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Cheeseman1000
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Iceland
8201 Posts |
 Posted - 02/08/2006 : 03:09:47
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There's been a number of free speech issues in the news recently - maybe we can tie up some of them here, allow various other threads to go off course...
For example:
- The "non-evil Google have submitted to restrictions in their Chinese version
- Old Hook Hand Abu Hamza is locked up for seven years for "inciting religious hatred" through his preaching
- Riots, burnings and murders when Danish newspapers print pictures of Mohammed
- AOL and Yahoo getting in on the act (charging for email, i.e. not free...)
Is the world going mad? Is democracy dying on it's feet? You tell me.
 I have joined the Cult Of Frank/And I have dearly paid |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 03:15:39
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I´m one of those guys who feels it´s a small elite gone mad. I don´t know enough psychos for me to feel it´s regular joes who are willingly pushing every lifesystem on the planet into decline, although plenty might participate unwittingly.
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 03:29:14
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For all the trumpeting of internet as this bastion of free speech, the word ´cyber´ comes from the Greek ´kuber´, meaning to steer and where we get the word ´government´, so ´cyberspace´ means ´controlled space´. And seeing as it was an invention of those freewheeling folks in the military, is it all that surprising there be clampdowns?
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 03:31:04
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Last one before I go for coffee: when something like a country or a world is free, you don´t need to say it, it is implicit. Have a nice afternoon all of you.
xowen
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
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Llamadance
> Teenager of the Year <
United Kingdom
2543 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 04:21:18
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What confuses me is where the lines are drawn or where they should be drawn. For instance, in the case of the cartoons, are the muslims being hypersensitive, and now because of their reaction is free spech going to be curbed more? Should we really be restricted from saying things because it might offend some people?
Am I right in thinking that the historian who denies the Holocaust was arrested in Austria recently because to deny the Holcaust there is a crime? That to me seems a gross intrusion into free speech.
Should incitement to do violence/murder really be restricted through laws on free speech?Haven't some of our most celebrated 'freedom' icons advocated violence on many occasions?
Sorry, more questions, no answers.
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 05:21:55
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quote:
Originally posted by Newo
For all the trumpeting of internet as this bastion of free speech, the word ´cyber´ comes from the Greek ´kuber´, meaning to steer and where we get the word ´government´, so ´cyberspace´ means ´controlled space´. And seeing as it was an invention of those freewheeling folks in the military, is it all that surprising there be clampdowns?
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Of course, the word 'cyberspace' does not origin from the internet's founders but from a novel by William Gibson written quite a bit later, so it wasn't built in.
HowEVER, the people who designed TCP/IP, the fundamental protocol underlying the internet, in fact, the people who designed ALL the fundamental elements of the internet made the protocols and open and not proprietary, which largely accounts for its widespread use today.
 "If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 09:16:30
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What book did Gibson use it in? I know he bases a lot of his patter upon Pynchon, who had a character in Gravity´s Rainbow called Byron the Bulb who was part of a global information grid.
And about the topical question, I like the quote by Chomsky something like "Unless you support freedom of speech for the person you despise the most, you don´t support it at all."
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Netherlands
6213 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 11:31:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Llamadance
Am I right in thinking that the historian who denies the Holocaust was arrested in Austria recently because to deny the Holcaust there is a crime? That to me seems a gross intrusion into free speech.
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
you can deny it as long as the people who say it did happen, meaning peope who aren't stupid and have lot's of evidence it did happen are free to say it did happen and show the big evidence. People who deny it should be given a history lesson or two however.
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God save the Noisies |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 11:35:56
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quote:
Originally posted by Newo
What book did Gibson use it in? I know he bases a lot of his patter upon Pynchon, who had a character in Gravity´s Rainbow called Byron the Bulb who was part of a global information grid.
And about the topical question, I like the quote by Chomsky something like "Unless you support freedom of speech for the person you despise the most, you don´t support it at all."
'twas Neuromancer, I believe.
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
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danjersey
> Teenager of the Year <
USA
2792 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 19:22:31
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"Unless you support freedom of speech for the person you despise the most, you don´t support it at all."
"Unless you support freedom of speech for the person you despise the most, you don´t support it at all."
"Unless you support freedom of speech for the person you despise the most, you don´t support it at all."
"All at it support don't you, most the despise you person the for speech of freedom support you unless."
"All at it support don't you, most the despise you person the for speech of freedom support you unless."
"All at it support don't you, most the despise you person the for speech of freedom support you unless." |
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PixieSteve
> Teenager of the Year <
Poland
4698 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 20:22:53
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quote:
Originally posted by Newo
And about the topical question, I like the quote by Chomsky something like "Unless you support freedom of speech for the person you despise the most, you don´t support it at all."
i liked the sound of that, found the proper quote:
"Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech." Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992).
Your mum |
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Free Speech
