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New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

juliareda.eu

21–30 of 125 posts

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#21
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how the fact that it required judicial authorization contradicts what the author said. Many abuses happen with the full backing of courts.

We should abolish prisons then? It's a ridiculous argument. Abuses can happen with full backing of the courts, but I expect them to not happen. In all the years that this system has been in place in Spain I have never seen it used for anything other than blocking websites that were in breach of the law.

The point wasn't that it was extrajudicial, she was just demonstrating that a tool instituted "for consumer protection" can, once implemented, easily be used for democratic suppression or censorship.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#22

This feels like a fight we're going to lose eventually. Proposals come up.. most fail. I admire those responsible for putting up resistance. But.. some succeed. Others partially succeed. Limited to stopping pedophilia, piracy, nazis... Those are bridgeheads. The direction is monodirectional. Eighty six proposals can fail, but if the eighty seventh succeeds that's just as good. There is no going back. Win, good. Lose,…

That's called a ratchet.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#23
Whenever I see news like this I think of John Gilmore's quote, "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Perhaps decisions like this will hasten a move toward a decentralized and an encrypted Net where politicians and their corporate sponsors have far less influence.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#25
post #20

This feels like a fight we're going to lose eventually. Proposals come up.. most fail. I admire those responsible for putting up resistance. But.. some succeed. Others partially succeed. Limited to stopping pedophilia, piracy, nazis... Those are bridgeheads. The direction is monodirectional. Eighty six proposals can fail, but if the eighty seventh succeeds that's just as good. There is no going back. Win, good. Lose,…

> There is no going back. Why not. Bad laws should be repealed.

What should happen is irrelevant to the conversation. We’re talking about what WOULD happen.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#26
post #5

>To give a recent example, independence-related websites were blocked in Catalunya just weeks ago. That required judicial authorisation. Good way of beginning a post, with a lie.

They didn't say it was blocked using this proposal. Just that it was expedited through website blocking infrastructure that was put in place for other purposes.

I think the argument runs something like this:

P1. Infra A exists. P2. Infra A has been abused. C1. If we build infra A, it can be abused.

P3. Abuse is bad. P4. This proposal proposes that we build infra A. P5. A proposal to build something that can be abused is bad. C2. A proposal to build infra A is bad.

That's all fine. It's all fine, except P1 still stands even at the time we reach C2. The infrastructure already exists. So the argument sounds funny. Not unsound, but somewhat unconvincing.

It's a much better argument for the proposition that we should dismantle the infrastructure, than that we shouldn't make additional legitimate use of the infrastructure.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#27
post #23

Whenever I see news like this I think of John Gilmore's quote, "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Perhaps decisions like this will hasten a move toward a decentralized and an encrypted Net where politicians and their corporate sponsors have far less influence.

Maybe but as long as they leave the mainstream porn sites alone I don't think it'll speed it up that much.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#28
post #11

I'm against this ... unless they block Facebook :)

I realize you are joking to some extent, but if we are to demand net neutrality, we must be willing to enforce it even against our own motives. Facebook as a website shouldn't be treated any different than any other website. Of course we can legally attack Facebook from other angles like its nefarious business practices.

Re: New EU law prescribes website blocking in the name of consumer protection

#30
post #25
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no going back. Why not. Bad laws should be repealed.

What should happen is irrelevant to the conversation. We’re talking about what WOULD happen.

That assumption of inevitability is self-fulfilling. Things would be a lot different if everyone who pessimistically disengages instead tried to use the democratic process.
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