[399] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Internet Foils Belgium Court's Attempt at Censorship
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Fri Nov 7 17:36:38 2008
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Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:12:52 -0800
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Internet Foils Belgium Court's Attempt at Censorship
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000461.html
Greetings. Wikileaks ( http://www.wikileaks.org ) is
vividly demonstrating why I keep repeating the phrase "You can't
effectively censor the Internet."
It seems that a Belgium satirical magazine just published a "sex
satire" story involving the country's chief of police. Rather
tasteless? Yeah, it seems so. But hardly earth-shattering.
Still, it was enough to trigger the Belgium legal system's ordering
that all copies of the magazine be recalled from stores, presumably
to try block distribution of the satire and its associated images.
The result is predictable to anyone who grasps the power of the
Internet. Wikileaks has placed the materials in dispute online,
where they will now garner far more attention -- and on a global
scale -- than they ever would have if the Belgium authorities'
censorship attempt hadn't been initiated
( http://tinyurl.com/wikileaks-belgium ).
By now the story and photos have been replicated on the Web around
the planet.
It's notable in this case that the original source materials didn't
start on the Net. But the Internet's power to foil censorship
can -- as this example makes clear -- easily extend beyond the Net back
to conventional media that can easily be brought online with a
simple scanner or video capture card.
Will the champions of censorship ever learn this basic yet awesome
truth?
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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