Ireland to censor the internet

It didn't take that long for Ireland to take the bait of internet censorship, which is, mildly saying, dangerous for any country. I will use the word freedom at the end of this post, but before that I will give examples of why it sucks the wrong way. I will be making comparisons to Finland, which might have the strictest laws, and enforcement of piracy laws in western Europe. Finland still stays a bit behind of some countries, which are also criticized by the liberals of the western countries, for let's say China and North Korea, and the latter mentioned two countries wouldn't be doing that good of a job without the help of the biggest piracy channel in the world, namely Google. Even this platform is provided by Google, and blogger is widely used to distribute copyrighted material - to the extent that it should be blocked on the same merits as The Pirate Bay.

First wave

First, let's take a look, how Finland has managed to handle the blocking of Pirate bay. It started with legislation of the so-called Lex Karpela in 2005. It was a bundle of laws aiming to protect companies against copyright infringements. It gave law enforcement instruments to block certain pages, and it was wildly controversial on the grounds of citizens communicating freely without governmental officials stopping it beforehand (aka. censorship)

First time Finland applied censorship of Internet, was on the grounds of fighting against child pornography. The process was to create a list of web sites, which should be censored, for distributing child pornography. As the idea might have sounded great, for it is for children's sake, it went terribly wrong, at least on three levels. Firstly, the list was not public, and nobody was held responsible, if the list had wrong sites on it. Only way for a company know that their website was blocked, and this is very true for companies not based in Finland, was to try access the page from Finland. Users trying to access blocked pages saw a warning message stating that the page is blocked because of child pornography.

So, it was basically some officials, who updated the list, and were not held liable. Ironically, one of the sites that got blocked, was a Finnish web page, which only crime was being critical against the censorship (YLE: Police censor porn website)Practically, this whole black list idea, was doing, what critics were afraid of, on the most horrifying way - blocking sites critical of the government.

Matti Nikki, who administrated the critical web page, couldn't get his web site out of the black list, because no authority recognized it's duty not to interfere with a freedom of speech. I have to point out that censorship is forbidden in Finland on it's constitution, even though it might be a closer to dead letter these days, it is still written there. Meaning it is somehow still recognized.

Thirdly, the list was shown to have a pretty vague idea of what constituted child porn. List included a plumber company (must be because that many times told audiovisual story of a plumber man and a housewife), 

So it went wrong at least on three levels: blacklisters didn't have accountability, it blacklisted critics, and there was no way for commercial web sites to get off the list, even if those web sites didn't broke any laws.

And the blacklist was also meant to be used against sites that were in countries, where there wasn't any means to prosecute potential Child Porn distributors. Most of the sites on the list were on servers based in the United States or Europe, where there are effective legislation already in place against child porn.

Second Wave

The second wave of Finnish censorship, was the Pirate bay. Lot of Finnish Internet providers were ruled to block The Pirate Bay, and it didn't go that well either. The blocks were diminished in value in a matter of hours on two counts. Finland is very technically savvy country, with a high educational standards and know-how of the information technologically. Secondly: the Facebook. Through facebook, even the people who had problems accessing The Pirate Bay before the blocks, and whose technological skills were limited to logging on to Facebook, were given instructions how to avoid the blocks. The most easiest one being the link to Estonian mirror site. Basically you just need to change the .org to .ee. Block cracked.

Then there are those proxies, which you might probably heard of. And you don't need a lot of technical skills to use those. Web is full of those. Those Chinese citizens who break the censorship of China, don't really need to be very technical. They basically just need to go to a website like hidemyass.com, and type the web page they want to visit.

But the easiest way of them all, is the use to world's most popular pirate indexing site, is the Google.com. Just try it. Or how about reddit.com, or delicio.us.

China has a whole national department of thousands of workers working 24/7 to censor the internet, and they are not doing a very good job at it.

Secondly, the Finnish court didn't even bother to check those sites, that were about the be blocked. So they also blocked promobay, a site for indie artists to promote their own material. So, good job Ireland, and good luck enforcing your new ruling. 

So, Ireland just took a very dangerous route, which starts with blocking The Pirate Bay, and then their subsidiaries, and then pages, which might have something to do with it, and then probably the critics of the law, and then probably just obnoxious pages, and then probably this page, and soon we will notice, that we have lost our freedom.

