State Censorship

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

State Censorship

Postby Thad » Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:35 am

Wired UK via Ars: UK content filters are working exactly as well as everyone who has ever used a content filter said they would.

Among the usual stuff -- blocking sex ed, drug rehab, and crisis centers -- it also blocked jQuery for about an hour.

User avatar
sei
Posts: 1074
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:29 pm

Re: State Censorship

Postby sei » Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:13 am

Must have misread it as jQueery.
Image

User avatar
Mothra
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3963
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Mothra » Tue Feb 04, 2014 3:31 pm

sei wrote:Must have misread it as jQueery.


Heh

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: State Censorship

Postby Mongrel » Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:33 pm

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201403 ... rges.shtml

Now, you guys know I'm no conspiracy dude, but even I can theoretically see some pissed-off Briton IT dude planting this stuff, because that's just too obvious a play.

Or maybe he really did get hoist on his own petard.
Image

User avatar
IGNORE ME
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3679
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:40 pm

Re: State Censorship

Postby IGNORE ME » Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:02 pm

Didn't somebody just say that you can get arrested for possession in the UK even if possession is part of the normal course of your duties?

Kfroog
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:09 am

Re: State Censorship

Postby Kfroog » Thu Mar 06, 2014 10:55 pm

What happens to the people who arrest you for possession, then? Does it just start a chain reaction that ends only with everyone in the country arrested?

User avatar
Healy
Posts: 358
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2014 10:53 am
Location: Bro-ing it up in the Arctic

Re: State Censorship

Postby Healy » Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:27 pm

That sounds just like something from my British sketch comedy shows, so I hope that's how it works.
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Thad » Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:20 am

Responding seriously for a moment: no, there's an exception if you're SPECIFICALLY assigned to investigate child porn.

...whoops, forgot to put a link to that Stross post I quoted when the subject came up. Fixed now, and there's a link for you right there. Here's the relevant quote:

Possession of child pornography images is a strict liability offence — intent has no bearing. Only a handful of categories of people are permitted to possess this material: police investigating a crime, some forensics specialists, lawyers and judges and other people involved in a trial.

User avatar
Blossom
Posts: 2297
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 8:58 pm

Re: State Censorship

Postby Blossom » Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:08 pm

I expect that in this case, the guy probably knowingly has a collection of actual child pornography.

That said, the law over there is seriously fucked up. One of the criteria under which a thing becomes legally child pornography in the UK is if "(a)the impression conveyed by the image is that the person shown is a child, or (b)the predominant impression conveyed is that the person shown is a child despite the fact that some of the physical characteristics shown are not those of a child." So, yes, a porn clip of a 25 year old in a high school uniform could constitute child pornography.

Also, like you say, strict liability. I changed my avatar today. Everyone who's viewed thread containing a post of mine since I did that is now in possession of an archive of Starbound mods - at least until they clear their browser's cache. If that were instead an archive of kiddy porn, and you lived in the UK, you'd be entirely guilty of possessing child pornography under the law.
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Thad » Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:55 am

Community college professor posts picture of his daughter in an "I will take what is mine with fire and blood" T-shirt on Google+, gets suspended without pay and told to submit to a psych evaluation.

Points to Ken White for working several very good Song of Ice and Fire references into his post about it. And, you know, calling attention to a community college suspending a professor because he posted a photo of a T-shirt on the Internet.

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Thad » Tue May 13, 2014 4:48 pm

Man mocks mayor of Peoria, Illinois; police toss his house and bust his roommate for pot.

There are plenty of people to be righteously angry at in this story, but I think I reserve the most contempt for the judges who signed the warrants.

User avatar
Classic
Posts: 1025
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 6:53 am

Re: State Censorship

Postby Classic » Tue May 13, 2014 5:10 pm

There's a tiny bit on page three where they say the judges were sometimes told (presumably by the warrant itself,) that the warrant was for child pornography. I don't know that this exonerates any of the shady shit that went down there... but maybe it has some small, ghastly, explanatory power.

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Thad » Tue May 13, 2014 5:18 pm

No, that makes it worse. It is not a judge's job to uncritically accept groundless accusations. If you see someone accused of child pornography, your response should damn well be "What child pornography?", not to reach for your rubber stamp.

Crying "Drugs!" or "Terrorism!" or "Child abuse!" should not function as a shortcut around the Bill of Rights.

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: State Censorship

Postby Friday » Wed May 14, 2014 7:06 pm

But it does.

I mean, I read the popehat article dedicated to this very thing.

All you have to do to indiscriminately spy on an entire population of 350 million+ is say all three at once.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Classic
Posts: 1025
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 6:53 am

Re: State Censorship

Postby Classic » Sun May 18, 2014 9:09 am

Well, I mean, that's what happens when you have an intelligence community that basically has no oversight. (Hi fellow(s)!)
But that they're able to do so with explicit legal blessing is the patroit-y part.

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Thad » Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:10 pm



The real fun starts at 2:40.

Ars has emails from the contact form on his website.

User avatar
beatbandito
Posts: 4300
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:04 am

Re: State Censorship

Postby beatbandito » Tue Jun 17, 2014 8:30 pm

Now that he's actually read everything posted to twitter I think that's enough to make it an official account.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: State Censorship

Postby Mongrel » Mon Jun 23, 2014 9:20 am

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... ears-egypt

The former BBC correspondent Peter Greste, from Australia, the ex-CNN journalist Mohamed Fahmy, and local producer Baher Mohamed were jailed for seven, seven and 10 years respectively. Four students and activists indicted in the case were sentenced to seven years.

The judge also handed 10-year sentences to British journalists Sue Turton and Dominic Kane and the Dutch journalist Rena Netjes, who were not in Egypt but being tried in absentia.

The courtroom packed with journalists, diplomats and relatives erupted at the verdict which came despite what independent observers said was a complete lack of evidence.

...

Evidence provided by the prosecution included footage from channels and events with nothing to do with Egyptian politics or al-Jazeera. It included videos of trotting horses from Sky News Arabia, a song by the Australian singer Gotye, and a BBC documentary from Somalia.
Image

User avatar
sei
Posts: 1074
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:29 pm

Re: State Censorship

Postby sei » Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Austrian TOR exit node operator arrested on grounds of [contributing to the completion of criminal action] (HN discussion).

He proceeded to lose a court case and posted an official statement here.

The sentence is based on §12 which allows for anyone to be dealt with as perpetrator (which is a pretty dictatorial law IMO) and this is based on that i knew it *could* possibly be used for criminal activity (in this case child pornography).
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: State Censorship

Postby Thad » Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:54 pm

Other things that could potentially be used for child pornography: cameras, film, photo paper, printer paper, photocopiers, computers, phones, various body parts...

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests