(As a warning, this is going to be an abnormally long post with the majority of the linked to article quoted. I think this subject is important as it deals with the freedom of speech on the internet, and it should be given special treatment.)
Thousands of LiveJournal customers are rebelling against the company’s recent decision to censor hundreds of sex-themed discussion groups, a broad swath that has led to the removal of literary critiques and fan-written fiction about Harry Potter.
LiveJournal, which is owned by San Francisco-based Six Apart, confirmed Wednesday that it deleted around 500 journals this week in hopes of better “protecting children.” It said the deletion was prompted by activist groups, including one called Warriors for Innocence that claims to track sites promoting pedophilia, the sexual abuse of minors, and other illegal activities.
“We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn’t think met our policies and didn’t think they were appropriate to have up,” Barak Berkowitz, chairman and chief executive of Six Apart, said in a telephone interview. The site boasts about 13 million journals.
Some deleted LiveJournal communities went by names like childlove and little_children (a community permits multiple LiveJournal users to post entries, while an individual account is limited to one user). Others, however, broadly fall into the category of science fiction, fantasy or user-written “fandom” stories–and it is those that have sparked the outcry.
So this group goes to livejournal and points out these communities and journals… and livejournal fearing the backlash this might cause panics and goes on a rampage to try and get rid of all these journals.
Clearly, they feared the backlash. They make it sound as if the y didn’t know what was happening on their own side…. that’s just silly. They had knowledge before this and they were bullied by these so called “Warriors of Innocence”.
“As a queer, feminist writer who explores the darker aspects of human nature, many of my stories deal with incest, rape and child molestation,” a LiveJournal member named “bitterfig” wrote. “As such, I belonged to and contributed to several of the communities which have been suspended and frankly I’m pretty offended. I don’t like being lumped in with rapists and pedophiles and other ‘monsters on the Web.’”
Practically any attempt to sort works of fiction into tidy piles of acceptable and unacceptable material, of course, is likely to invite controversy. Works by noted authors such as James Joyce, Henry Miller and William S. Burroughs have been lauded as masterpieces–and at other times prosecuted as obscene.
What has outraged the LiveJournal protesters is that the purging of discussions and accounts went far beyond what they say was necessary to target pedophilia. One post noted that two journals were deleted on the grounds that “they in some way encouraged illegal behavior” even though the accounts belonged to clearly labeled fictional characters in a role-playing game. Another deleted community was reportedly home to Spanish-language discussions of Vladimir Nabokov’s famous novel Lolita.
There are some of groups on livejournal that seem to support pedophilia… but they are few and spread between tons of fandom.
One LiveJournal user named “omen-chan” acknowledged once being victimized by a pedophile, but nevertheless warned that the mass deletion went too far. “Pedophilia is disgusting, and I can understand deleting these,” the post said. “However ’shouta’ is simply fiction written about two underaged boys getting together, usually in a non-graphic way. There is absolutely nothing illegal in that. Fourteen-year-olds hook up together all the time. It’s called high school.”
One now-deleted group called “pornish_pixies” focused on fan-written fiction, frequently sexually explicit, about characters in the Harry Potter novels. “The distinction between fiction and non-fiction could not be made any clearer in a place like the Harry Potter fandom, and this oversteps the boundaries that the LiveJournal abuse team has,” said a pornish_pixies member who identified herself as Maria in an e-mail. (A related group, “erotic_elves,” has survived the purge.)
As a big anime geek I know girls who are absolutely obsessed with Shorta. Is this a bad thing? No, it’s fiction done for enjoyment not out of a desire to harm children. While I don’t see the appeal in it, I can’t defend any action that would call such fiction vulgar of illegal.
GlobalNerdy has published a great table comparing the recent “cyber-attacks” on Estonia with the first fictional account of cyberwar, from William Gibson’s brilliant 1984 debut Neuromancer, the book that gave us the term “cyberspace.” Science fiction writers predict the present, not the future. Gibson’s forthcoming next book, a mind-blower called Spook Country is a book so futuristic it could only have been set in 2006. Link
All geeks should get this, everyone else proceed to nod and smile.
