Extreme Constitution Madness!

[Buck Birdseed]

The Swedish Constitution, that is. Sweden's Chancellor of Justice has just put up a challenge against all public libraries, claiming that all filtering software is unconstitutional (See this Aftonbladet article if you can read swedish). Apparently the argument runs that the filtering software is a form of censorship, here used by the Government (represented by the public libraries) to reduce access to certain media outlets it finds undesirable, thus running against our constitutional-status Freedom of the Press Act and Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression.

Nice. But ever so slightly insane.

[Stefu]

I wish government would go too far in protecting freedom of speech in Finland. Instead, we get proposals like the "freedom of speech" law, which, among other things, would have mandated discussion forum owners to read and approve all the submissions to the forums before they were posted. Thankfully at least the forum thingy was struck out of the proposal, but there's still plenty of other Internet-is-not-real-speech-anyway type thinking there. I'm not sure as to how is it doing now.

[David Floyd]

You don't think that government censorship violates free speech?

[Kropotkin]

David; you're missing the point but I'd say that it's not your fault. It's about blocking porno-surfing in public libraries.


edit: I might add that I agree with the decision though. So if a weirdo wants to watch porn in a public space. it's no worse than reading a porno mag in a park imho. As long as he (or she) directly disturbs others it's OK. Jerking off would be a definite no, no in my book.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
David; you're missing the point but I'd say that it's not your fault. It's about blocking porno-surfing in public libraries.


edit: I might add that I agree with the decision though. So if a weirdo wants to watch porn in a public space. it's no worse than reading a porno mag in a park imho. As long as he (or she) directly disturbs others it's OK. Jerking off would be a definite no, no in my book.

what about streaming video with sound?

i'm serious here. it would disturb others.

imagine some 13 year old girl doign a book report on pigs or something, with a 37 year old man watching midget quadropledgic goat porn in front of her.

[Kropotkin]

I don't think they have loudspeakers in the library, or the ability to download files. Sounds would obviously disturb others but that's nothing that's unique to porn and is not allowed.

Someone could be reading a Tom Clancy book right in front of me. I would find that disturbing...

[Henrik]

I agree with the chancelor of justice on this

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
I don't think they have loudspeakers in the library, or the ability to download files.

They don't have loudspeakers but you can d/l files at a library.

[Buck Birdseed]

Originally posted by David Floyd
You don't think that government censorship violates free speech?

I do. I think it's the right decision, even, compared to what goes on in other countries I could mention. But it's still totally whacked-out. In the best way possible.

[Buck Birdseed]

Originally posted by Stefu
mandated discussion forum owners to read and approve all the submissions to the forums before they were posted.

We've unfortunately had this in Sweden too, again based on a constitutional provision whereby every publication is granted the right to freely publish what they like as long as they appoint one person, the "responsible publisher" who takes responsibility for any legal action that might result therefrom. A message board, for the purposes of the law, is counted as part of any publication's site, thus making the site owners or their "responsible publishers" legally responsible for everything discussed on the board.

Doesn't affect non-publications (they're covered by a different part of the constitution), but then neither does the Porn In Public Libraries thing.

[Apocalypse]

Some public libraries in the US have removed filtering software because they believe it limits free speech.

[Buck Birdseed]

I though there was a federal law in the US (or at least passing through congress) requiring the exact opposite.

[Apocalypse]

Nope. I have an uncle who is a lawyer who is also on some library committee. I didn't hear this from him, but I did hear my grandmother complaining about this to him. It turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable situations I've ever had to be in.

[Buck Birdseed]

Found it- The Children's Internet Protection Act. Apparently it was struck down by some court last summer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/25557.html

[Buck Birdseed]

And the act (apprently in full force) is being checked by the Supreme Court right now... http://www.peacefire.org/

Maybe this is what prompted the dear Chancellor to poke Swedish libraries' internet blockage.