While in the UK, he is accused (not convicted) of breaking US laws in the UK – and is being extradited to the US for it!
Since when does the US have the right to enforce its laws on people outside its borders, who aren’t even themselves Americans?
OK, Kim Dotcom might have ideas of what this feels like – but he has a legal team to help him while this kid just created a website in his free time where people shared links.
His site itself did not host any copyrighted material – just links.
He complied with each and every takedown notice that he was linking to copyrighted material.
Yet, he is still being extradited to the US where he faces over a decade in jail?!?!?
‘Richard O’Dwyer is the human face of the battle between the content industry and the interests of the general public. Earlier this year, in the fight against the anti-copyright bills SOPA and PIPA, the public won its first big victory. This could be our second.’
We should all pay attention.
Copyright infringement has always been – and ought to remain – a civil matter.
That we have permitted the resources of the state to be subverted for the use of Big Media, that we consider copyright infringement to be the same as theft – even though not a single person or corporation had been deprived of the use of their property – that is just unbelievably misguided.
But that people living in distant lands should be extradited and tried for their activities which, at best (if the prosecutors win their case), did not commit copyright infringement directly, but simply facilitated it…
This video is interesting for several different reasons.
Yes, I do agree with most of what AronRa says in this one.
The only exception I take is to his claim that circumcision gives some protection against the transmission of AIDS. Yes, there are studies that ‘conclusively’ show this. But, there are just as many studies that just as ‘conclusively’ show that this is not so. All studies, however, show that wearing a condom does work…
…and I think that it is better to err on the side of caution when it comes to incurable deadly diseases. Still, if people wish the protection of circumcision as well as a condom, when they are old enough to give informed consent to it and they pay themselves for it, I have no problem with any cosmetic procedure.
After all, self-ownership is the cornerstone of our civilization!
The reason this video is important is not just because of the reasonable things AronRa says (and that he looks rather good saying them), and not because of how he says them (he is a much better speaker when he does not deliver a prepared speech but rather when he speaks unscripted), but because of the attitude the theists in the audience display as well as the demonstration of theist sentiment in the video that AronRa shows.
It is difficult to describe just how visceral the hatred many theists feel toward atheists – and feel completely righteous in expressing – is.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to shut them up.
Let them spew.
But really – saying that if my beliefs don’t match theirs, I should be raped?
Suggesting all atheists should be hunted down and killed?
We are not talking about some uneducated Islamists – these sentiments were expressed by American Christians…
OK.
An orthodox Jew, a moderate Muslim and an archetypal polytheists (someone who believes all gods exist – as fairy-tales) walk into a bar.
What happens next?
The Jew and the Muslim unite against the atheist in a ‘theological’ debate.
This is not a joke – it happened to me. The moderate Muslim was Salim Mansur. We were all celebrating the launch of Salim’s most excellent book, ‘The Delectable Lie’.
Sure, everything was very friendly and good humoured – but, it still did not take long for the two monotheists to set their differences aside and unite against the atheist. (To be perfectly honest, I am nowhere near as good at verbal arguing as either one of these two intelligent, educated men… Mind you, since then, I have thought of really, really awesome things I should have said! AHA!)
OK, these guys had their fun, but they were very, very nice to me.
They were not like the typical theists one meets.
Somehow, I suspect I have had more than my ‘fair’ share of ‘scary’ experiences.
I have ‘bunny-hopped’ a tank once – because my Aspieness got me manipulated into trying to drive one when I was 12-years-old. Really, I just mouthed-off to the ‘wrong’ ‘many’-star general (because I did not ‘get’ it) it a totalitarian country – all my friends later admitted they thought I was going to be either sent to re-education camp or expelled from the exclusive language school as a result.
I have been stopped in the street and interrogated by the police – in a totalitarian police state – for not having my ‘documents’ …when I was too young to have been issued ‘documents’.
I have escaped from a totalitarian police state across a closed border.
I was less than 15 meters from a live shoot-out battle between two criminal elements within the UN refugee camp where I was staying. There were fatalities.
I was stalked – twice, by very different men in very different circumstances.
