
I just have to say youre batshit crazy America. Why are you so afraid of sex, its a deep part of human nature, its not going away, it happens to wake up around 13-14 earlier/later depending on individual maturity. That doesnt mean teenagers have sex at that specific time, we all know that. But some will, many, will before they become 16 (age of consent in Denmark) - better they know how to protect themselves. No? Interestingly you can buy a pack of cigarette, a six pack of beer at the age of 16 here and then go out and fuck like a rabbit. But they just dont do it, what gives ? Why dont they censor swearing and titshots on TV here ? According to your legislators our society would be run by demented, raving alcoholic sexperverts raping everything with a pulse and not one of the safest places in the world. I know im generalizing here :), but its always weird to look across the pond (the UK is bad too), and see how much the people with a higher sense of moral right is dominating the news (that reaches us).
How on earth did anyone manage to become adults before, without being constantly molested or our minds corrupted by such evils as pictures of nipples and reproductive organs. Thanks to all the silly "think of the children", "beware of terrorists" laws lately i feel SO MUCH SAFER. George Orwell would weep.
I believe that this goes against pretty much any nation of EUs constitutions. You are innocent until proven guilty. France with their Dear Facist Leader, Sarkozy can fuck off.
Ofcourse not, I was merely reflecting what I have been led to believe based on many IRC chats with American friends - which may have been a part of an older school of thought :). There is something to be said however about how less time in some countries lead to higher scores which I find interesting - and I hope that is a research topic, it could be a cultural thing or a certain emphasis on some areas, like the old Soviet block focussing on the hard sciences, disregarding other parts entirely.
I think learning is a hard subject as people react differently to different methods and you have a classroom of 25-35 pupils, theres no easy way to find a single method that works equally well.
Why do you think other countries outscore America even if they spend less time in school? It is because they put emphasis on learning how to think and not to remember random trivia. I've been schooled in 3 different European countries, and not one of them has ever asked me for a multiple-choice test. Rather, heres a problem. Solve it or explain why it cant be solved. I am under the impression that the US focus more on trivia style learning. Correct me if im wrong ? Learning to use tools and learning resources and learning how to learn/teach yourself concepts means you can solve many things without being told howto. Thats the way to do it, in my opinion.
Does a TPM module matter? Afterall if the code runs we must assume its decrypted in memory, a debugger will quickly dump the decoded blocks to disk. Might take some re-assembly to recreate the PE file, but nothing that hasnt been done before. Afterall SecuROM already reads a 128bit TEA encryption key of the disk.. To decrypt sections in the executable but it still leaves pages decrypted (it needs to run.. afterall) and theres your entry point. Its futile.
Ironically, Hungary is known for some very good virus writers.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/30/hungarian_vxer_escapes_jail/
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-062004.html
Etc. And more from the early 90es and 80es. And as far as i remember, some of the early Polymorphic virus engines etc.
I think every country with teenagers+computers got some of these kids who dream in assembly code. And some of them might be eager to earn some easy money.
The worst thing is, you're probably right. The really make it hurt for these multibillion dollar companies, you need to strike with either excessive fines, or - demand responsibility from the management, and ship them to jail. You cant enjoy the money you gained unrightfully if you're in prison. But, this is the whitest of white collar crimes. But the bloke on the street who cheats for 500 euro in taxes, gets punished very hard in comparison.
Thats pretty much how it goes. It sounds like it works much like modern game protections, with full blown Virtual Machine, P-Codes and all that shizzle. Problem is, it can and will and has been cracked before. And once you crack 1 player, well. It'll be on Bittorent/FTPs before you can say, "gotcha!".
Do No Evil -> To Be as Evil as Everyone else. But what can you expect from public companies anyways, and an American system thats no more democratic than a banana republic anyways.
As far as I know, its legal in Denmark too. If you're on a public area, and you get photographed, say tourists posing in a photo and you happen to be in the background, and this photo is published on the Web, you cant demand it to be taken down.
Next thing you know, they'd have to blur all the audiences at sports events, because *gasp* they might be televised ?
