Fw: Blow your whistle here

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Resurrecting woopflying 's post which got removed because it only contained a link without any analysis/opinion/comment.

Original:
The WikiLeaks advised proposal to build an international "new media haven" in Iceland, with the world's strongest press and whistleblower protection laws, and a "Nobel" prize for Freedom of Expression, has unanimously passed the Icelandic Parliament.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25743.htm

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And because it ought to contain some comment, here's my two cents.

There have been quite a lot of unanimous votes in the Allthingi, lately. First they unanimously agreed to legalize same-sex marriage (not surprisingly, as that issue has never been a big deal over there; and moreover their current prime minister is the first head of state in the world who's openly homosexual), and now this. But I guess that's not too hard, given the fact that their parliament has 60-something members, and moreover the Icelandic society is relatively homogeneous in most respects, including public opinions. Either way, it'll be curious to observe how this works out.

There was a post about this way ago, which pretty precisely predicted these events, so I'd be particularly interested, but not limited to, the take on the matter of our resident Nordski's.

Comments

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Iceland has an extradition treaty with the US. This means jack shit.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

It means a lot, free media, etc blabla... even pirating servers could be hosted in Iceland.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Or it means that foreign ISPs can blacklist an entire country and solve most of the net's problems.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Haha, a good one, that!

...And a little, inconsequential one at that, which makes it all the more favorable to do. But was this not only a vote for a "Nobel" prize?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Ah yes the great firewall of China American ISPs. Definitely the solution.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

No no. All an extradition treaty means is that the US has the right to take a case before an Icelandic court and try to convince them a law has been broken in the US by the person they accuse. Even if they succeed, they won't necessarily get the guy; many nations won't extradite in case where the US wants to invoke the Death Penalty, and a few people have argued they won't get a fair trial (though I don't believe that has been successful).

If a non-US person has put up a US-copyrighted item on an Icelandic server, he hasn't violated US law. The US has no claim for extradition.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

An important correction: copyright infringement isn't a capital crime.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I hope other countries will follow suit, like the UK. ;)

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

What service do you think is?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

NSA

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

This comes very timely as it is our national holiday today!

Accepting congratulations and hugs now. =)))

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

'Grats for now, I'll give you the hugs personally next week. }{

[woopflying.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we will get accounts from those who were involved instead of the authorised accounts,nowhere to hide now.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm still left wondering -- is this experiment going to restrict itself to people working in countries that truly don't have a free press, or is this going to be a free for all that will be equally open for genuine kooks looking for the air of legitimacy?

[jasolater.livejournal.com]

is this going to be a free for all that will be equally open for genuine kooks looking for the air of legitimacy?

That's a good question.