
France to Block The Pirate Bay - vaksel
http://torrentfreak.com/france-to-block-the-pirate-bay-disconnect-file-sharers-090403/
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jrockway
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.)

~~~
Luc
"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
_"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
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.

~~~
unalone
That's a vision of Europe I never thought of! Sort of like the states of the
United States, but without the overarcing central government.

Do European countries have lots of varied laws? I know nothing about Europe
because I'm an ignorant American, but I know it gets called socialist a lot.
Are there more capitalist/libertarian countries in the mix? I'm aware this is
a reprehensibly ignorant question, and I apologize if it's so ignorant as to
be offensive.

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moe
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
More censorship, here we go.

