4 ms·

France to Block The Pirate Bay

12 points by vaksel 18y ago

jrockway 18y ago
Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad. But really, this is not a problem. For 5 EUR a month, you can pass all your traffic through a VPN in some other country that doesn't censor the Internet. (Of course, then they can block the VPN providers. But censorship is a big game of whack-a-mole, and the moles always win. I don't know why governments bother, but I guess cutting off file sharing is easier than solving society's real problems. The amusing part about all of this is that cracking down on sharing TV shows has made it much easier for people distributing child porn and planning terrorist attacks to hide themselves from law enforcement. I am amused... but sad at the same time.)
- jules 18y ago
  I think it's not as bad here as in the US, but we're getting there soon with the government spying on all communcation (to conquer terrorism, as if terrorists don't know how to use a proxy...).
  - jrockway 18y ago
    This isn't a big deal, it will just force encryption to become ubiquitous. Then the police won't be able to spy on anyone.
    - jules 18y ago
      It won't become ubiquitous. Most people don't care ("I don't have anything to hide"). If the tend continues, encryption will not be allowed 20 years from now.
      - jrockway 18y ago
        Most people don't care ("I don't have anything to hide"). And yet they use Skype anyway.
- Luc 18y ago
  "Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad." I guess this is flamebait, but Europe is a diverse place of two dozen countries with their own legal systems. This diversity may well be an advantage over the US. If Belgium makes my life difficult, I can move my life and business 15 miles north to Holland, or 75 miles east to Germany or Luxembourg, across the Channel to the UK, or even 75 miles south to France, where they offer generous subsidies and tax breaks for the business that I am in. This is not a theoretical possibility - I have done it before, several times. As to the personal freedoms you have in the US and we never had - I cannot even begin to imagine what those might be, though that could be a sign of me having grown up as a caged animal, never having tasted REAL freedom.
  - jrockway 18y ago
    "Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad." Not intended as flamebait. Think of all the CCTV cameras in the UK, laws against certain religious symbols in France and Turkey, and bans on board games in Germany. That stuff just doesn't happen in the US (except maybe the cameras... but speed / red-light cameras don't hold up in court very well).
    - Luc 18y ago
      Come now. I can go to Reddit and copy any number of headlines from there about outrageous stuff happening in the US. Perhaps something about trigger-happy taser cops, the TSA, or ever-growing prison population. Besides, as I said before, what applies to the countries you mention does not apply to all European nations. How about this: I have two gay couples in my direct family that got married some years ago. Not 'civil union' or any of that stuff, but full on marriage, with the same rights as male-female couples. Or this: my ageing mother has determined she will want to have euthanasia under certain circumstances, and she will be able to, as it's been legal for years. Difficult for me to swallow, but it is her freedom to choose this. Another one: cannabis use - decriminalized. Have you got those freedoms in the US? Let me be more explicit about my point: I posit that no nation on earth has the perfect legal system (not even the one with the constitution they are so proud of). Europe, with its right of free movement between nations for all European citizens, offers a unique advantage in that it allows citizens to shop around for the place that fits them best. Competition works - it made life on Earth possible, it makes capitalism work, and it keeps the nations of Europe in check.
moe 18y ago
Reads like a late april's fool joke. So this law not only allows ISPs to spy on our traffic, it requires them to do it? Technically this will obviously be circumvented within.. well, it probably is circumvented already. But the direction our "representatives" are taking here is worrisome.
MrBob 18y ago
More censorship, here we go.

12 points by vaksel 18y ago

Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad. But really, this is not a problem. For 5 EUR a month, you can pass all your traffic through a VPN in some other country that doesn't censor the Internet. (Of course, then they can block the VPN providers. But censorship is a big game of whack-a-mole, and the moles always win. I don't know why governments bother, but I guess cutting off file sharing is easier than solving society's real problems. The amusing part about all of this is that cracking down on sharing TV shows has made it much easier for people distributing child porn and planning terrorist attacks to hide themselves from law enforcement. I am amused... but sad at the same time.)

jules 18y ago
I think it's not as bad here as in the US, but we're getting there soon with the government spying on all communcation (to conquer terrorism, as if terrorists don't know how to use a proxy...).
- jrockway 18y ago
  This isn't a big deal, it will just force encryption to become ubiquitous. Then the police won't be able to spy on anyone.
  - jules 18y ago
    It won't become ubiquitous. Most people don't care ("I don't have anything to hide"). If the tend continues, encryption will not be allowed 20 years from now.
    - jrockway 18y ago
      Most people don't care ("I don't have anything to hide"). And yet they use Skype anyway.
Luc 18y ago
"Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad." I guess this is flamebait, but Europe is a diverse place of two dozen countries with their own legal systems. This diversity may well be an advantage over the US. If Belgium makes my life difficult, I can move my life and business 15 miles north to Holland, or 75 miles east to Germany or Luxembourg, across the Channel to the UK, or even 75 miles south to France, where they offer generous subsidies and tax breaks for the business that I am in. This is not a theoretical possibility - I have done it before, several times. As to the personal freedoms you have in the US and we never had - I cannot even begin to imagine what those might be, though that could be a sign of me having grown up as a caged animal, never having tasted REAL freedom.
- jrockway 18y ago
  "Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad." Not intended as flamebait. Think of all the CCTV cameras in the UK, laws against certain religious symbols in France and Turkey, and bans on board games in Germany. That stuff just doesn't happen in the US (except maybe the cameras... but speed / red-light cameras don't hold up in court very well).
  - Luc 18y ago
    Come now. I can go to Reddit and copy any number of headlines from there about outrageous stuff happening in the US. Perhaps something about trigger-happy taser cops, the TSA, or ever-growing prison population. Besides, as I said before, what applies to the countries you mention does not apply to all European nations. How about this: I have two gay couples in my direct family that got married some years ago. Not 'civil union' or any of that stuff, but full on marriage, with the same rights as male-female couples. Or this: my ageing mother has determined she will want to have euthanasia under certain circumstances, and she will be able to, as it's been legal for years. Difficult for me to swallow, but it is her freedom to choose this. Another one: cannabis use - decriminalized. Have you got those freedoms in the US? Let me be more explicit about my point: I posit that no nation on earth has the perfect legal system (not even the one with the constitution they are so proud of). Europe, with its right of free movement between nations for all European citizens, offers a unique advantage in that it allows citizens to shop around for the place that fits them best. Competition works - it made life on Earth possible, it makes capitalism work, and it keeps the nations of Europe in check.

moe 18y ago

Reads like a late april's fool joke. So this law not only allows ISPs to spy on our traffic, it requires them to do it? Technically this will obviously be circumvented within.. well, it probably is circumvented already. But the direction our "representatives" are taking here is worrisome.

MrBob 18y ago

More censorship, here we go.