My personal thoughts on the thing below

[wiseheart]

At first, it would seem that I shouldn't be concerned, since I don't think I've ever downloaded a single movie or song from the Internet and conservatively buy things on the old-fashioned way, even recruiting friends in other countries to help me hunt down stuff honestly.

However... when the lobbies and the authorities can do this, who can tell where it will end? When will they start against fanfiction, too, even though we make no profit from it and, in fact, make unpaid advertising for the original product, which they should appreciate. (They don't, but that is another matter entirely.)

Who knows where our freedom, which is mostly an illusion as it is, will be mutilated again and again? Frienships forged on the basis of shared interest will be destroyed by taking down websites and forums and everything. The Internet will cease being the World Wide Web that it was supposed to be and become a tool of manipulation for profitmaking... and other, darker purposes.

When almost a decade ago FF.Net chose to self-censure the site by prohibiting NC-17-rated fics, it was a worrisome thing. Not because I miss all the badly-written smut - that croached back since then, with lower ratings or found its way to other archives. But because a site, popular and much-used, was forced to take such measures to be able to continue its existence.

I grew up behind the Iron Curtain. I know what censorship is - and fear and control. But back then, those things were at least out in the open. Now it all seems to be happening behind our backs, and that worries me more than everything.

Comments

[cirdan-havens.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I never bothered taking down the naughty fics that I wrote. *cough*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

IIRC, yours weren't all that nasty. And the level of nastiness isn't really the point. The level of censorship and control they are trying to establish is.