The French Government Can Now Censor the Internet 419
Psychophrenes writes "A new episode in French internet legislation — French ministers have passed a bill (original in French) allowing the government to add any website to a black list, which access providers will have to enforce. This black list will be defined by the government only, without requiring the intervention of the legal system. Although originally intended against pedo-pornographic websites, this bill is already outdated, as was Hadopi in its time, and instead paves the way for a global censorship of the 'French internet.'"
Re:france sucks (Score:4, Interesting)
I think China may actually be worse, but I am not sure, I can't get anyone their to comment.
Re:I can't believe the French just gave in on this (Score:5, Interesting)
it's worse than that. if the usa ever does fall under the boot of fascism, that fascism will start with a committed group of heavily armed partisans. when i hear about heavily armed ideologues running around the woods, i don't think of protection from fascism, i think of the soil in which fascism grows
Re:There they go again... (Score:5, Interesting)
pissed off that it's no longer a global superpower, and pissed off that it's language is no longer considered the "lingua franca" for global commerce.
They have the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and their economy, while unstable, is still ranked 9th in the world. That instability is caused by transitioning to a more capitalistic economic model. And before you go bad-mouthing France, I'd like to point out that the average French citizen has a higher cut of GDP than the average United States citizen, despite the economic crisis for one simple reason: The French didn't bend over and take it in the ass at the behest of corporate interests who sold out their future for a few SUVs and a bank-owned home that's not worth half of what it was paid for.
Frankly, France has a rosier future than the United States does -- they're making a difficult transition that will improve the standard of living for its citizens in the long run, at the cost of some short term pain. The United States is making a transition for the worse because our government has systematically chosen short term gain at the expense of sustainability and long-term growth.
Re:the usual stalking horse (Score:4, Interesting)
First, pedophilia means an attraction to children. It has nothing to do with rape or molestation - and in fact, most cases of child rape are committed by persons who are not pedophiles. This is not only my opinion, but the opinion of many researchers and the FBI. Equating pedophiles and child molesters is like referring to all heterosexual men as rapists.
Even in the rare cases where actual pedophiles have had sexual contact with children, most bona fide researchers and law enforcement have observed that pedophiles almost never use violence. In contrast, research has found that those who are sexually violent against children are almost never attracted to the children - that is, they are not pedophiles.
Second, pedophilia is not a fetish. Pedophilia is a sexual orientation. It is, as you say, not justifiable - just as being an American, or a European, or an African is not justifiable. These things just are.
Third, what makes people angry at pedophiles is a combination of ignorance, fear of the unknown, yellow journalism, xenophobia, and grandstanding politicians. The "pedophiles" that the public is angry at are not even pedophiles - two diametrically opposed groups have somehow been merged into one in the public mind - but it is very difficult to get the truth out.
The question is, once the truth comes out and the public realizes that there was never any serious threat from pedophiles, or terrorists, or illegal aliens, or whatever other bogeyman the politicians come up with to justify the loss of freedom - will it be too late?
Re:Americans (Score:4, Interesting)
I suspect there are more than a few Hondurans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, El Salvadorians, Belizians, Costa Ricans, and Panamanians who would take exception to that statement
Have you been to any of those countries? When you travel down there, you'll see that they all proudly proclaim that they're part of "Central America." They puposely distance themselves from North or South America. For example, here's a Belizean license plate:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1AAaANrTdAM/SgHAxpUOqcI/AAAAAAAABKg/MVvHKJR7EWI/s400/belize.jpg [blogspot.com]
The C.A. on the plate stands for "Central America."