The US Department of 'Justice' has forced the sudden closure of a WordPress host.
The claim is that it was for copyright infringement reasons, but there were more than 73,000 blogs hosted there, and it is a near-certainty that most of those were not engaged in any illegality.
But it does show just how easy it is to silence many thousands of voices.
My God. If they can shut down an entire server for the misdeeds of a handful of blogs, no one is safe.
ReplyDeleteIs free speech suddenly a thing of the past? This jackbooted socialist thuggery didn't just silence a few criminals, it also silenced many thousands of business websites, and undoubtedly hundreds of political and informational blogs.
Ding ding ding. Give than man a cigar.
ReplyDeleteAnd those they can't find some reason such as "copyright infringement" will come under the category of "national emergency."
I bet most buskers do not pay royalties. Are they going to start shutting down everyone who uses his voice on street corners because some violate copyright laws?
Funny thing is, while I do agree with the need for having and enforcing copyright laws, it is Freedom of Speech that I find in the Bill of Rights. The government is going to shut down a constitutional guarantee to protect property rights? I hope they are as concerned about property rights when it comes to so-call environmental laws.
I would like to say, "and we have complete f**king crickets on this issue from the MSM - where is the outrage from the NYT etc - can you imagine if Ashcroft had done this, it would be all over the news!"... etc...
ReplyDeleteBut the truth is I barely have much contact with the MSM anymore. (Financial Times excepted).
I suppose this is not a great thing because it will allow my own biases to remain unchallenged. (Which is never good, even if your own biases are largely correct).
So - does anyone know if this has been covered in the MSM at all?
There seems to be new(or at least different)information on the Blogetary takedown.
ReplyDeleteNow it seems they asked the propietors to close it voluntarily due to a wealth of bomb-making tips and a hit list of Americans to be killed by internal jihadis.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20010923-261.html
Of course, this does not speak to the harm done to those who were not involved in said activities.