Neuromancer is highly recommended , in case you are interested in Cyberpunk.
A Marvel Comics hero is giving George Washington some company on the quarter, but the U.S. Mint doesn’t think the stunt is so super.
To promote the upcoming film “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” 20th Century Fox and The Franklin Mint altered 40,000 U.S. quarters to feature the character.
The U.S. Mint said in a news release Friday that it learned of the promotional quarter this week and advised the studio and The Franklin Mint they were breaking the law. It is illegal to turn a coin into an advertising vehicle, and violators can face a fine.
The promotion is in no way approved, authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by the United States Mint, nor is it in any way associated or affiliated with the United States Mint,” according to the release. The federal mint did not say whether the studio or the private Franklin Mint would face a penalty.
The altered coins are quarters honoring the state of California that entered circulation in 2005. They feature George Washington on the front, as usual, but a colorized version of the character on the back. All 40,000 are slated to be in circulation throughout the country by the end of Memorial Day weekend, and about 800 were released in each state.
Let’s start off by saying this is a silly promotion, who wants a normal quarter with a Silver Surfer sticker on it? That sounds like something that a ten year old would do.
But the insane part of the whole thing is that the United States mint seems to be going overboard especially, as the last part of the article says, the Franklin Mint does this sort of thing all the time. In fac just browsing the website you can find similar products. (Of course in that case they defaced a silver Eagle which is a much more beautiful coin then the quarter)
I guess the Mint just isn’t thrilled about having a herald of Galactus on official United States currency. Which is understandable.
Customs officers at Cairo’s airport have detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.
The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carryon bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.
Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras, authorities said.
The Egyptian said he had hoped to sell the snakes in Saudi Arabia. Police confiscated the snakes and turned Tulba over to the prosecutor’s office, accusing him of violating export laws and endangering the lives of other passengers.
According to the customs officials, Tulba claimed the snakes are wanted by Saudis who display them in glass jars in shops, keep them as pets or sell them to research centers.
The value of the snakes was not immediately known.
For those geeks out there who didn’t imidiately think of…well….
You can on longer call yourself a geek.
If CNN had a sense of humor they should have added “Samuel L. Jackson unavailable for comment. I would have been a very happy person.
From the entry way at Zune headquarters, we bring you today’s Flickr Find: the iPod Amnesty Bin. Yeah sure, it’s probably “art” more than it’s a real “amnesty bin”–but it says something that upon seeing this picture my heart skipped a beat. It’s like seeing adorable puppies in a pound. I instinctively wanted to grab those poor sweet neglected iPods into my arms and give them a proper home. Someone ought to notify the association for the prevention of iPod cruelty.
As one of the posters at the Flickr page points out, this makes you wonder exactly how many of these iPods were bought by the Zune team to seed the bin and make their point–to which I add, I wonder how quickly that bin is emptying as Zune employees wave goodbye for the day.
Developer’s Conference has announced that this September, straight after the Austin Game Conference, they’ll be holding a PC-only show called PC Game On. The idea is to take PC gaming and give it its own show, away from those filthy, limelight-hogging little consoles. Katherine Schoback, of GDC parent company CMP Technology:
PC Game On celebrates PC gaming as the crucible of innovation in the industry, the place where most game developers get their start, and the driver of digital distribution, MMOs, and virtual worlds. Considering media attention of late has focused solely on console wars, PC deserves its place in the sun.
It’s about time that PC Games got a chance to show off without consoles getting in the way, the greatest failing of the gaming industry today is that consoles are becoming the center of everything while becoming more and more like a PC. This isn’t the way it should be, there are games meant to be on console and there are games meant to be on the PC.
Take Command and Conquer 3, the RTS genre was designed for the freedom of a mouse and keyboard. But you put that on the Xbox with a controller and you take most of that freedom away. The same goes for all RTS’ historically. Starcraft for N64 stands out in my memory as the worst port ever.
