You all should go and read this!
Now, I know I've been quiet lately, but I had to post this. You all should read this, and be as fucking ticked off as I am. What the fuck makes the US government think that they can impose their stupid fucking laws on stuff posted to the internet from another country? And I wonder what they consider "sadistic" or "masocistic." Stay tuned for a picture update later this summer after I do my first suspension.
"BME: Banned in America
“Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”
- Justice Potter Stewart, US Supreme Court
As of June 24, 2005, publishing BME was made illegal in the United States, with my wife Rachel and I each facing life in prison due to our involvement in the site. In no way am I exaggerating the risk we were at. Our lawyer, who specializes in free speech issues, advised us that there was a good chance of prosecution, beating the charges would be far from guaranteed, and that if we had any sense we’d leave America immediately and tell others to do the same.
Taking his advice, we moved all of our servers back into Canada which has far broader protection of speech and the press, as well as the required privacy protections. Bringing BME back to Canada where it started cost us a great deal of time, money, and effort, but in the long run will be essential in keeping us online. Without this move it would have been only a matter of time before the site was forced to shut down, have its records seized, and seen us imprisoned.
What caused this?
The specific laws in question are the “18 USC 2257” regulations, a set of record-keeping rules which the US government claims have been put in place to combat child porn. They stipulate that for all photos published, copies of ID and other information must be kept and that these must be made available to the US Department of Justice for at least twenty hours a week, without warning or warrant required for inspection of the records or our place of business (ie. our home).
This doesn’t affect only photos or video directly produced by BME; this would also affect content produced by BME members - so every photo on BME and every photo on IAM could have these requirements applied to it. Any photo that is “sexual” in nature or of a “sadistic” or “masochistic” subject matter (even if the photo is blurred or behind a password wall) is affected - this would certainly include suspension, play piercing, nipple piercing, genital piercing, and of course everything in BME/HARD and BME/extreme.
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
- Tacitus"
Read the rest here....
"BME: Banned in America
“Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”
- Justice Potter Stewart, US Supreme Court
As of June 24, 2005, publishing BME was made illegal in the United States, with my wife Rachel and I each facing life in prison due to our involvement in the site. In no way am I exaggerating the risk we were at. Our lawyer, who specializes in free speech issues, advised us that there was a good chance of prosecution, beating the charges would be far from guaranteed, and that if we had any sense we’d leave America immediately and tell others to do the same.
Taking his advice, we moved all of our servers back into Canada which has far broader protection of speech and the press, as well as the required privacy protections. Bringing BME back to Canada where it started cost us a great deal of time, money, and effort, but in the long run will be essential in keeping us online. Without this move it would have been only a matter of time before the site was forced to shut down, have its records seized, and seen us imprisoned.
What caused this?
The specific laws in question are the “18 USC 2257” regulations, a set of record-keeping rules which the US government claims have been put in place to combat child porn. They stipulate that for all photos published, copies of ID and other information must be kept and that these must be made available to the US Department of Justice for at least twenty hours a week, without warning or warrant required for inspection of the records or our place of business (ie. our home).
This doesn’t affect only photos or video directly produced by BME; this would also affect content produced by BME members - so every photo on BME and every photo on IAM could have these requirements applied to it. Any photo that is “sexual” in nature or of a “sadistic” or “masochistic” subject matter (even if the photo is blurred or behind a password wall) is affected - this would certainly include suspension, play piercing, nipple piercing, genital piercing, and of course everything in BME/HARD and BME/extreme.
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
- Tacitus"
Read the rest here....