A double standard is better than no standard

I figured this would be a more cheerful way of presenting news & views, this time the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act", a bill proposing that the US Department of Justice can shut down any site that is accused of being involved in copyright infringement.

Steve Jobs: "Want freedom? Buy Android"

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs people who want porn or political satire should choose an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Because Apple has a "moral responsibility". You know, just like those Iranian priests have a "moral responsibility" to ban anything they find morally offensive (which is basically everything). In addition Jobs bans applications that are too similar to functionality already found in the iPhone, or applications that could perhaps in some way maybe be used to perform copyright infringement. Or applications he just doesn't like.

So I couldn't agree more with Jobs, if you want freedom on your phone instead of a "moral police" filtering out applications that they deem "inappropriate" for whatever reason, go buy an Android phone. I did.

Photo: barockschloss

A taste of what is to come

The Americans got a little taste of what is to come in the near future when due to a DNS error they ended up behind China's "Great Firewall". This meant websites with inappropriate content were blocked.

Personally I don't understand what the fuzz is all about. I mean, they better get used to it as both the US and the EU are planning to incorporate similar Internet filtering, where the governments will be able to decide what information their citizens should be allowed to part-take in, and what should be considered "inappropriate" and blocked.

If all goes according to plan, the EU will join the likes of Iran, North Korea, Australia and China by 2012, with the US probably not far behind. Congratulations, you miserable enemies of freedom.

The free Internet is dead in Sweden

Stockholm tingsrätt have, by ordering the censorship of a website that has not been proven illegal, once again proved they are not only criminally incompetent, they are also setting a new precedent when it comes to Internet censorship in Sweden. In short, they're choosing the totalitarian approach, where "unwanted" websites are closed at will, joining the ranks of freedom loving and friendly countries like China, North Korea and Iran - with the exception that in the case of Sweden it's not at all about ideology, it's all about money.

From now on it appears any powerful organization or corporation can get a court order to block the access to websites they feel are a threat to their business. The free, uncensored Internet we've been used to in these parts of the world has just been replaced by a corporation controlled censorship system.

Kverulant.se puts the whole spectacle into perspective by showing how this mindless court ruling could impact the Internet.

If my blog is gone tomorrow at least you know what's happened.

Iran is a role model for Europe

Nokia Siemens Network have built Internet infrastructure for the Iranian government, and as a part of this project they have implemented sophisticated ways to monitor the network, allowing the government to save and index information on individual users and their communication.

I'm guessing the Swedish government, and all of EU for that matter, is all ears. Perhaps they could arrange a seminar and exchange information and experiences on Internet censorship and surveillance, and get some good ideas on how to further tighten the screw on innocent citizens? Hey, while you're at it, invite China as well, they might have some valuable input. After all these two beacons of democracy seem to be the ideal for European politicians these days.