Bob Cox sent in This Story from The BBC. Talks
about Journalist Alan Travis,who wrotea history of
censorship in the UK, \”Bound and Gagged, A Secret
History of Obscenity in Britain \”. He seems to think
the internet will come under increasingly restrictive
laws.
\”Unfortunately, I think the great libertarian days
of cyberspace, whereby you can have a very powerful
medium beamed into every home which won\’t in some
way be limited in terms of what material comes
through, is over.\”
Bob Cox sent in This Story from The BBC. Talks
about Journalist Alan Travis,who wrotea history of
censorship in the UK, \”Bound and Gagged, A Secret
History of Obscenity in Britain \”. He seems to think
the internet will come under increasingly restrictive
laws.
\”Unfortunately, I think the great libertarian days
of cyberspace, whereby you can have a very powerful
medium beamed into every home which won\’t in some
way be limited in terms of what material comes
through, is over.\” More form the BBC
\”How to enforce the law hasn\’t really been the issue. It
has been possible to ban the importation of dirty books,
it has been possible to close down magazines that
were considered to be obscene, it has been possible
to close down video shops who sold dirty videos to
underage kids.
\”What now becomes difficult for the first time is how you
enforce those rules. The practical difficulties are what
makes it a bigger debate in some ways, and gives it the
potential for absolutely ludicrous cases and rough
justice.\”
If the wrong laws are adopted, he says, it could be the
end of the net as we know it.
\”This is a much more powerful medium, and one which
prides itself on universal access. But in the end it could
turn out, because of the desire of people to regulate its
content, to be one of the most narrow and restrictive in
some ways.\”
Recent Comments