Re: [Bug-gne]the problem of illegal content vs. freedom

[Jean-Daniel Fekete]

I think there is an ethic problem here.  There are good social reasons to 
forbid some articles.
Think about children reading articles on necrophilia or negationism.  They can 
be hurt or "inspired".
Think about "unabomber" reading an article on creating small bombs easy to 
stuff in an envelope.  People can be hurt
or killed.

There is a true responsibility in publishing "dangerous" material.  I don't 
mean GNE should not do it but I wonder who
will bear the responsibility when somebody gets hurt.  Probably RMS will, since 
he inspired the project.

I believe there are enough important and interesting subjects that can be 
accepted to feel forced to accept all the
arguable articles.  However, there should be some selection and this is a 
position in favor of an editorial policy.

The legality issue is different.

Tom Chance wrote:

> --- Hook <address@hidden> wrote: > Peteris
> Paikens wrote:
> > > >   -illegal/legal to display on browser viewed by
> > a citizen of
> > > > this country.
> > > The action of 'displaying on a browser' is done by
> > the citizen, not GNE,
> > and
> > > GNE has neither the ability nor the need to
> > control 1) legality of foobar
> > in
> > > a country and 2) the location of the viewer.
> > >   If the viewer is prohibited by his/her law to
> > view information about
> > > foobar, then (s)he is breaking the law, and not
> > GNE.
> >
> > I'm not convinced that you're right legally, but I'm
> > not a lawyer, are you?
> >
> > The underlying issue with illegal content is a
> > social one - material
> > supporting pedophile views (to take one example)
> > need not be illegal to have
> > a bad effect on GNE. In the real world you can't
> > divorce yourself from
> > "guilt by association" in the mind of the general
> > public. And you can't
> > ignore the views and opinions of that public when
> > GNE exists to provide them
> > with a resource.
>
> We won't have guilt as GNE, why should we be guilty
> for hosting pro-paedophilia or pro-nazi articles? The
> only thing I'm concerned about is that if we host
> illegal material, and Peteris is right about GNE not
> being accountable (in all countries, as diff countries
> will have diff. laws on this I'm sure), that we
> properly warn people of illegal content so we don't
> get a lot of people in trouble. IF we did that, we'd
> have to have a watertight way of finding articles that
> could be illegal and putting a disclaimer on them. Or
> putting a disclaimer on every article (just on the
> site would be no good as people can link to a single
> article).
>
> Tom Chance
>
> =====
> "True security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated 
> individual effort - Fyodor Dostoyevsky"
>
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--
  Jean-Daniel Fekete
  Ecole des Mines de Nantes, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, La Chantrerie,
  BP 20722, 44307 Nantes Cedex 03, France
  Voice: +33-2-51-85-82-08  | Fax: +33-2-51-85-82-49
  address@hidden | http://www.emn.fr/fekete/