Philippines' Cybercrime Law Makes SOPA Look Reasonable 103
silentbrad writes with this report from Forbes: "The dark days of SOPA and PIPA are behind the U.S., at least temporarily, as copyright tycoons reground and restrategize, attempting to come up with measures that don't cause the entire internet to shut down in protest. But one country has already moved ahead with similar legislation. The government of the Philippines has passed the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which on the surface, as usual, sounds perfectly well-intentioned. But when you read the actual contents of what's been deemed 'cybercrime,' SOPA's proposed censorship sounds downright lax by comparison. Yes, there's the usual hacking, cracking, identity theft and spamming, which most of us can agree should be illegal. But there's also cybersex, pornography, file-sharing (SOPA's main target), and the most controversial provision, online libel." At least it doesn't mention blasphemy.
Libel is controversial? (Score:2, Interesting)
Can someone justify why the "libel" section is the most controversial?
I really can't understand how anyone would want to protect peoples right to lie about others and destroy their reputation.
Re:Testing grounds (Score:1, Interesting)
Cultural differences
If you put a sign up in the USA that says "Stay off the Grass" there are going to be people that will challenge that no matter how much or little sense it makes, Japan and the Philippines not so much.
Re:Cybersex? (Score:4, Interesting)
Cybersex in the Philippines was already legally considered to be a form of prostitution before this law was passed. Now it would appear that the punishment for getting naked on a webcam will be harsher than that for having actual sex for pay, which will only serve to drive women away from the relatively safe jobs involving cybersex and into the more dangerous work of actual prostitution.
Just how much more severe is the punishment for cybersex? The fine for prostitution is 200 to 2,000 pesos. The fine for cybersex is 200,000 to 1,000,000 pesos. Average annual family income in the Philippines is 206,000 pesos as of 2009.
Please don't speak for me. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, there's the usual hacking, cracking, identity theft and spamming, which most of us can agree should be illegal.
I can't agree on that at all, and especially with overly-broad terms like "hacking" (or even "spamming"). What is "spamming"? Is that any UCE or is that just penis enlargement pills? Because there's lots and lots and LOTS of perfectly legitimate commercial e-mail that one person would consider spam and another person doesn't.
Hacking? What is hacking? Security research? Breaking into systems? What about altering systems that I own to do things they weren't intended to do?
You don't speak for me, Forbes, so your blatant editorializing is not appreciated.