They came first for the allofmp3,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a leech.

Then they came for the child pornography,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a pedophile.

Then they came for the pirate bay,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a pirate.

Then they came for the online poker games,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a poker player.

Then they came for the online news, chats and forums,
and I didn't speak up because I didn't care.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Textually Healing

I felt numb, I felt everything except feelings

I felt castrated, I didn't care to feel

Then I felt it

I used my senses

I felt the fabrics of my skin
I smelled the power of piss and shit in the bathroom
I saw knickers dancing downstairs
I heard the beating upstairs

and I woke up

Then there was a soul

It started with the satin of your skin
It continued with the smell of your empowering sweat
I was watching thy knees, elbows, and funny, scrumpy hair, which you are embarrassed of course anyways
I was hearing you explaining why you have to go to work, and heritage is important

I think and
I might and
maybe I am
Textually Healing

I want to propose a toast, and it died in the committee

It is probably going to happen, when Keith Richards becomes the pope, when abortion is going to be legalised-legalised in Ireland. After the sad, and misfortunate death of Savita Halappanavar last year, a wide pro-abortion movement got it's momentum. What was the sad part of this act was, as the pregnant Halappanavar was dying in pain, the existence of three doctors around her bed using their fingers to explain how this 'country is catholic', and that they cannot do a life-saving surgery, because that would be an abortion. And the doctors were even sure that, there wouldn't be a baby coming out alive anyways, but just in case, that the pope would disagree, they decided to deny all their goodwill and surgical knowledge on a basis of being afraid of getting sued. That's doctor-ish approved not.

But the legislation is going forward. After the tragic death of Halappanavar, the whole country woke up, and there were promises that there will be a draft by new year's day, and the vote would take place before the May.

There was a strong, unified sense of a need for legislation change, for a while. Now, the ministers just had a 6-hour meeting, and their progress was basically, that the bill changed it's name from "The Protection of Maternal Life Bill" to "The Bill for the Protection of Life During pregnancy". When you see that kind of determination in politics, you can bet your sweet uterus against the survival of unicorns with hundred-to-one, and you will win anyways, and always.

There is also a debate of how many doctors do you need to have, to make that judgment call. They are not sure, if three doctors and two psychiatrists, or 6 doctors,  is needed for unanimous vote, because last time it only took three doctors to deny the abortion.

Of course, there is also the Iona Institute, and the like, which are more than afraid, that if there will be an abortion law, it will soon become a law basically allowing service by request. Not that anyone would be interested in the self-governance of one's own body.

This to say, I'm still on the first page of The Irish Times. There might be other faults in the world, and we'll be back right after these videos. And then there's Tom with the weather.

About hate and love - My literal revenge.

This blog, which meant for no-one, but only those people, who can avoid advertising. This is for you. Here is a picture of an dolly.

Here they were happy

"Here we are happy, say it Ken, or die trying"

• * You are not gonna get away from this one

* My everything is cute, or die trying

* If you thinks, that's not proper English, but I will standandos by your side, cause I am a superstar

• '* If  we every sould brakeup, I'm gonna fuck you up mentally, environmentally, baconly, and just for the hatred itself. Hear, here, he. be-. -Oscar Milde
• 
  
• PARDONS:
• I was Happy, with big letters, it only started, when I started to feel unhappy, when you were hateful about everything, to say the least. I can't really recall you saying anything positive about anyone (but me, but I'm a superstar))
• 
  
• I wanted to stay with you. I was never running away. I had doubts of being with someone. I didn't want to move on with you, cause when things go wrong, they might go wrong sideways. I was afraid. 
• 
  
• You were cute as hell. You still are. Your skin is the oil of angels, even when you woke grumpy. I had smelly feet. I hate my smelly feet. They never compare to your natural beauty. 

Your English was always great. I think I learned from you. I'm sorrry that I said sometimes wrong. It wasn't 

meant to teach you, and you found out, I appreciate that you are also a journalist and a producer.

Now you hate me for being. Maybe a superstar, or maybe literate something, or maybe just a person who doesn't want you to hate. And I'll drink to that.

If you like this, share my love and hatred.

