World News

From Yahoo News

Ten days ahead of Swedish national elections, a member of the Christian Democratic women's federation shocked her conservative party colleagues by calling for more pornography on television.

Teres Kirpikli, a 35-year-old mother of three, said she wanted to help boost the Swedish economy by encouraging people to have more children. I want erotica and porn on television every Saturday and all day. Then people would feel like having more sex. I think most people like porn, even though they don't want to admit it.

Kirpikli, an immigrant from Turkey, is a member of the board of the party's women's federation and a municipal councilor in the city of Skoevde. Her move upset the party leadership, which is actively fighting pornography and has called for a complete ban in all media.

This has nothing to do with our official platform. This is totally against our policy," said Ulla-Britta Hagstroem, head of the party's women's federation. Hagstroem said she would meet Kirpikli later and that Kirpikli probably wouldn't be re-elected to the board of the women's federation. Kirpikli said she had no plans to withdraw her candidacy for her seat on the board. I wanted to start a debate on how to get more children. I know the party is mad at me because I go against the party platform.

From the Register

The government of Greece is making olympic efforts to humiliate the nation in front of the entire world, by banning all electronic games. Something as innocent as playing computer chess on your laptop in a hotel lobby is now a crime with penalties of up to three months in stir and a fine of 10,000 euros.

The purpose behind this ludicrous legislation is to crack down on Internet gambling (which already was illegal) -- or, rather, to enable legislators to enact their little public dance of righteous aversion to Internet gambling.

Improved enforcement of existing law is all that was needed, but there's a problem. Unfortunately, the Greek government is "incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines," according to an article from the English-language Kathimerini newspapern.

Now it's official. The legislature has concluded that all electronic games have got to go because the bureaucrats they're maintaining on the public payroll aren't swift enough to figure out the difference between video poker and TuXkart.

From the Plain Dealer

A federal judge yesterday blocked changes that were meant to medievalize Ohio's anti-pornography law for the dark ages of the internet.

Judge Walter Herbert Rice in Dayton said the law was so broad that it was as likely to ban teaching of the Holocaust in schools and prohibit kids from reading National Geographic magazine as it was to protect them from online pornography. The judge, who issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month, permanently barred the state from enforcing the law.

Now the state must decide whether to appeal the decision, let legislators amend the law or await a final ruling from the judge later this year. Bret Crow, spokesman for the Ohio attorney general's office, said yesterday his office was still examining the ruling. He didn't know how it would limit Ohio's enforcement.

Ohio's decades-old law was regressed further this year to cover such things as online pornographers. The law made it a felony to distribute material considered "harmful to juveniles" - sex acts, repeated use of foul language, lurid details of violence and the glorifying of criminal activity - via computer, the Internet, newspapers, movies and other similar means. (punishment would be in the range of amputation up to public stoning).

It appears that the French are planning to demonstrate Fraternity with the English and equalise downwards to our level of liberty.

From the BBC

A French pornography producer has defended porn as a "cultural asset" in an open letter protesting against a planned TV ban.

Right-wingers and family values campaigners want a law preventing pornographic films being shown on French television. Family values nutter and MP Christine Boutin is one of those calling for a ban on pornography on French television and plans to table a bill in autumn. Dominique Baudis, the head of the French broadcasting watchdog, has backed the calls in order to protect children

Porn's subject matter is physical love, a theme that has produced countless masterpieces in painting, in sculpture and in literature, wrote John B Root, in an open letter printed in French daily Liberation and translated by the Guardian. If celluloid sex has never succeeded in hoisting itself to the rank of a cinematographic or televisual genre, it is because we have denied it the right to be economically viable. We would not be having this debate if porn was what it should be - joyous, well-made, aphrodisiac art.

He also argued that the economic damage to pornography producers resulting from a ban would force them into more extreme film-making.  In Germany, where porn is outlawed on television, the sex video output is by far the most voluminous and by far the lowest grade in Europe.

French terrestrial, satellite and cable channels screen hundreds of porn films every year.

From ZDNet

A federal judge in Australia has found that the sale of 'mod chips' that allow copy protection to be circumvented, is legal

Australia's competition watchdog has welcomed the finding that Sydney-based Eddy Stevens had not contravened the Copyright Act by selling "mod chips", which enable gamers to circumvent copy protection technology built into Sony's PlayStation2 and Microsoft's Xbox consoles.

Stevens, who elected to represent himself, saw his case benefited substantially from representations made on behalf of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Describing the decision as a win for console owners, ACCC chairman Professor Allan Fels said Sony's arguments had failed because the copyright protection measures used by Sony placed limitations on the right of console owners to play games they had purchased overseas. The ACCC has long believed that region coding is detrimental to consumer welfare as it severely limits consumer choice and, in some cases, access to competitively priced goods. The ACCC was concerned to ensure that technology which can overcome these unfair restrictions remains generally available for consumer use.

