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The censorship is not a new thing When Amazon first launched some friends of mine were thrilled at how easy it was to order books that were on the banne

The censorship is not a new thing When Amazon first launched some friends of mine were thrilled at how easy it was to order books that were on the banned books list. Four or so of them ordered PIHKAL. They all got delivered, except for one. The last guy had a knock on his door and the rest of his order hand delivered by a customs/federal police officer/similar who advised that it probably wasn't smart to be ordering banned books from overseas. He wasn't prosecuted - it was a "we know where you live, bucko" kinda visit.

bad_user 17y ago
Conservatives don't get it that advancements in technology have the tendency to make censorship laws impracticable. In this particular case, you friends can always order e-books, and in case your credit-card transactions are tracked, you can always find pirated versions and download them through an encrypted connection. And what's ironic is that the censorship of a book makes it a lot more popular that it would've been otherwise. What next? Plant a chip in every human being that triggers on certain patterns of the brain's electrical impulses? I'm pretty sure there's going to be a crack for that.
bootload 17y ago
"... Four or so of them ordered PIHKAL.... They all got delivered, except for one. The last guy had a knock on his door and the rest of his order hand delivered by a customs/federal police officer/similar who advised that it probably wasn't smart to be ordering banned books from overseas ..." Interesting. You can sort of understand the correlation between specific recipes for elicit drugs like amphetamines which are dangerous. I'd never thought about classes of information restricted that way. Nuclear physics is another I can think of. Whole slabs of nuclear theoretical physics have been removed from common knowledge. Another, military information of which Paladin Press is well known for. The irony, the information in each of these areas are still mostly actively used, or at least only a locked up "instruction manual" away.

bad_user 17y ago

Conservatives don't get it that advancements in technology have the tendency to make censorship laws impracticable. In this particular case, you friends can always order e-books, and in case your credit-card transactions are tracked, you can always find pirated versions and download them through an encrypted connection. And what's ironic is that the censorship of a book makes it a lot more popular that it would've been otherwise. What next? Plant a chip in every human being that triggers on certain patterns of the brain's electrical impulses? I'm pretty sure there's going to be a crack for that.

bootload 17y ago

"... Four or so of them ordered PIHKAL.... They all got delivered, except for one. The last guy had a knock on his door and the rest of his order hand delivered by a customs/federal police officer/similar who advised that it probably wasn't smart to be ordering banned books from overseas ..." Interesting. You can sort of understand the correlation between specific recipes for elicit drugs like amphetamines which are dangerous. I'd never thought about classes of information restricted that way. Nuclear physics is another I can think of. Whole slabs of nuclear theoretical physics have been removed from common knowledge. Another, military information of which Paladin Press is well known for. The irony, the information in each of these areas are still mostly actively used, or at least only a locked up "instruction manual" away.

<i>The censorship is not a new thing</i> When Amazon first launched some friends of mine were thrilled at how easy it was to order books that were on the banne

<i>The censorship is not a new thing</i> When Amazon first launched some friends of mine were thrilled at how easy it was to order books that were on the banne