The laws are meant to protect the words we don't want to hear not those that we do.A couple of days ago I mentioned how a few of the founders of the Pirate Bay have been criticized for allowing a pedophilia site to be hosted on the servers of PRQ, a hosting company which Fredrik Neij and Gottfried Svartholm Warg own and operate. Many have made highly critical remarks about their decision to host the site, saying that if they were in charge Sweden "...would be a pedophilia haven," or that "Free speech is one thing. Supporting child pornography and/or condoning the actions of sick criminals is entirely different!" Both criticisms are clearly misguided and obfuscate the real matter at hand - FREEDOM OF SPEECH. For the laws regarding the freedom of speech aren't meant to protect the pleasantries and kind words of daily encounters but, rather the words that aggravate, annoy, or even anger us. John F. Kennedy once said that "We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is afraid of its people." How are we to ever be able to judge the falsehoods and misguided thoughts that make up people's convictions if we are never able to consider them in their own words? The ability to hear even the most heinous of thoughts and opinions is critical to make an informed and educated conviction about them. For his part Brokep of the Pirate Bay agrees with these sentiments, in fact applauding "..Gottfried for staying on his track and goal" of continuing to host the pedophilia discussion site despite the fact that he too finds it distasteful. "Freedom of speech is f-----g important," he said to me in a Skype chat earlier. I asked him if he thought that freedom of speech should have limits to it, that there is some speech so objectionable that it should be prohibited. He continued that "Well, if freedom of speech should have it's limits (which it has ,of course) it should be made a law." After he said this it made me realize that this in and of itself is far worse than any discussion on pedophilia. The thought of actually sitting down and trying to map out what can or can't be said in a so-called CIVILIZED, MODERN SOCIETY is what I find truly disgusting and objectionable. As a testament to the upside down world in which free speech seems to be headed, Brokep also points out that "...people are blaming PRQ and TPB more than the guy that is behind the site." Rather than criticize the person running the pedophilia discussion site it seems many feel better served by criticizing those would dare allow it to be posted. If they were to begin determining what content could or could not be hosted on their site, then where should they draw the line? If one of them were an "Oakland Raiders" fan what if he wanted to stop a "San Diego Chargers" fan from hosting a site? Or what if a guy wanted to host a bondage site? Or another P2P site? It really is a slippery slope when it comes to censoring customers, especially if businesses are the ones doing it and not the police via legislative approval. In any event I'll leave you with a post on Brokep's blog page in which he quotes Noam Chomsky, the acclaimed American linguist, theorist, and political activist. “Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.”That’s all I have to say about it. I despise the site, but even more I despise the people that despise freedom of speech.-- I think we all do. Thanks again Brokep.
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props to tpb for understanding and backing free speech to the fullest
as you can see here http://forum.libsyn.com/viewtopic.php?p=10964
libsyn doesn't seem to have any even though it's their creed and they gladly took his ten bucks a month to podcast
PRQ nor the TPB host anything illegal
TPB hosts torrent files which aren't and anyone hosting a site on PRQ servers is held to a strict TOS standard
discussing pedophillia isn't posting child porn it's freedom of speech
I find it ironic that dns sites like godaddy.com try to kick pro-pedo dns's while allowing tons of racist hate sites to spread intolerance
thats free speech for ya...and just like any company has a right to boot a hosted site for breaking ToS they have a right to accept it's legal right to preach hate love or anything in between
Exactly, its a DISCUSSION SITE, not a child porn site, and the Pirate Bay doesnt actually host any content, and it never has nor never will allow the swapping of child porn. Brokep over at the Pirate Bay has even told me as much.
It really is all about free speech, and again the laws are meant to protect the crap people dont like to hear.
AT first it admittedly tripped me out that PRQ would host the site but, after thinking about it more it actually made me sort of proud that they would take all the heat that comes with it and do so. I mean theyre getting a ton of crap for what? To make 50 bucks a month?
Defending the principles of free speech will never be convenient, nor should it be.
And discussing pedophilia I find nothing wrong with. It should be discussed.
if they hosted videos and images of a legal nature it wouldn't fall under freedom of speech
even images such as Jock Sturges's work would be acceptable but I doubt any site discussing child rights & pedophillia would bother setting ignorant people off with such photos when the books are sold at almost every major book store containing them
it's a disease , so they need treatement , and we need to make sure they don't harm anyone .
This site could probably help with that . If it can convince them to seek help before it's too late , it will probably save lives .
This is also a golden opportunity for the police : infiltration/undercover operation could lead to quick arrests .
I guess the real reason people don't want this site , is that they don't want to be reminded of the sick world we all live in . I can understand that , but it won't help the situation