I was physically attacked by attempted rapists, three times (twice by someone whom I knew, once by a group of strangers). I had to fight my way out, each time. (Twice I did so unharmed, once I got off easily with just a torn-up shoulder – it still pops out of its socket at the slightest provocation! Well worth it!)
But, never in my life have I felt as unsafe, as physically threatened, as when a neighbour manipulated me to go to her Pentecostal Church and the ‘congregation’ saw me – singled out – refuse to ‘accept Jesus into my heart’!!!
Truly, this was the most frightening thing I have ever experienced.
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I suspect I understand how Hypatia felt in the last moments of her life. (This NOT, in any way, a comparison of me to Hypatia: it is the comparison of the fear we both felt as we faced a crowd of homicidal theists on her part and almost-homicidal ones on my part!)
I kid you not.
I could face a bullet.
I could beat up a bunch of thugs.
I could face down stalkers.
I can defend my honour against attempted rapists.
But faced with such a large crowd, whipped into a mob mentality by their preacher, so sure in their ‘righteousness’ and so pitiless towards ‘unbelievers’ – I knew that if something tipped them just a tiny bit further, I was dead.
It was palpable!
It was then that I knew what being hated not for ‘who I was’, but for ‘what I was’ was like.
So, yes – I do believe the theists – Christian, Muslim or whatever other religion – when they say that they will kill me, if they get a chance.
Not every theist is this way, of course not.
But way too many are.
The religion itself is much less important than the sense of self-righteousness it conveys onto its adherents!
It is my profound conviction that without the religious teaching that it is righteous and God-pleasing to exterminate ‘the unbelievers’, these men and women would never have abandoned morality in favour of threatened or actual mob violence – and felt good about doing it!!!
As if we needed another reason to disband – utterly discredit, send the bureaucrats/delegates home and burn the buildings down, then dance on the ashes – the UN…
I never re-publish another blog’s post in its entirety and will not start now, but Nerfherder has a post which is short, sweet and informative about this issue. It describes what UN’s agency called the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) plans are for restricting access to the internet and gaining huge control over its content. Plus, it is chock full of links!
‘ A pair of researchers from George Mason University created a website called WCITLeaks.org in the hopes that someone with access to the secretive proposals would leak them and make them available to the public. Last Friday, that’s exactly what happened. Someone leaked the 212-page planning document being used by governments to prepare for the December conference. You can read it yourself here.’
We really need to start raising awareness about this.
Information is the best weapon in the preservation of freedom.
The recipient of this legal smackdown – to the tune of almost 23 million USD – are the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In a precedent setting ruling, Candace Conti was awarded 28 million USD – 7 is damages and 21 punitive. (The Jehovah’s Witnesses are to pay the 21 million in punitive damages and 40% of the 7 million in damages.)
‘A substantial part of her allegations dealt with claims that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York (the organisation that oversees the Jehovah’s Witnesses) had adopted a policy in 1989 that instructed congregation leaders to keep child abuse allegations secret. This meant that when Conti’s abuser from the 1990s, Jonathan Kendrick, was convicted in 2004 of molesting another girl, the elders at the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses did nothing to prevent him coming into contact with other kids at the church.’
Of course, he re-offended – and the ‘Church’ is being punished for not taking precautions as well as for not having revealed his history when he did eventually molest another child.
I suppose that making them financially accountable is the only way these organizations which hide behind piety and enforce silence on their congregation through ‘eternal blackmail’ will sit up and start paying attention!
And, we will not let organizations hide pedophiles just because they play the ‘religion’ card!
As a matter of fact, let’s go a step further: let’s let people believe whatever batpoop-crazy stuff they want, but let’s hold those who profit/make their living from marketing it live up to the same consumer protection laws that every other commercial entity has to.
If you can prove the claims about your product (that would be your dogma) – continue to sell it.
If not – then let’s call fraud a fraud.
While you’re at it – start paying your fair share of taxes on your highly lucrative commercial enterprises!
And if you don’t think that religious organizations are highly lucrative commercial enterprises, then I have this bridge here I’d like to sell you. It’s a great deal: you pay me now, get the bridge after you die!
