Just Three

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Three Reasons Why Possession of Child Porn Must Be Re-legalized

"Child pornography is a toxic subject, but a very important one that cannot and should not be ignored. This is an attempt to bring the topic to a serious discussion, and explain why possession of child pornography need to be re-legalized in the next ten years, and why you need to fight for it to happen.

When possession of this type of information was criminalized, those who opposed that criminalization (which I didn’t, at the time – this was before my activism) pointed at four major objections:

>It would not be effective, and possibly counterproductive, in catching child molesters.

>It would lead to censorship without accountability.

>Reporters complained it would undermine journalistic freedom that has stood intact for centuries.

>Constitutional and political science scholars pointed out that it undermined centuries of free speech/expression traditions in a way that would be used by special interests to silence opponents of business interests unrelated to child porn.

In retrospect, all of this has come true. This is bad enough in itself; it is downright catastrophic. There are three overarching reasons why possession of child pornography must be re-legalized: the ban prevents catching child molesters, especially in light of new technology; it creates a generation of branded sex offenders that did nothing wrong; and it is the battleground for free speech itself. Let’s take these one at a time."

"UPDATE: Lars Hallberg wrote a comment on G+ to this article that makes for a very good summary, so I take the liberty of copying it in as a conclusion and a TL;DR:

It’s not illegal to film a murder.
It’s not illegal to possess a film of a murder.
But it’s still illegal to murder people.
And it’s illegal to initiate a murder for the purpose of filming it.
If you have taken part in a murder and have film of it, the film may be usable as proof against you.

I can’t see that Rick suggests anything different here – i.e., I see no suggestions that it should be OK to molest children for the purpose of filming it. That’s good.

In the end it’s as simple as this: it should never be illegal to merely possess information, any information."

http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/07/three-reasons-child-porn-must-be-re-legalized-in-the-coming-decade/

German Pirates reject founder's child porn call

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120910-44887.html

Fury as top Pirate calls for end to child porn ban

http://www.thelocal.se/43142/20120910/

Rick Falkvinge On Child Porn and Freedom Of the Press

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/09/1314232/rick-falkvinge-on-child-porn-and-freedom-of-the-press?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2FslashdotYourRightsOnline+%28Slashdot%3A+Your+Rights+Online%29
"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" 

http://forum.obu-investigators.com/viewtopic.php?t=2476
 
'Legalize child porn,' Swedish politician says

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/legalize-child-porn-swedish-politician-says-.aspx?pageID=238&nid=29859&NewsCatID=374

Saturday, September 15, 2012 

Child Porn Laws Aren't As Bad As You Think, They're Much, Much Worse

"As I described in my last post, these laws were constructed by Christian-fundamentalist pressure groups with the intent of shaming and criminalizing normal teenage behavior, and the side effect of protecting child molesters from prosecution, under the pretext of protecting children. I find that completely unacceptable. Outrageous, actually."

Viewer discretion advised.

http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/11/child-porn-laws-arent-as-bad-as-you-think-theyre-much-much-worse/