CENSORSHIP ON THE NET
Sharon Jones
LIVING MARXISM COMMENTARY NEWS
The following is the content of a press release issued by the Get the
Met Off the Net! campaign on Tuesday 15 October.
New anti-censorship offensive launched
On Thursday 17 October at 7.30 pm, 'Get the Met Off the Net! Campaign
for Internet Freedom' launches a new offensive against any censorship of
the internet. The offensive will aim to get web sites to display 'PICS
Free Site' logos and encourage the non-implementation of PICS. The
initiative will start after a discussion on 'Pornography and Paedophilia
on the Net'. The offensive has been organised in response to the recent
DTI and Safety-Net proposals to promote regulation of the internet.
The campaign will encourage internet service providers (ISPs) and other
groups involved in the internet to actively oppose attempts to censor
the material available on the net.
The debate will focus on the following issues:-
* Why has pornography on the internet become the issue that everyone is
concerned about?
* Does pornography on the net damage anybody?
* Is the rating system PICS an acceptable alternative to enforced
regulation?
Speakers include:
Paul Lavin
Journalist for Internet Magazine, US lawyer and International columnist
who says of recent propositions regarding internet regulation: "We don't
need any new laws and we sure as heck don't need informal 'gentlemen's'
agreements between the ISPA and the Old Bill that can expand, without
accountability, the scope of existing laws."
Chris Ellison
Campaign organiser, 'Get the Met off the Net! Campaign for Internet
Freedom', commented: "We don't need Scotland Yard, Safety-Net or PICS to
protect us from ideas or images on the Net. Adults are quite capable of
dealing with material they don't like. The current obsession with
internet pornography is the result of an increasingly downbeat view of
human behaviour which assumes that we are always likely to harm others
and ourselves and are incapable of dealing with anything remotely
controversial."
Steve Bowbrick
Director of WebMedia, Chair of the Internet Developers Association.
There will be simultaneous events held in Edinburgh and Birmingham,
together with an online discussion at 9.00pm to include all in
Cyberspace.
The debate is on:
Thursday 17 October at 7.30 pm at 'Shoot 'n Surf' internet cafe:
13 New Oxford Street, London, WC1, Nearest tube Holborn/Tottenham Court
Road.
Those who cannot attend in person may wish to join the online debate via
IRC at 9pm (20:00 GMT) on:
<UK.Undernet.org, channel #censorship (backup #netfreedom)>
on the same evening.
Notes
1) Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) has been proposed by
the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as a solution to controlling
access to information (in particular pornography) on the net.
Originators of internet material will rate web sites according to the
degree of violence, offensive language and sex portrayed. Safety-Net
will rate all newsgroups according to the frequency of illegal material
that appears in them. Subscription to PICS will be entirely voluntary,
with the effect that users of the internet can access all the
information available or choose to have sites or news groups with a
certain rating screened from their viewing.
2) The DTI and Safety-Net initiative focused on the launch of the
Safety-Net Foundation which has promised the following:
* A telephone hotline that surfers can utilise if they come across
illegal or 'potentially illegal' material on the net;
* The rating of newsgoups to reflect the frequency with which they
contain illegal material;
* Encouraging ISPs to implement PICS.
Further information can be found on the Living Marxism Online web site:
<http://www.junius.co.uk/censorship/index.html>
Or mail Chris Ellison at censo...@www.junius.co.uk or phone +44 (0)171
278 9908
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