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Iceland passes the "Wikileaks law". What will it mean for journalists?

99 points by pesco 16y ago

avar 16y ago
No law has been passed yet, this is a "proposal for a parliamentary resolution" (þingsályktunartillaga). Which basically means that parliament has expressed formal interest in getting legislation drafted to implement this. How that legislation will look will depend on a lot of committee work down the road, and what parliament actually ends up passing is another open question. Still, this proposal has the backing of several ministries, so there's a large change that something good will be passed. But whether it'll fulfill all the promises of the IMMI plan remains to be seen.
adamdecaf 16y ago
That, and them passing bills allowing same-sex unions makes me want to move there. Nice job Iceland!
- lenni 16y ago
  Many countries have same-sex unions/partnerships and some even proper marriage but Iceland has the first openly gay head of state.
  - avar 16y ago
    Many have some sort of same-sex unions, what Iceland did recently is eliminate all occurrences of "man and a woman" and replace them with "two persons" in their laws. Most countries that have same sex unions have a different set of laws for them, usually for religious and political reasons. The Church of Iceland opposed the recent change, but it lost that battle. Regarding Jóhanna, it's sad that the first openly gay head of state is also so openly incompetent :)
    - sh1mmer 16y ago
      Regarding Jóhanna, it's sad that the first openly gay head of state is also so openly incompetent :) Care to elaborate?
      - avar 16y ago
        First of all, under normal circumstances she never would have been anywhere close to being prime minister. The only reason (seemingly) that she got the job was that after the collapse of the previous government the new leftist coalition needed someone to pass the buck to, and she was pretty much the only uncontroversial figure they had. Her coalition government's only redeeming quality has been to suck less than their predecessors which facilitated the giant ponzi scheme which took down the economy. They're wasting a lot of effort on the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. One shining moment of incompetence was the press conference right after the president announced that the Icesave debt repayment bill would go to a public referendum. She announced (well, mumbled actually) that the government was "disappointed" in the President's decision to bring the matter to a vote in a rushed international press conference hours after the announcement. What they should have done is explain calmly that this was part of the democratic process in Iceland, and how the result might affect any future debt repayment. Examples like these and countless others have shown that her and her government can't think two steps ahead, manage PR and foreign diplomacy horribly, and generally seem more interested in their pet leftist issues (which they can finally shove through, now that they're in power) rather than solving the problems facing the nation. But what do I care, I moved abroad shortly after this all went down.
        mbotta 16y ago
        right, so previous icelandic governments brought down the country by dancing to the tunes of the banks, but it's the current government that is incompetent and only shoves through its pet leftist issues. how unbiased. leaves me wondering if those previous governments had any pet rightist issues of their own. something to do with banks, do you think? bringing down the entire economic system, perhaps? pet leftist issues don't sound so bad after all. i should look up which they are. i might even like them.
jarek 16y ago
Disappointing to see yet another publication not aware that most Icelanders have patronymics, not last names.
- maximilian 16y ago
  Ok, so I wiki'd what patronymics are (your "last" name is based on your father's name), but could you elaborate. Did the author use "Jónsdóttir" incorrectly?
  - jarek 16y ago
    Yes. Birgitta Jónsdóttir is properly referred to as Birgitta Jónsdóttir or just Birgitta, or by her first and middle name if disambiguation is required. Jónsdóttir alone is meaningless as far as name goes. Icelandic phone books are ordered by first name. edit: although to be fair, in the context of an article written in English aimed at a general audience this is not an easy situation. Properly using just the first name might throw off people who don't know about the Icelandic conventions (that would be most of them) who might then consider this use as strangely personal. On the other hand, repeatedly using the full name might look weird too. Personally I'm not convinced these are worth the trade-off of being culturally incorrect, but I'm not the one making the calls.
    - wmeredith 16y ago
      Whatever. Good writers write for their audience. This article was written for an audience residing outside of Iceland.
      - electromagnetic 16y ago
        I read a ton of articles that routinely use a persons first name, why suddenly should proper formality be artificially upheld in context of a culture that uses patronyms? They use first names as names, and in the context of an article they can use a first name without it getting confusing.
jcl 16y ago
Maybe a bigger issue: What will it mean for file sharers? A private, anonymous server that can't be shut down by foreign powers sounds like a file sharer's dream come true.
- Rod 16y ago
  Didn't they try that in Sealand? http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven.html Apparently it didn't work all that well.
  - Groxx 16y ago
    I thought part of the problem there is that, while they declared themselves independent, nobody would recognize their independence, thus they were still effectively under the laws of the area they were in. If Iceland, an already-recognized nation, decides to do this, trying to get things shut down without their consent could / would be seen as an attack, and it becomes a far larger issue than simply enforcing laws within your jurisdiction.
    - Rod 16y ago
      Iceland may be a sovereign nation, but it has no armed forces. It's fair to say that its defense consists of its alliance with NATO, i.e., with the U.S., which implies that if the U.S. says "jump!", Iceland will ask "how high?". Considering that the U.S. government is owned by interest groups, I don't see how Iceland can become a data-haven.
      - mvalle 16y ago
        I doubt the US will ever invade Iceland. It will have massive consequences for the US government, it might be controlled by interest groups, but they are not all powerful, the people still do have a say. It will be much more difficult to convince a Kentucky farmer that the US should invade Iceland with it's white Christians, as supposed a strange-sounding nation with non-white non-Christians(sad, but true). And though Iceland doesn't have a military, it does have friends who do. It is interesting entertaining the idea of a US invasion of Iceland. It would result in an immediate hostility towards the US from many nations, as it would be to attack a friend(if they attack Iceland, they can attack us), especially from the Nordic region(whose commercial powers are not to sneeze at). Anyways, data safe-heaven, great idea.