In the first case of its kind in Australia, Federal Court Judge Sackville ruled that mod chips sold for the original PlayStation do not infringe on Sony copyright protections. Sony's argument, that the mod chips "had no other purpose other than overriding the anti-piracy devices", was rejected by Judge Sackville on the grounds that they also enabled the console owner to play back-up copies of legally acquired PlayStation games.

Family Shield Technologies has released a device called the Movie Shield, which can be used to censor movies in the home. The device connects to a PC and downloads information on movies the US company has reviewed -- which number at least 50 at this time -- and is then connected between a VCR or DVD player and a television. Viewers can set their own parameters to censor films based on "vain references to deity, minor language, major language, nudity, sexual situations, violence, gore and immodesty." The technology either "blanks" the TV screen or mutes the audio signal as appropriate to filter offensive content. (www.movieshield.com)

The Malays rejected the concept of human rights as not been applicable to Muslims. The corrupt regime of Dr M imprisons opposition leaders on trumped up charges. Hardly surprising then that any media showing the west enjoying life and relative liberty must be stamped upon.

Australian pop star Kylie Minogue's music video, Live in Sydney, and episodes of the TV series Ally McBeal and Friends have been censored in Malaysia, a Home Ministry official said.

The Film Censorship Board, which is under the authority of the Home Ministry, assigns viewer ratings - or bans - entertainment fare before it is released to theaters and TV networks.

The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Friday that 195 items have failed to make the cut under censorship laws passed April 1 tightening rules against overt violence, sex and obscenity.

Censorship Board Chairman Shaari Mohamad Noor was quoted by The Star as saying strict monitoring of foreign entertainment shows helps protect family values. In order for us to instill good morals and values in our people, we have to stop importing films that are not appropriate for our country.

Possession, distribution or selling the banned titles in the form of videodiscs or tapes is punishable by a maximum $7,900 fine and a three-year jail term.

From www.Zap2it.com TV News

Predictably, the Catholic Church is not amused by the South Park episode that poked fun at the current sex scandals plaguing the religious institution. Not so obvious, is the reason why they are so upset.

It's not because show creator Matt Stone and Trey Parker point out the hypocrisy of the very place where people are supposed to go for sanctuary has been, for many, a source of even more horrific problems. Or, that even though church higher-ups kept shuffling around abusive priests rather than either turning them in or, at the very least, keeping them away from parishoners. No, it's because South Park portrays the priests as pedophiles rather than homosexuals.

In a statement released about the episode, Catholic League President William Donohue says, The scandal in the Church is not about priests having sex with prepubescent boys. It is about priests having sex with postpubescent young  men. The former is called pedophilia and the latter is called homosexuality.

From the New York Post

World Wrestling Entertainment has won a resounding victory over a parents' TV advocacy group, forcing it to publish a detailed retraction of the ludicrous charges that the WWF Smackdown series on UPN led to the deaths of four children.

As part of an out-of-court settlement, the Parents Television Council paid the WWE $3.5 million in damages and acknowledged that it had made false statements.

In the retraction statement issued over the weekend, L. Brent Bozell, president of the PTC, said he "was incorrect and wrong to have blamed WWE or any of its programs for the death" of children such as Tiffany Eunick.

Eunick died from injuries inflicted by another child, Lionel Tate, who went on trial for murder in Florida, charged with imitating the moves of WWE wrestlers. Bozell said in the retraction that "false information" from parties to the Tate case led the council to charge that Tate was watching wrestling on TV when he killed Eunick. Instead, the PTC said subsequent facts proved that Tate was actually watching The Flintstones and the cartoon series Cow & Chicken.

From the BBC

India's chief censor has proposed legalising the country's pornographic film industry to allow the screening of hardcore movies in cinemas.

The Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Vijay Anand, who is also one of India's leading film producers, said the move would allow cinemas to compete with cable and satellite television.

Almost every major city has cinemas which show adult movies illegally - usually at morning sessions. Porn is shown everywhere in India clandestinely... and the best way to fight this onslaught of blue movies is to show them openly in theatres with legally authorised licences, Mr Anand said. There is a demand for such movies in India and we as censors cannot always keep a tap on pornography. By setting up such theatres we would offer an outlet to people who want to see such movies," he added.

The reaction to Mr Anand's proposals have been mixed.

Anything that titillates the libido will score big in the marketplace, said well-known Bollywood producer-director Mahesh Bhatt. It's high time the government realises this and makes money by streamlining the illegal transactions of pornography.

Mr Anand said the change could only happen if the law was changed through an act of parliament. He hopes to submit his plan to the information and broadcasting ministry in the next two months. My understanding is that such movies sell only due to their curiosity value. After the initial hype people would not bother much for such movies. (yeah..yeah)

His proposals are based on European and US laws where such movie theatres are off-limits to children. Indian films are currently categorised as "universal", "parental guidance" or "adult" but Mr Anand said he would extend the classifications to include an "X" rating.