Oh – and here is an afterthought: stop mutilating your children in the name of religion! It is NOT your religious right to violate the bodily integrity of another human being!!! (Plus being this obsessed with your kids genitals is seriously creepy – please, seek professional help!)
(Sorry – pedophiles make me angry. Organizations that hide, protect and enable them make me angrier… People who mutilate their own kids in the name of their own religion – they make me about as angry as angry can get!)
Last year, I reported on the courtroom proceedings in the defamation lawsuit John Baglow (aka Dr. Dawg) had brought against Connie and Mark Fournier: part 1 and part 2.
The judge in that hearing dismissed it in a summary judgment for the Fourniers. (In his ruling, it seemed clear to me that the judge did not think Mr. Baglow had handled things well…)
‘Questions about what constitutes defamation in the caustic world of blogging have not been addressed by Canadian courts “in any significant way,” Blair noted. It means, he said, that a full-blown trial is needed to explore key questions…
‘
In other words, the case may indeed be vexatious, but the judges want to make new laws to govern the internet – and plan to do it on the Fourniers’ dime!
Ayayayayay!
When I know the details of when/where the case will be heard by the court, I’ll update this post.
UPDATE: While there is still no word of the court date/time, I have received a comment on this from Connie Fournier:
‘This case will be going to a full-blown trial now and there will be expert witnesses and a full examination of the role of defamation law in the blogosphere. This is of critical importance to any Canadian who operates a website where visitors are allowed to post comments. If the law stands as it is, anyone who operates such a site should have $50,000 in the bank so that they can defend themselves when Spockluver sues CaptKirkFan for defaming his online persona.’
For those of you who are unaware of what ‘Section 13’ is: it is the ‘hate speech’ clause in Canada’s Human Rights Act which makes it illegal to say things which have the potential to offend somebody.
‘Section 13’ had been used to stifle free speech to the point where people were handed lifetime bans to even speak to friends about certain topics on which they did not hold ‘politically correct’ views.
‘Section 13’ – and how it was used to silence legitimate criticism – is a big reason why I had started this blog in the first place.
Now, the largest step towards ridding ourselves of this selective gag order has been taken:
‘Canada is freer today than it was yesterday.
The federal government has just voted to repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. While the bill still has to pass a Senate vote, Canadians likely now have permission to speak more freely.’
Of course, some of the ‘obesity epidemic’ in North America is directly attributable to government intervention in our individual lives……
Just recently, my father-in-law mentioned to me that he read a study of the most prescribed drugs in different regions of North America and that he found it curious that in almost all large urban areas, Synthroid (an artificial thyroid hormone) topped the list. He was wondering why this was…
Did you know that fluoride (in the form of fluorine) is prescribed as medication to people who have overactive thyroids?
Indeed, fluoride lowers the function of our thyroid gland.
People with a healthy thyroid who are given fluoride tend to develop hypothyroidism: a condition which is marked by fatigue, depression and lowered metabolic rate which leads to – you got it – difficult-to-control weight gain!
Most urban centres in North America put fluoride into their municipal water supply.
Most commercially sold bottled water contains fluoride.
To recap:
Governments put prescription medication in our water supply ‘for our own good’. Once it’s made us sick, they’ll use this as an excuse to strip us of more of our rights…
This is more than UN’s Agenda 21 which seeks to gain control over parts of nation states through bypassing their legitimate governments (and which Alabama had just banned within its borders), it is an attempt to re-shape the internet to the liking of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran!
‘ISOC’s Sally Wentworth, senior manager of public policy for the group, warned that the proposals to be considered are not “compatible” with the current open manner in which the Internet is managed.
Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist, co-creator of the TCP/IP protocol, and former chairman of ICANN, said the ITU meeting could lead to “top-down control dictated by governments” that could impact free expression, security, and other important issues..
“The open Internet has never been at a higher risk than it is now,” Cerf said.’
In my never-humble-opinion, it is time to dissolve that toxic tumour upon our society also known as the United Nations!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 