99 points by pesco 16y ago

avar 16y ago

No law has been passed yet, this is a "proposal for a parliamentary resolution" (þingsályktunartillaga). Which basically means that parliament has expressed formal interest in getting legislation drafted to implement this. How that legislation will look will depend on a lot of committee work down the road, and what parliament actually ends up passing is another open question. Still, this proposal has the backing of several ministries, so there's a large change that something good will be passed. But whether it'll fulfill all the promises of the IMMI plan remains to be seen.

adamdecaf 16y ago

That, and them passing bills allowing same-sex unions makes me want to move there. Nice job Iceland!

lenni 16y ago
Many countries have same-sex unions/partnerships and some even proper marriage but Iceland has the first openly gay head of state.
- avar 16y ago
  Many have some sort of same-sex unions, what Iceland did recently is eliminate all occurrences of "man and a woman" and replace them with "two persons" in their laws. Most countries that have same sex unions have a different set of laws for them, usually for religious and political reasons. The Church of Iceland opposed the recent change, but it lost that battle. Regarding Jóhanna, it's sad that the first openly gay head of state is also so openly incompetent :)
  - sh1mmer 16y ago
    Regarding Jóhanna, it's sad that the first openly gay head of state is also so openly incompetent :) Care to elaborate?
    - avar 16y ago
      First of all, under normal circumstances she never would have been anywhere close to being prime minister. The only reason (seemingly) that she got the job was that after the collapse of the previous government the new leftist coalition needed someone to pass the buck to, and she was pretty much the only uncontroversial figure they had. Her coalition government's only redeeming quality has been to suck less than their predecessors which facilitated the giant ponzi scheme which took down the economy. They're wasting a lot of effort on the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. One shining moment of incompetence was the press conference right after the president announced that the Icesave debt repayment bill would go to a public referendum. She announced (well, mumbled actually) that the government was "disappointed" in the President's decision to bring the matter to a vote in a rushed international press conference hours after the announcement. What they should have done is explain calmly that this was part of the democratic process in Iceland, and how the result might affect any future debt repayment. Examples like these and countless others have shown that her and her government can't think two steps ahead, manage PR and foreign diplomacy horribly, and generally seem more interested in their pet leftist issues (which they can finally shove through, now that they're in power) rather than solving the problems facing the nation. But what do I care, I moved abroad shortly after this all went down.
      - mbotta 16y ago
        right, so previous icelandic governments brought down the country by dancing to the tunes of the banks, but it's the current government that is incompetent and only shoves through its pet leftist issues. how unbiased. leaves me wondering if those previous governments had any pet rightist issues of their own. something to do with banks, do you think? bringing down the entire economic system, perhaps? pet leftist issues don't sound so bad after all. i should look up which they are. i might even like them.

jarek 16y ago

Disappointing to see yet another publication not aware that most Icelanders have patronymics, not last names.

maximilian 16y ago
Ok, so I wiki'd what patronymics are (your "last" name is based on your father's name), but could you elaborate. Did the author use "Jónsdóttir" incorrectly?
- jarek 16y ago
  Yes. Birgitta Jónsdóttir is properly referred to as Birgitta Jónsdóttir or just Birgitta, or by her first and middle name if disambiguation is required. Jónsdóttir alone is meaningless as far as name goes. Icelandic phone books are ordered by first name. edit: although to be fair, in the context of an article written in English aimed at a general audience this is not an easy situation. Properly using just the first name might throw off people who don't know about the Icelandic conventions (that would be most of them) who might then consider this use as strangely personal. On the other hand, repeatedly using the full name might look weird too. Personally I'm not convinced these are worth the trade-off of being culturally incorrect, but I'm not the one making the calls.
  - wmeredith 16y ago
    Whatever. Good writers write for their audience. This article was written for an audience residing outside of Iceland.
    - electromagnetic 16y ago
      I read a ton of articles that routinely use a persons first name, why suddenly should proper formality be artificially upheld in context of a culture that uses patronyms? They use first names as names, and in the context of an article they can use a first name without it getting confusing.

jcl 16y ago

Maybe a bigger issue: What will it mean for file sharers? A private, anonymous server that can't be shut down by foreign powers sounds like a file sharer's dream come true.

Rod 16y ago
Didn't they try that in Sealand? http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven.html Apparently it didn't work all that well.
- Groxx 16y ago
  I thought part of the problem there is that, while they declared themselves independent, nobody would recognize their independence, thus they were still effectively under the laws of the area they were in. If Iceland, an already-recognized nation, decides to do this, trying to get things shut down without their consent could / would be seen as an attack, and it becomes a far larger issue than simply enforcing laws within your jurisdiction.
  - Rod 16y ago
    Iceland may be a sovereign nation, but it has no armed forces. It's fair to say that its defense consists of its alliance with NATO, i.e., with the U.S., which implies that if the U.S. says "jump!", Iceland will ask "how high?". Considering that the U.S. government is owned by interest groups, I don't see how Iceland can become a data-haven.
    - mvalle 16y ago
      I doubt the US will ever invade Iceland. It will have massive consequences for the US government, it might be controlled by interest groups, but they are not all powerful, the people still do have a say. It will be much more difficult to convince a Kentucky farmer that the US should invade Iceland with it's white Christians, as supposed a strange-sounding nation with non-white non-Christians(sad, but true). And though Iceland doesn't have a military, it does have friends who do. It is interesting entertaining the idea of a US invasion of Iceland. It would result in an immediate hostility towards the US from many nations, as it would be to attack a friend(if they attack Iceland, they can attack us), especially from the Nordic region(whose commercial powers are not to sneeze at). Anyways, data safe-heaven, great idea.