Vappuparty at Odeon

Oh me gods, and shiver my viking pants, Vappu is coming. Luckily for the Irish, Finnish-Irish society throws a preview, prequel, and predestinated mayhemous party at Odeon, on the 26th of april.

Officially it should start on the last of april and continue as long as possible. Some prefer the mayhem to continue until the midsummer.

Here's a link to the facebook-event.

You commas, and you enjoissimos the arctic hysteria.

Irish know it by Beltane. The festival revivalist should come and compare notes.

After the Charlie Ross performance

It started over three decades ago. It affected my religious views. It affected my way to look special effects and movies. It affected what kind of music I listen. It even affected what kind of a pen I used to do notes with. If it had a dark helmet on it, it probably worked a little bit better than other pens. 

This picture is from Same Bob, different day -blog. That picture probably tells more about the strenght of the brand than about the actual story. Which is to say, it is not a very easy story to tell. Even though it includes elements of fairly recognizable fairy tale elements like knights, chivalry, princesses, and to take it a little farther, I can also find dragons in the original trilogy.

So when we went to see this One Man Star Wars trilogy to the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin center, there was actually some one along us, who hadn't seen the original at all. I don't know if it made much more sense on the stage to others, when it's told by imitating characters and special effects, but I felt confuse sometimes thinking about what scene is this.

Nevertheless, Charlie Ross delivers the package by understanding that when performing trilogy on the stage, it's more about the capsulizing and paraphrasing than being accurate. Most of the comedy comes from drawing lines in your own head. Some of the most enjoyable moments were those which at first I didn't know what they were about. Hardest scene, I think, is the trench run of the first movie. It has lots of action, some dialogue, but as a writer or director of theatre, I would think twice before taking that challenge.

Now when you think of it, it is actually a pretty stupid scene, but during that time, it had the drama of a worlds colliding kind of war.

After the show, Ross took a small moment to recapture his career. Which was a very nice monologue about how he is amazed of the lenght of the show. Of course it was also about marketing his Lord of the Rings -trilogy. Which has now an official seal on it. Ross played it for three years before asking for permission. Same thing was with the Star wars. Thing that probably has changed more in the background, is Ross doesn't pay tributes to Lucasfilm any more. Now that money goes to Mickey Mouse.

Final points for the show: Four lightsabers, one star, and one helmet using the official Star Wars rating system owned by a magical castle in California.

Star Wars is coming to town

It is a very rare treat that a theater can use a well-known and heavily copyrighted material. For example, no group without money could do Tolkien or Matrix on stage without first consulting the copyright owners. Although, for example, George Lucas has allowed people to do fanfiction as long as they give out the proper disclaimer, and don't make money out of it. And in some rare cases, he even allows people to make living out of it.

And that's the beef of this post.

I think the first time that I found out about Charlie Ross, was by an accident. I was watching theater improves at Youtube (okay, I was watching cat and Star Wars videos when I accidentally wrote Cat Wars). At first Ross adapted the first Star Wars movie to be performed by himself, and with a good feedback, and a gracious nod from George Lucas himself, he started to tour with his show. The show naturally spread to cover the original trilogy as a whole. I believe I found Ross sometime between 2005 and 2006. And I dreamed about doing the same stuff in Finland, or even  better yet, produce Charlie Ross' show.

Yesterday somebody gave me a link to his homepage stating that this might interest me. Then I reacted as I normally do when I want to be obnoxious bastard, and shouted: "Old! I saw that dude at Youtube before you learned to write theater correctly (I still use the English version 'theatre' often, but bloggers proofreader always highlights it)". But just for the nostalgia, I decided to investigate guy's homepage, and then it struck me. Ross is going to be performing here in Dublin next month for a week. Jolly jeepers, gosh, gesundheit, bless you, and Holy patrimony I said, and my friend nodded with a unspoken gesture: "I knew this might interest me".

Here's a teaser. I believe this was originally made to promote Pepsi when the new trilogy was wasting people's time. I might be working. I don't have enough journalistic integrity at the moment to check my facts. So enjoy, and make your reservations, but not too soon, I still haven't gotten my own ticket. Tickets can be reserved from the ticketmaster. Show is played at the Gaiety theatre.