'Reasonable' censorship?

[SiD the Turtle]

Here's an interesting one, if from a biased source:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/04/ec_frattini_web_terror_dunce_cap/

The European Commission (EC) has announced plans to frustrate terrorism by suppressing online guides on bomb-making.

"It should simply not be possible to leave people free to instruct other people on the internet on how to make a bomb – that has nothing to do with freedom of expression," EC vice president Franco Frattini said yesterday.

Mr Frattini is "responsible for Freedom, Security and Justice."

When asked how the EC planned to suppress web bomb manufacture instructions hosted outside EU borders, it appeared that officials planned to act at the level of ISPs in Europe.

The Times quoted a commission spokesman as saying: "You always need a provider here that gives you access to websites. They can decide technically which websites to allow. Otherwise, how would China block internet sites? There are no technological obstacles, only legal ones."

According to the Telegraph's Brussels correspondent, "internet service providers would face charges if they failed to block websites with bomb-making instructions".

Should you ban the right to look at bomb making guides and similar 'suspect' info? How far does it go? You can read about the principles of the atom bomb (though not exactly a DIY guide) on Wikipedia, should that be banned too? What about banning sites deemed suspect by the censor but actually harmless? Could such a law ever stick? In China it seems to work purely based on the fact they have, how should I put it, more 'proactive' law enforcement . The number of ways around it would make it a technical challenge to block, and harder to enforce and convict than say in China.

Thoughts? If in theory a ban could completely halt our access to such materials, would it make the world a better place, or is it censorship too far?

 

[Ex-RoNiN]

This will never pass

 

[SiD the Turtle]

This will never pass

Probably not, but I thought it was an interesting topic regardless.

 

[furnace]

While it would be good to stop sites telling people how to make bombs, I am totally against anything at ISP-level blocking of websites... it will start with bomb instructions, but I don't believe that's where it will end, too.

 

[SunaseIPs]

Bomb making site, will it get shut down?

THROW THE KEYS AWAY!

 

[Nebzor]

That's taking it too far obviously. It will never be passed, though. The internet is now an untameable beast.

 

[Amp34]

Why would it never pass? The internet is already censored, why would an extra few pages make a huge difference?

 

[Vonhelmet]

I think they should go for it. After all, they sorted out file sharing really easily, so why not this?

 

[Azagoth]

I abhor censorship in any form! The thing about this story though is that it won't do anything at all. Any half decent A-Level Chemistry student can build a bomb. Hell, I nearly put an Oak tree into orbit during my student says.

Luckily though the only thing destroyed, apart from the tree, was my mates car which is lucky realiy because we certainly weren't careful and we definately weren't wearing hardhats, goggles and hi-vis vests.

 

[Mr.Clark]

This isn't even a debate about censorship really.

Censorship only applies if you can truly ban something.

With the Internet, and different laws of different countries, you'll never be able to ban knowledge, especially knowledge that is legal for certain professions.

And if you can't ban it everywhere, it's completely pointless. Honest people will be denied access to information, and criminals will simply set up servers in compliant countries, send it by email or use systems such as Tor to anonymously distribute it.

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

What a silly idea.

A better idea would be to propagate lots of bomb making guides online, except fix them so that the bomb goes off as it is being made. That way, the terrorist problem solves itself.

 

[Amp34]

This isn't even a debate about censorship really.

Censorship only applies if you can truly ban something.

With the Internet, and different laws of different countries, you'll never be able to ban knowledge, especially knowledge that is legal for certain professions.

And if you can't ban it everywhere, it's completely pointless. Honest people will be denied access to information, and criminals will simply set up servers in compliant countries, send it by email or use systems such as Tor to anonymously distribute it.

Or just use a run of the mill proxy...

 

[Vulcan]

Prime example of anti net neutrality, and I thought it was only the Americans in favour of this thing.

 

[sanaxe1]

Leave the internet alone

 

[Moredhel]

Indeed, there's no such thing as reasonable censorship. All censorship is bad, m'kay.