However, that is not to say i approve of what Google is doing, i think the basic idea is good, I think some effort to at least blur out car registration plates and faces should be done. When they do it on such a large scale, and especially the whole thing about unmarked vans doing it makes it feel kinda creepy. If it said GOOGLE STREET VIEW PICTURE CAM-VAN and wasn't secretive about doing it, it would upset me that much.
I find it disturbing that Games and Firearms are mentioned in the same sentence, as if you should educate kids about both.
Personally id educate them about games.
Firearms, maybe if they choose to pickup hunting as a hobby - and it let the licensed instructor do that - or let the sergeants do that if they're called for the army.
Firearms + Kids does not compute.
Exactly, we weren't. It was a normal news story here in Denmark, it was on the news the day it happened, and then I never heard about it again until now.
It was a sad story, no doubt.
The only school shooting we ever had in Denmark, was a mentally ill man shooting a woman at Aarhus University, it didn't rile up the country at all. It was a sad story, too. But such things happen, except most of our mentally ill citizens don't have access to guns, and usually use knives, hands, blunt objects etc. instead. It reduces the amount of damage they can inflict before they're stopped. So theres not much to discuss when it happens, except, what could we have done to prevent it happening in the first place, which of course sparks allot of debate how to handle and treat mentally disturbed people. But i dont remember people being outraged about gun control, and that we should have campus police and metal detectors and compulsory mental health tests and so on.
Sad things like this happen. I doubt very much that more control and regulations would prevent it.
Blaming games and violent movies is perhaps just a convenient scapegoat. Such actions runs alot deeper than computer games and movies. While people with certain mental disorders or scars might obsess about it and carry out their fantasies in these games, the underlying problem is their mental disorder or hate towards women, society or whoever treated them wrong in the past. Its not the games/movies themselves. Thus, we gain nothing, while restricting our own freedoms. I, for one, wont accept that. Id rather spend more tax money on anti-bullying initiatives in schools, treatment of schizophrenia etc. than regulating games/movies. Thats the parents job.
Germany loves regulating everything you can and cant do. Whats appropriate for you etc. Sweden & Norway is in the same boat, hell you cant even buy alcohol outside of state owned shops there.
On the other hand, this type of thinking just doesn't fly with other members of the European union, where you're expected to be smart enough to tell your kids what they can play, watch and do. And supervise them if you feel thats necessary.
I think a German friend of mine explained how some videoshops work, please do correct me if im wrong, but it went like this:
The store, like say, Blockbuster - would have all the typical movies out, but all horror movies, adult movies, and violent movies etc. would be on display, available for browsing, but you would have to go ask for it directly in the shop. And it would be sortof "under the counter" thing.
Example, Denmark is a member of the EU. But Danes are generally don't hold high regards to authority - theres "recommendations" on videos/games like this:
A: All, can be watched by all. 7: Might contain scenes unappropriate for kids under 7, like peoply dying. (Even disney movies contain characters dying etc.) 11: "Children ages 11 to 14 is generally good to understand the different between fiction and reality, and can relate to many things, movies with suspense and action are therefore suitable" - rough translation from the official site. 15: "Children and adults above 15 are expected to have a solid genre understanding, and to know the difference between fiction and reality". Also rough translation from the official site.
15 is the last age these recommendations target. But these are recommendations, they have no legal standing. Of course most parents would probably decide for themselves what their kids can see/play. And i think, 99.99% of all parents have sense enough not to show the chainsaw massacre to their 7 year olds.
Authorities shouldn't regulate this, parents should. Recommendations like above, is a good guideline, but enforcing it, wouldn't stop anything. These people shooting other people don't have good parenting to begin with, and they'll find a way to get the games regardless. Hello, Bittorrent.
Its not the politicians business to tell people how-to be parents.
IANAL - But, usually when you agree upon a contract, its for the terms as presented at the time, and any change, like this - would void the contract? No? So the coupons are invalid with the introduction of GPLv3?
