[ArsTechnica] Move over, Australia: France taking ‘Net censorship lead

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Critics of government-mandated filtering schemes contend that such programs first focus on « child pornography » because it’s such an unobjectionable target for censorship—but once the program is in place, it’s much easier to extend it to more controversial areas, such as copyright protection. At least the French have the decency to admit that this is what’s happening.

The French lower house, the National Assembly, has just passed a security bill known as LOPPSI2, […]

As for France, plenty of heated opposition can be found there as well. Jérémie Zimmermann of Internet rights group La Quadrature du Net said last week, « Protection of childhood is shamelessly exploited by Nicolas Sarkozy to implement a measure that will lead to collateral censorship and very dangerous drifts. After the HADOPI comes the LOPPSI: the securitarian machinery of the government is being deployed in an attempt to control the Internet at the expense of freedoms. »

Censorship… it’s not just for authoritarian states anymore. Such issues are increasingly part of the discourse in democracies, including Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority democracy. […]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/move-over-australia-france-taking-net-censorship-lead.ars