Copyrights, Conventions and A New World of Int'l Censorship

As though the news of the world these days wasn’t bad enough, it appears that international findings of offensive materials may now be enforced domestically.

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,46676,00.html

By Jeffrey Benner

2:00 a.m. Sep. 11, 2001 PDT
A human rights group in Washington, D.C. receives a letter from its
ISP saying that because a court in China has found the site to be defamatory, it must be taken down. The ISP informs the group that it will comply with the order.

Anybody got a nice rock I can go hide under?

It will never happen. it was just a scenario in a journalist’s head. The new copyright proposals can backfire on the record and movie groups just as it can on civil rights groups. Imagine the Taliban signing this treaty if ratified, then later rule that all sites, CD Now, everything, except the pro-Taliban sites, are defamatory, and must be shut down. Hey, it may be just the way for these business guys to shut up about enforcing DMCA and stuff.