...The Controversies of Protected and Unprotected Speech The Controversies of Protected and Unprotected Speech Without the ability to express free and open ideas and exchange those thoughts with other individuals, our country’s representative democracy would never have survived. After abandoning the British monarchy, the Founders desired an open democracy free of tyranny and control of information. In order to protect our civilian’s basic principle of freeness of speech, the Founders established the freedoms of speech and the press otherwise known as the First Amendment. Within the United States Constitution, the first amendment contains the right to freedom of speech. This idea has become the core basis and significance of the American society and democracy. Within this amendment, an individual has the right to express their opposing views compared to the popular majority regarding specific areas of speech, religion and expression. More specifically, the first amendment includes the right to freely express one’s religion as well as grant every citizen the right to express any religious belief without government involvement favoring any particular side of religion. This amendment allows and ensures that an individual is allowed to speak their mind and question their higher authorities when the opportunity arises. Moreover, free and open debate is highly favorable and viewed as an essential component for determining the genuineness of opposing and competing...
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...parent's nerves to find that junior had lately become a regular at gambling parlors and pornography shops, had learned from strangers how to cook dope, and was something of an authority on seven quick and painless ways to commit suicide. Yet most parents would think nothing of letting this child onto the Internet unsupervised, while they blissfully read The Business Journal as smut and skullduggery illuminate their youngster's mind. And therein lies opportunity for software developers who care. Anderson, B. (2007). Regulating the Internet: Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 26, 91-95. The Internet's breakthrough to primetime usage beginning in the mid-1990s evolved in an era of openness. Unfettered access seemed key to Internet development. An important foundation for the 1996 Telecommunications Act was the theory that the telecom industry would work best if it were free of government regulation, a guiding principle that has continued through to the current administration. However, try as the government might to avoid regulatory roadblocks, the Internet has been regulated from the beginning. Not only the government, but also nonprofit organizations and private industry have their hand in regulation. Certain regulations may involve or affect all three types of regulating entities, and within each entity there can be substantial infighting over issues. This article is primarily about government regulation, but examples of regulation from the other regulating entities are provided...
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...Paul Lee Professor Askren English 100 March 7, 2012 Censorship Suppression of information and ideas by anyone, whether it be government officials, writers, or artists, censorship is what blankets the world from seeing what the truth really is. Media and ads in various forms are forced to be careful what they air to the public. With the growth of technology and the expansion of resources available via the Internet: Email, World Wide Web, and Video-Chatting, the amount of censorship throughout the world has increased drastically over the years. Every nation on Earth has a certain form of censorship that ranges from the extreme to the not so extreme. The United States and most European nation’s censorship level is the least compared to that of other countries. Nations where foundations are shaky and don’t have a strong central government is where censorship really takes it tolls. Countries like DPRK (North Korea), Pakistan, Burma, Syria, Cuba, Iran, and China must abide by what the dictator wants the people to see and not, by the use of extreme bias. Along with the international community and its government using censorship, the decision of censoring something can also be made by an individual aside from the government. Individuals that might be biased with is or her own thoughts. Censorship decisions might be illogical, unfair, unconstitutional, or in some cases just immoral. People tend to want to censor everything that they personally don’t tend to agree with. Corporations...
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...there was a social movement against the pornography industry in Canada. Religious and Feminist groups were concerned about the harmful effects regarding the danger and degradation of women. The opposition to this movement was that pornography was a freedom of expression and sexual orientation. This brought about many political debates and controversies about what is ethically right and what is a personal freedom. This created many problems for the Canadian government on how to legislate pornography and up hold the Common Rights of Canada. First Legislation on Obscenity and Criminal Law In 1959 the Canadian government passed the first law regarding obscenity after a social movement by feminist groups. The Canadian law stated "For the purpose of the Act, any publication of a dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence shall be deemed obscene." The addition of this law did not settle the conflict between Liberals and Conservatives over the value of pornography and sex itself. Everything was based around one question: Were representations of sex socially and morally dangerous or sexually liberating? Feminist Movement During the 1980's another Feminist movement began because they felt the current law didn't do anything to protect women and it didn't criminalize pornography in any way. Feminist groups argued that pornography oppressed women and it would influence...
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...Josephine Nguyen Professor Mark Harrison English 1A 6 December 2013 Should the First Amendment Protect Sexual Images? Very few of us are strangers to pornography. Pornography is not only defined as four-letter-word and indecency but it also is an issue that has and will keep on calling upon a lot of debate. There are numerous different opinions about pornography. While many people who identify pornography as derogatory, disgraceful, and abominable, there are also a large number of people who recognize it as an attraction, a form of sexual countenance, and amusement. Pornography is sexually accurate substance, such as pictures, videos, or even writing, whose constitutional element is to cause sexual awaking. Moreover, sexually explicit material becomes more and more abundance on magazines, television, movies, and on billboards, and it can be much more accessible through the Web. After exploring the war on pornography, although there are a lot of people who stand for pornography, I still think that pornography should be censored on magazines, movies, television, and on the Internet, and there also should be limits for pornography because it’s harmful to our society. First of all, let’s talk about the differences between sexual images of consenting adults and sexual images of children. Most people consider pornography to be stirring images of consenting adults. In particular, sexual images of consenting adults are images of someone who is legally eighteen years old or...
