To those of you who don't know - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/02/pirate-bay-block-virgin-media Now, I can somewhat agree with blocking Piratebay, however today I found two political forums I like to visit and discuss opinions to be blocked because "the courts deem said material inappropriate". The forums were nothing out of the ordinary other than probably having a lot of criticism towards capitalism / police state. I believe this is just the start of a much larger Internet censorship.
Also considering putting in place a licence type system to view registered porn-sites. - www.geekosystem.com/uk-government-requiring-license-view-porn/ This one I kind of agree with, but still seems like the government are trying to take over the job of parents, so to speak. Edit: Realised this is going in the area of politics and such, guess I was just having a little moan. If you need to lock/delete this thread I understand.
Funny thing is politics become less incendiary the fewer people in this community live in that country. US politics are preferably avoided but for example if I talk about NZ politics, it's only Doctorie and Meemo who might object to my view. Not to diminish the Code of Suggestions () but I don't think this thread is risky. There are a few things floating around legislation in this part of the world that stray into questionable realms, but protection against censorship is pretty good here (with one exception regarding name suppression in criminal court cases that is becoming ever more untenable). I don't think we're going to get to the point where there are government parties providing how-tos on circumventing blacklists like what happened in the Netherlands, but if it comes to it there's really nothing they can do about proxies and VPNs. It's basically a waste of government money, and fortunately the powers-that-be are more interested in cutting costs right now than appeasing certain other powers for an 'free trade agreement' that will be anything but free. You have to be careful when dealing with governments with strong industry lobbies. It's not actually the government that you're making the deal with, it's a consortium of corporations trying to find a way to profit from the deal. Right now, probably the biggest export from the West to everywhere else is culture - movies, TV, music being a big part of it. So, no real surprise that copyright issues became so important in international politics. On a related note, the guy who ran Megaupload.com has become a minor celebrity here. It's looking pretty doubtful he's ever going to face trial overseas, and he might in fact be able to sue the Government for illegally seizing his property. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this international copyright policing nonsense is going to backfire so badly that rejection of it becomes part of the national psyche the way rejection of nuclear power has. It's the copyright and patent systems that need fixing, not the general public.