On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 14:01:50 +0000, Retro Guy <retroguy@novabbs.com> said in Message-Id: <37aeab382cf5408f3119469a6d7cfc75@www.novabbs.org>:

[snip]

Sometimes I don't realize what issues some go through just to express
their opinions. It's pretty sad that people need to consider anonymization >>> just to use Usenet, but it may be necessary for some speech.

Unfortunately, anonymization (or at least pseudonymity) is *absolutely*
necessary if one wants to avoid prison, even in the so-called "free"
United States of America. There was a man by the name of Frank McCoy --
he was convicted and imprisoned for sending a link to where 'obscene'
materials may be found to an undercover officer.

These 'obscene' materials consisted of text-only stories written by him,
as well as some materials that he edited on behalf of others. McCoy was
obsessed with challenging Miller v. California, the Supreme Court case
that defines obscenity in the United States to this day.

Yes, it's a problem in the US also. I believe I remember this case, and it
is just written words. It's a serious issue to face prosecution/jail for
what you write (or say).

It's been a problem for /decades/ -- it's just that the law has not been enforced, by and large. It reminds me of that quote by Frank Zappa:

"The United States is a nation of laws... badly-written and randomly-enforced."

That is likely true of most countries, not only the United States.

When the original Canadian child pornography law (Bill C-128) was passed, in late-1993, this was just prior to an election, and even though some of the parties and Parliamentarians had reservations about it, they voted for it nonetheless, fearing that to fail to do so would leave them liable to being painted by their opponents as "soft on child pornography" during the imminent election.

What was truly remarkable, was that even the Editorial Board of the Toronto Star (Canada's equivalent to the New York Times) slammed the bill as over- broad, and going too far. In the 30-odd years since then, the bill has been expanded again and again. Affirmative defences (including artistic merit, if
I am not mistaken) were repealed, and replaced with a far weaker 'public
good' defence.

Over the years, a lot of people have speculated that Stephen King's horror novel "It" could be condemned as child pornography, since it includes about
10 pages depicting sexual activity involving underage characters. Happily, Stephen King's novel has never been put on trial, but a Quebec author, Yvan Godbout, was. Not only was Mr. Godbout put on trial, but so was his publisher, Les Editions ADA. Thankfully, they were both acquitted, but the publisher's business (and reputation) is more or less trashed, as is the author's reputation.

This entire prosecution was based on ONE PARAGRAPH out of a 200-odd page
novel.

As far as the STates are concerned, it's a mess, albeit not as horrific as
a situation as we have in Canada.

I was a friend of Frank's... he died of Covid-19 four years ago on April 2nd, 2020. He contracted it in prison -- he got sick, and a week later he was
dead.

What really astounded me about Frank was the /ferocity/ with which the
Georgia authorities went after him. They were absolutely bound and determined to nail his hide to the wall, and they succeeded.

I'm even more shocked with what we're seeing in the UK and some other European countries recently. It really first caught my attention with Mark Meechan (prosecuted for a silly dog/hitler salute) when the same country
has a television show about a silly Hitler. It's only gone downhill from there.

I wouldn't be caught dead in the UK now.

Canada is scary now.

Canada has been scary for a LONG time -- I know, I live there. Unfortunately, it's almost everywhere now.

If you go to the Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) you'll see the following at the bottom right-hand corner of the page:

Wir nehmen Abschied von einem sicher geglaubten Freund, dem
Fernmeldegheimnis (Artikel 10 Grundgesetz)
23 May 1949 -18 Dezember 2015

We say goodbye to a friend we believed to be safe, telecommunications
secrecy (Article 10 of the Basic Law)
May 23, 1949 - December 18, 2015

This is referring to Article 10 of the German Constitution, which from the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, until December, 2015
read as follows:

The privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications shall be
inviolable.

The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, Article 10

It was repealed, just a little over 8 years ago, presumably to allow for mass-surveillance. (Not a particularly good sign.)


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