Chinese Crackdown On Porn Websites Sounds Like US Crackdown On Allegedly 'Infringing' Websites
from the it's-all-censorship-in-the-end dept
There have been some recent reports on how China has apparently begun a massive crackdown on porn websites, shutting down tens of thousands of websites. And, while the scale is obviously significantly larger, what struck me about the reports on this crackdown is just how similar the reasoning coming from Chinese officials sounds to the reasoning from US officials concerning domain names seized by Homeland Security having to do (allegedly) with copyright and trademark infringement. Apparently, the explanation from Chinese officials was along the following lines:"Our campaign has been a great success and this has not been achieved easily... We have made the Internet environment much cleaner than before as there was a lot of pornography available. As long as there are people with bad motives who want to spread violent or pornographic information, we will have to continue our campaign to resolutely crack down on the spread of such information."Now, compare that to some statements by Homeland Security's director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton soon after ICE seized its first batch of domain names in June:
Simply put, American business is under assault from those who pirate copyrighted material and produce counterfeit trademarked goods.... American innovation is being diluted and the public health and safety of Americans is at risk.... The Administration is responding to this organized criminal activity through a first-of-its-kind aggressive, coordinated, and strategic offensive...In early December, we pointed to law professor Derek Bambauer's explanation of how these domain seizures really seemed quite similar to the censorship in other countries, and the similarities in explanations by China and the US simply serves to highlight this point. The US censors domains it believes are involved in copyright and trademark infringement, because it believes those sites are "bad" and put the US in danger. Similarly, China censors pornographic websites, because it believes that those sites are "bad" and put its citizens in danger. Perhaps those reasons are defensible, but for US politicians to then claim that the US is against censorship is obviously false. It's perfectly happy to censor when it comes to content it doesn't like.
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Filed Under: censorship, china, copyright, free speech, porn, us
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If this is the best argument you have, you have failed.
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This was just an accurate comparison between Chinese censorship and American censorship.
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You can call a rose by any other name...
Also since the US has called out China for their insane censorship this is highlighting how the US is hypocritical of it's own "ideals" it wishes other countries would embrace.
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i can tell by the over the top rantings that are blatantly false and the large oversized tusks.
....seen a few trolls in my day....
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Could you tell me which techdirt article this comment was intended for - because it looks like it's on the wrong one - and I'd love to read the article where Mike makes those who are working against piracy look like communists.
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The point isn't that America is acting like communists. It's that we aren't practicing what we preach.
Try again....
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truthiness. I think that is what it is called.
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*Allusion?
"To future-quote TD: We have already shown where the US is worse than communist countries when it comes to shutting down internet sites it doesn't agree with."
Mind linking to wherever you pulled that from so I can take a look?
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Check back later :)
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If so, tell me, how will the Bears do in the playoffs this year? Is Derrick Rose going to have a shot at the MVP trophy? And for the love of all things holy, will my Cubs EVER win the World Series?
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Comparing U.S. attitudes and actions on censorship to other parts of the world seems like a pretty valid topic to me. Do you not agree? Or do you have a better way to discuss it that would meet with your approval?
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Quoting the opinion of a fictional character - boy that really supports your case!
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Could you reiterate that part please?
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P*ss in the ocean...
Eventually, they will come to understand there is no controlling the Internet or information moving across it.
It's like radiation with human intelligence.
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Re: P*ss in the ocean...
There is no controlling the Internet or information moving across it, unless you can control all the people which use the Internet.
That is, the only way of censoring the Internet is to censor the people themselves.
I do not think, given the quality of the readership of this website, that I need to expand on what kind of dystopia this would be. Obviously, DO NOT WANT.
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Despite what some people would like you to believe, both US citizens and China citizens are human. Should it be surprising that they are not so different?
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washington and mao had dinner
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OMG! They cleaned the porn off the net?!
http://www.google.com/search?q="hot babes"
click random link
Aha! Another politician caught in a lie!
click
click click
click click click ...
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just add me
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