Pat Roberston Claims Gays Intentionally Spreading AIDS; Abuses DMCA To Stifle Criticism

from the holy-hell dept

Okay, I'm beginning to notice something of a trend. It seems to me that while we typically highlight instances of copyright law and the DMCA process used for censorship purposes, an odd bit of momentum is building up behind advocate and evangelical (not to be read strictly as religious) groups, which you would think generally want their ideas and concepts spread as far and wide as possible, being the perpetrators of this intellectual property bullying. Serving as examples are a "straight pride" group going ballistic when their own arguments are put on display and a doctor who advocates against home-birthing trying to silence her own provocative speech. I simply don't get it.

Yet we continue to see examples in which IP law is used to censor self-speech in this way. Take another foray into technology by Pat Robertson, whom we last saw saying that crimes committed in video games were equal in sin to crimes committed in real life. This time, the Christian Broadcast Network, which carries the flagship The 700 Club led by Robertson, has been issuing DMCA notices for clips of the show in which Robertson informs the faithful that homosexual activists are intentionally spreading AIDS among the pious by shaking their hands while wearing a ring with a sharp puncture device that has infected blood on the tip.

Now, let's be clear: For the purposes of this article, my view, your view, anyone's view on sexuality is irrelevant. We're here because Robertson said this, other groups are using the video as commentary, and the CBN is actively attempting to censor the videos using intellectual property law. That's the issue at hand. Case in point, the Rightwingwatch.org site linked above is obviously also an advocacy group with their own agenda with which you may not agree. That doesn't matter. They have their right to speech the same as anyone else and the CBN abusing the law to try and stifle the inevitable backlash over Robertson's false statement is wrong no matter whom you agree with. The good news is that, in this case, the other DMCA shoe has dropped and some of the videos that had been taken down by YouTube are now back up after the appropriate counter-claims were filed. That said, it's ridiculous that any counter-claim was necessary in the first place. Robertson is an evangelist; you'd think he'd want his words out there as much as possible, if he actually believes what he says. Censorship using government law is something you'd think religious groups would be actively opposed to, not employing.

And, in the meantime, this story is now traveling in far wider circles than it would have if the CBN hadn't raised a censorious finger. Way to go, all around!

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, pat robertson, takedowns

Pat Robertson: Murder Committed In Video Games Is No Different Than Real Life Murder

from the everyone-is-going-to-hell dept

If you aren't a certain Christian denomination or a zillion years old, you may not be too familiar with Pat Robertson. Minister Robertson is the man behind The 700 Club, which is apparently still on the air, as well as the Chancellor of Regent University, a former presidential candidate, and an author. Amongst his other accomplishments was incorrectly predicting the end of the world in 1982 (though that is the year I was born. Hmm...), praying away hurricanes, calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez (for Jesus!) and basically indicating that most natural disasters and terrorist attacks of late come strictly as a result of all our sinful ways, which is to say acting in any way Pat Robertson didn't specifically tell us to. That last bit should now be taking on an epically more terrifying hue of fear, given how Robertson recently answered an emailed question on his television program.

Holy shit (get it?). Should you be unable to see the embedded video, the question asked how sins are assessed in video games. Robertson answered by quoting The Nazarene as saying that lusting after a woman was the same as committing adultery (Yay! Thought crime!). Building off of that, Robertson suggested that "that's a virtual sin, if you play one of those [violent/salacious] video games" before gleefully stating he's never played a video game in his life. Then, to drive the point home, he brings up Grand Theft Auto and says "if you murder someone in cyber-space, in a sense you're performing the act whether you like it or not."

Hoo-boy. Here I was, going about my day, looking up obscure trademark and copyright stories while thinking up penis-jokes, all the while I had no idea that I've committed more murders than Stalin. And I did it gleefully. And it isn't just murder I'm guilty of either. Think of the number of animal abuse charges that could be leveled at me for all those turtles I stomped on in Super Mario Bros., or the genocides I've committed in Mass Effect. And, yeah, I've played GTA too, and you don't even want to know the stuff I've done in that game.

If all these are sins equal to their real-life counterparts, there's got to be a terrorist attack or tsunami bearing down on me at this exact moment. Or, perhaps we shouldn't be asking the elderly and willfully ignorant how they assess what we do in video games. Otherwise, we'll just get the same responses we've received about nearly every other form of entertainment before they became commonplace.

Filed Under: murder, pat robertson, sins, video games