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...Pornography on Public Library Computers An Ethical Controversy by Bret Clancy Ever since the fall of man the seed of immorality has continued to grow, adapt, and morph like the influenza virus. Pornography is one of those immoral viruses that persistently sicken societies. Scientists continue to make vaccines against the illness and while some are more effective than others, none of them have ever cured the illness. The same can be said of pornography. Defining pornography is not black and white. There are a variety of definitions for pornography and some definitions are used by individuals to help their cases when taking legal action. Merriam-Webster defines pornography as, “the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction” (merriam-webster.com). Merriam-Webster describes pornography in a docile manner making it appear inviting. The Oxford dictionary defines pornography in a more intense visual cue of the actual intent. The definition states pornography is, “printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement” (oxforddictionaries.com). Dictionary.com defines pornography as, “obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit” (dictionary.reference.com). They appeal to the artistic aspect of pornography by stating that pornography is not art because of the obscene nature...
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...equality of women. Famous feminist Julie Bindel claims it is should never be legalized, as it always will be “violence against women, even if they chose it” (Bindel, 2006). While she believes in a shift for police to focus on pimps instead of the women, it neglects the fact that prostitution can be a legitimate career. Instead of fighting against the industry, feminists should be fighting against the misogyny of governments, made of mostly men, that do nothing to protect the women or perpetrate the violent clients but instead restricts and shuns prostitution. Brothel owner Dennis Hof claims, “I’m all about women’s rights....
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...Module 2 Question 1 Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the Blackberry smartphone enjoys huge success in its US, UK and Canada market. Strong encryption built into the design of the Blackberry system that guaranteed customer privacy has been its forte and main strength among business entities and government agencies in the UK, US and Canada. However, despite the strong security unmatched by rivals such as Apple Inc, Google Inc and Nokia Corp, controversies surrounding its security soon emerge prominently from its Asia and Middle East market. The main reason for this can be related to the number of terrorist attack on that region. Due to the strong security of Blackberry system, it provides a perfect communication medium for terrorists or any parties with malicious intent to communicate, plan and execute their ploy without fear of the their emails, text messages or phone calls being tapped by the government or intelligence body. Thus, due to a number of terrorist attack that was investigated to be planned via Blackberry (due to Blackberry being found in the possession of the terrorist), it is a legitimate concern regarding to Blackberry’s security system from the governments of the region. Second reason as to why the Western countries where Blackberry has large customer base such as US, UK and Canada doesn’t seem to care much about the security concern of Blackberry system is due to their technical and technological superiority over their counterparts in Middle East...
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...Censorship: What’s the fuss? When should censorship in art be put in place, and should it be put in place? Allowing art such as that of a very provocative taste will definitely cause a lot of noise. Noise like the standards needing to be invoked that deal with images of naked children in their works, as any work with naked person is pornography. For methods of censoring, would it be fair to retract any monetary gain if the art is “inappropriate” or “lewd,” or should the work be banned? Should Congress be able to step in and have a say in the censorship, or is messing around in federally funded art overstepping their boundaries? In the education field too, they have to try to make a decision to censor or allow provocative works of art. The...
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...Abstract This paper provides a brief review of the government censorship over internet, which is turning into a national dilemma as well as the cross-national conflict which affect the global businesses. Nowadays, internet censorship is widely accepted standard regulation that controls any information available on the internet and by using filtering tools to prevent people from accessing materials that are considered to be inappropriate. While government support the use of internet censorship as a protection of public security and defines the ‘inappropriate material’ to determine what people can view on the internet, others argue that it is simply a tool to take away people from their own right to express freedom of speech and make people blindly accept what they can access on the internet. The paper also addresses the growing problem of cross-national conflict by giving the practice of multinational company Google and addressing the issues of the value system between Chinese and US government. The paper concludes that as the rapid growth of internet technology and international businesses, it has become more difficult to achieve both control of information and the benefits of technology, and there is a need for balance between these two factors. Table of Contents Abstract I Table of Contents II 1. Introduction １ 2. The nature of internet development and censorship ２ 2.1The history and nature of internet development ２ 2.2 Methods of internet control ２ 2.2.1 Internet...
