How Much Should an OS Vendor Own?
Linked by David Adams on Tue 13th Dec 2011 03:12 UTC
Editorial I was reading today about how Linux Mint developers altered the Banshee music player source code to redirect affiliate revenue from Amazon music orders to them instead of Banshee. They've reportedly made less than $4, which has caused a kerfluffle among those paying attention to that corner of the world. But it raises a larger point that has been swirling around for a couple of decades: an OS vendor has a lot of power to influence, and even monetize their user base. Where should they draw the line?
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RE[6]: Drawing the line
by mtzmtulivu on Tue 13th Dec 2011 17:01 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: Drawing the line"
mtzmtulivu
Member since:
2006-11-14

I don't get it. When everybody agrees that child porn is a crime then the pictures have to be deleted from the net anyways. So ensuring that that happens ASAP should be a priority. It is just using the laws that are already in place everywhere. I don't see using the current laws as a new form of censoring. All major censoring proposals are about blocking or filtering, which is either ineffective or a privacy nightmare and history has shown that persecution gets neglected once filtering and blocking are in place.
And I am not talking about some fictional cartoon hentai here. I am talking about media of real child abuse.

Are you people against that?


Sometimes its best to start with definitions. How do you define "censorship"?.

Here is one definition from wikipedia

Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.


by that definition, blocking uploading and deleting uploaded kiddie porn is censorship. Its just that it is a kind of censorship the society agrees is a good one. It being a good one does not make it "not censorship".

If the law says saying "ABCD" online is illegal and subject to criminal prosecution, preventing people from saying "ABCD" by deleting all mentions of "ABCD" does not mean its not censorship because the law demands it.

If consistency is to be expected based on your writing, you will also say the great firewall of china is not censorship because it is done according to the current laws of that country. I think most people will disagree with you.

Reply Parent Score: 4

RE[7]: Drawing the line
by kragil on Tue 13th Dec 2011 17:12 in reply to "RE[6]: Drawing the line"
kragil Member since:
2006-01-04

Well, if you take a definition out of context you are right.
But let's be honest here, when people talk about censoring the internet they talk about changing the rules and currently all rules are already against child porn, because it highly illegal everywhere, so no more rules needed IMO.
And your China analogy is not what I am talking about. I was talking about a law that the whole world agrees on. I don't think Chinas great firewall has that kind of backing.

Reply Parent Score: 0

RE[8]: Drawing the line
by mtzmtulivu on Tue 13th Dec 2011 17:32 in reply to "RE[7]: Drawing the line"
mtzmtulivu Member since:
2006-11-14

How do you define censorship?

Where else would your definition hold apart from kiddie porn online?

I think what you( and i assume there are a few others who think like you ) are you doing is cherry picking what is to be considered censorship and what isnt.

What most people do is seeing any form of speech suppression to be censorship and then they start cherry picking what censorship is good and what is not.

The two above are not the same.

Have you ever heard of a saying "a cure to bad speech is more speech"?. That statement comes from the view that censoring even what the whole world agrees to be bad speech is bad in itself.

Most people will agree that kiddie porn is bad and hence censoring it is a good thing but it is still censorship never the less.

Reply Parent Score: 3

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RE[8]: Drawing the line
by zima on Tue 20th Dec 2011 23:30 in reply to "RE[7]: Drawing the line"
zima Member since:
2005-07-06

The Great Firewall of China is justified also on the basis of blocking such illegal content as obscenity or pornography (in general, but I'd guess child pornography in particular), something not that unique on world stage. Plus:

the PRC-sponsored news agency, Xinhua, stated that censorship targets only "superstitious, pornographic, violence-related, gambling and other harmful information."

...while the whole world doesn't agree on blocking those (but then, it doesn't really strictly agree on the treatment of sexuality of minors, either), wouldn't German censorship of overtly nazi content fall under most of those categories?

Then there's how

Reply Parent Score: 2