If its open and free its used to trade child pornography!
or even worse, pirated music! SOMEBODY, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
From what I understand, a black hole compresses all mass into a singularity (mathematically speaking of course), surely this means death. But what about the event horizon? Say I took a nose dive into a Black Hole, wouldn't it in theory take me an eternity to actually get to the point of my body collapsing into the singularity itself. And wouldn that mean I would be traveling in space and time itself? Since from what I understand, and I am clearly no astrophysicist, time is warped around the event horizon and thus acts like a "time machine" if you will, where a second outside the EH might be a millennium inside it. Wormholes are easy to visualize (hell pen+paper, wrap it, push pen through it) - black holes seem pretty complex with what it does with space/time. Except being heavier than yo' mamma, what else it does?
You mean spelled? Or spelt, as in the grain?
Its always easier to blame it on something that people don't really understand and/or already fear. Remember the fear of brain tumors from cell phones? Now when a Journalist or whatever hears bees cant find their way home, they obviously feel compelled to link it to the fearsome x-rays (I call them x-rays in the sense that x is unknown and scary rays of course). Surely, such "news" - "sell" more than some boring research into fungi. Nobody, cares about fungus. They care about scary invisible rays.
Its comical, like Flanders wife in Simpsons. Because, just because some student guns down some people because hes batshit crazy, and happened to also write something down on paper, that you'd have to arrest some poor kid for writing something down on paper aswell. What has society descended into? And I find the comments from the EU hatespeech laws thats been proposed a few days ironic compared to this incident. Some poster said free speech was alive and well in America, well my dear friend.. Not anymore apparently. FUD Is alive and well however, how can people live in a perpetual state of fear? Jesus effing christ, how can we arrest people for writing things, even if its batshit crazy stuff like Manson/Son of Sam shit, thats hardly a reason to be genuinely concerned. Its highly unlikely the next logical step is to bring a gun to the school? Right.. Right?
Cases like this, would be convenient to remove by law, but come to think of it, such laws would cause more harm than good, as it would soon be extended to all kinds of minorities who you might not like, but at least aren't doing anything illegal and just want to exercise their right of free assembly. Like a group discussing the legalization or Marijuana ? Euthanasia etc? Opinions you might not like, and which may be illegal under the current laws (ie: selling and possesion, or performing euthanasia). But thats the point of such groups no? To try to influence the current political system to accept their views. I dont mind Holocaust denials, because they're such a small blip on the radar, like people who still think the world is flat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society . They are annoying, but mostly harmless. As such - there is no need for a hate speech law, and it has been discussed alot in Denmark in the last couple of years and rejected. Although there are laws against racism, they are similar to the laws against slander. Heres the current law: In English: Those, who publically or with intension to publicize in a wider audience, makes statements or other messages by which a group of persons are threatened, humiliated due to their race, color, national or ethnic origin, beliefs or sexual orientation, are punished by fine or prison up to 2 years. Rougly translated - but anyways this is our current "hate speech" law in Denmark as of 2007, and while it restricts free speech, it only restricts parts where you humiliate or directly threaten a group of people. From our constitution: I believe the EU laws are incompatible with our constitution, as censorship is not allowed. The part about responsibility to the court of law is the loophole where the racism paragraph is introduced (and slander). I dont think youre allowed to make threats to anyone in pretty much any country, especially not as a part of a propaganda system. Other than that, censorship is strictly prohibited.. Last I checked, America very much censor pretty much everything. So wheres YOUR free speech?
Ah well - i realize now its worded wrong. But i mean, religions are pointless in that nobody is either going to heaven or hell (The #1 selling point of religions). There is only the earthly consequences of actions.
My personal theory about religion is that it served as an early attempt to control the masses, so that it held society together around a set of principles, which prevented the early civilisations from decending into total anarchy. Now that most of us have constitutions and quite extensive legal systems to prevent this, i dont see why religion still has any importance to society. Especially not when it seems to harm progress, rather than promote it*
*This comment only reserved to fundamentalist groups who frowns upon science.