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...discussions regarding “Censorship of the Internet”, explain how Censorship can work in some instances but in others it can be a detriment to society. Introduction Since electronic devices such as computer, smart phone and tablet have generalised and the number of internet users is getting bigger, internet contains tremendous amount of information from trivial one to even significant information that could occur a social problem. Every information is exposed through the internet and people could touch those information easily. As these reasons, government wants to control and monitor the internet access in many nations, including North Korea, Iraq, China, Myanmar, Syria, Turkey, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Maldives, and Tunisia so on. This, government control or suppression of what can be gain access to, distributed, or watched on the internet, is called internet censorship. The definition of internet censorship is a way used by government or religious institutions to supervise or regulate the public access to offensive or harmful materials (Turban, 2012) This topic is very sensitive subject to decide whether it should exist or not. There is a sharp division of belief between people who approve and disapprove. This report is going to illustrate how the censorship works by some method, why the internet censorship is necessary, and the disadvantages of internet censorship, finally it talks about examples and current situation of internet censorship in the world. Necessity of internet...
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...Question 1 With reference to the case study, it is noted that various countries were involved in the Blackberry controversy. Frustration arose for countries like India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia as the government considered the phone and system to be a national security threat due to strong encryption of the Blackberry system that guaranteed customers privacy. Local governments had difficulty to intercept or monitor conversations (regarding illegal or terrorists activities), as the information did not pass through domestic servers. The case study points out that the UAE had intentions to ban Blackberry in 2010 following arrests of several youths that organized a peaceful protest using Blackberry Messenger. It was believed that the attackers of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, senior leader of Hamas (Palestinian militant group), in Dubai, is allegedly a team of Israeli intelligence agency in 2010 communicated securely on their Blackberry phones. The regulators in UAE argued that some features operated by Blackberry fell outside the country’s laws, therefore causing judicial, social and national security concerns. This overshadowed the initial considerations of the freedom protection of the population. Saudi Arabia intentions to ban the Blackberry arose as government claimed that the Blackberry services did not meet the regulatory requirements and posed a national security threat. The country, which is RIM’s biggest Middle East market, also believed that...
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...events, identify the court that took jurisdiction. Explain why the court that took the case was the appropriate one for the particular circumstances. One of the fundamental questions of law is if a given court has the jurisdiction to preside over any given case. The jurisdictional question can be broken down into three components: whether there is over the person, whether there is jurisdiction over the subject matter, and whether there is jurisdiction to render the particular judgment sought. There are also different courts that have jurisdiction depending on the case. State courts have general jurisdictions, meaning that they can hear any controversy except those prohibited by their specific state laws. Federal courts have limited jurisdiction , meaning that they only exercise powers granted to them by the Constitution and Federal Laws. The criminal case I chose for this assignment is the case of James “ Whitey “ Bulger a crime syndicate head With a larger than life history that includes bank robbery, and being a gun supplier for the Irish Republican Army the one time F.B.I informant and head of Boston's Winter Hill Gang after being tipped off by an F.B.I agent of a pending racketeering indictment Bulger fled Boston in 1994 becoming one of the nations most wanted fugitives until he was finally...
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...life. Movies actually started out as short videos of everyday life. A person could go pay five cents to enter a nickelodeon theater and watch a video of a kiss (Randall 10). Film seemed innocent enough, but as film advanced, filmmakers desired to do more than show footage of everyday life; they desired to create original narrative stories, just like a play in a theater. After all, humanity has always desired to tell stories and re-create moments for everyone to see. Unfortunately, some of the stories being told contained controversial content - such as violence and sex. The Great Train Robbery, the first narrative film, started the controversy by presenting the audience with a story of thievery and gun violence (Pollard 17). As time passed, many people grew upset that theaters would allow movies to show such scandalous material. In 1907, the government stepped in and gave the Chicago and New York police forces the power to pre-screen movies played in their cities and decide whether or not they should be shown – one of the first efforts to censor movies (Randall 11). Eventually the power to censor movies was given to The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America and its president: Will Hays; the system was nicknamed the Hay’s Code (Pollard 49). While the movie scripts were in development, the studios would submit the screenplay and the MPPDA decided whether or not to give it a stamp of approval on whether it was appropriate (Pollard 50-53). After years of court battles...
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...Since its founding, the website Amazon.com has attracted criticism and controversy from multiple sources, where the ethics of certain business practices and policies have been drawn into question. Amazon has faced numerous allegations of anti-competitive or monopolistic behavior, both in and out of court. This includes documented instances of price differentiation, enforcement of controversial patents against competitors, attempts to prevent discounted direct selling by publishers, and a declared intention to cease working with third-party print on demand services in favour of its own. Questions have been raised concerning the company's legal compliance. In 2002, Amazon faced a challenge to the legitimacy of their Canadian operations, although that case was subsequently dropped. A 2009 ruling in Japan found that the company, which had tried to avoid paying corporate tax in the country, was in fact liable to pay. Controversy over taxation has arisen on multiple occasions: It was reported in 2012 that Amazon is under investigation in the UK, while in the US the company has attracted criticism for only collecting sales tax from customers in five states. Compounding these problems, there have been reports of poor treatment of workers, with allegations of summary dismissals for health problems and anti-unionization tactics including mass layoffs. Some controversies have centered around content. The bookstore has carried titles such as The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure and...
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