Everyone’s doing the special edition thing these days and though Rockstar Games‘ announcement today for Grand Theft Auto IV isn’t quite on the level of the Legendary Edition of Halo 3, gamers will still be forking over $30 more for the extra goodies.
Priced at $89.99, the Grand Theft Auto IV special edition includes a stylized metal safety deposit box, a copy of the game with special packaging, a behind-the scenes art book, a soundtrack CD with exclusive tracks, a collectible keychain and a customized Rockstar Games duffle bag. It doesn’t appear any unique game content is tied to the edition.
Pre-orders for the special edition have apparently started today — are you ready to fork over $89.99?
I’ve always been a fan of extras, which normally end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust, but an extra $40 seems a bit pricey doesn’t it?
If you head over to http://www.blizzard.com/you’ll see a teaser showing a timeline of Blizzards releases. Each day will feature a game as the main picture on their site and at the end of the timeline is a large question mark.
What can it be? There really are only two obvious choices. World of Starcraft, as was reported here recently or the long awaited Starcraft 2. On Saturday we will know where the future of blizzard will go but some have been waiting much longer for news of those two possible games. So rejoice Starcraft fans! For your time has come.
On another note, if you’ve played every game on that list you get a special prize! (Yup, I get a special prize!)
Is Xbox360 like the most fault-prone device in the history of video gaming or what? As if in a deliberate attempt to add injury to insult to injury, Microsoft provided only a 90-day warranty, AND staffed their call centers with a goodly numbers of jerks. To wit, this recent conversation Richard had when trying to get his Xbox360 fixed under warranty repair:
“Jose gets on the phone and tells me in no uncertain terms that it is not going to happen. He is rude from the get go. He says I tampered with it so he will not authorize anything. I tried to explain that I was had a computer professional see if it was repairable. He said he didn’t care, it was tampered with, No repairs. I said what was stopping me from buying a PS3 and leaving my “brick” behind. He then told me that it was my choice if I wanted to do this.
I asked for his supervisor. He said “I am the supervisor.” I reiterated that I wanted to speak with his boss. He informed me that I was not going any higher up that he was the end of my line. He then gave me a “circle warning” and I would get only one more. He said, ” we have delt with this issue and we will not revisit it again. If you bring it back up I will hang up on you.”
Then he said it. The reason I am writing this to you.
“Is there anything else I can help you with… and by the way I am laughing at you.”
I responded, “you are what?”
And he enunciated, “I am laughing at YOU.”
And then he hung up.
That is it. The end of the conversation with Microsoft Xbox 360 support.
Any idea who I go to now?”
Whaaat? Why is he laughing? Why would anyone say such a thing?
Everyone who hates the Xbox seeks this kind of thing out, I think it’s funny. If I owned an Xbox I’d be angry and panicked. But since I’m too smart to buy a 360… I laugh…
And I just insulted most people who would end up reading this.
Apparently, New York City Yelo spa goers aren’t the only people paying to take powernaps in geeky chairs because Metronaps is also offering these little sleep pods for rental in cities around the world. Like the Yelo spa, Metronaps claims a rest in their Energypods enhances workforce productivity. “The EnergyPod is designed for powernapping at work,” says the company’s website. “A beautiful addition to the workplace, the EnergyPod improves employee morale while boosting the bottom line.”
How does it work? You hop in the EnergyPod, the pod reclines, a privacy shield descends, and then you powernap for 20 minutes, whereupon the pod will wake you up with a combination of an acoustic alarm and a gentle vibration. For price and a gallery of photos,
If you’re dying to have ones of these bad boys in your home or office, they are available for purchase or monthly rental (seriously though, why would you put one in your house…just get in bed!). Apparently, they will set you back about $8,000.
This is just really strange technology… but with my love of napping and being tied at work, one of these would be interesting to try out.
It does look comfortable, but at $8,000 coffee is much cheaper.
