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| Porn Users Forum » Interesting Anti-Censorship Site re Porn |
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| 11-08-09 05:00pm - 5534 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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rearadmiral (0)
Active User Posts: 1,453 Registered: Jul 16, '07 Location: NB/Canada |
Interesting Anti-Censorship Site re Porn I found this link and thought it might be of some interest here, and not just to those of us from Canada. The site is a Canadian page for an anti-censorship group. The reason I raise it is that this page has information going back several years on all the porn videos that have been barred from being allowed in the country. No big surprise, but when looking at the older stuff (say 5 years old and older) it appears that not much from Max Hardcore or Jeff Steward made it into Canada. (In Canada, material that is deemed to have a "dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence, shall be deemed to be obscene.") This information is hard to find on the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency website, so it is nice to find it in one easy-to-access location. I think several things make it interesting. One is certainly how pervasive censorship is here in Canada. Obviously if, in 2004, I had ordered a Max Hardcore DVD from a U.S. distributor I'd be very unlikely to ever receive it. (And wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall as these guys watched this stuff!) The second is that sometimes you see listed something that never seemed that bad. I've seen a lot of the videos listed and many of them aren't bad. But then I'd guess that the censors would hardly see me, or any of us, as worthy of being the moral safeguard for an entire nation. The third thing that I noticed, and I may be wrong, is that there seems to be a drop in the number of titles from the larger porn studios in more recent years. You see Diabolic, Extreme Associates, J.M. Productions, and the like being regularly banned a few years ago. My perception (and I didn't count the number of titles so I may be wrong) is that fewer of those titles are being banned now. Or, more accurately, fewer are being stopped at the border. I think that if my perception is accurate this signals a shift in porn that most of us have seen coming steadily for the past while: porn is fast becoming an internet business. Several years ago if I wanted a decent copy of Gag Factor 5 I had to order it and physically have it shipped to me. Now, if I want that title I dig out my credit card and download it from a reputable site. No moral-minority censors need view it and tell me that I can't. I guess I'm not sure what my point is here. I started out with the premise that this was an interesting database for people with an interest in porn, but I think I'm now working on the premise that unless a government wants to seriously crack down on the internet like North Korea does, then maybe censorship is pointless now. Maybe border guards could be taken off this important task of stopping a consenting adult from buying a DVD from a consenting adult that shows other consenting adults doing something that the Baptist Women's Tea Cozy Society doesn't like. Maybe they'd have to do more mundane things like weed out terrorists. In the meantime, maybe I'll go download something from the Gag Factor series. If the border guards don't like it, I'll guess that I would. The site is Gomorrahy.com | |
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| 11-09-09 02:04pm - 5533 days | #2 | |
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Wittyguy (0)
Active User  Posts: 1,138 Registered: Feb 04, '08 Location: Left Coast, USA |
Knowing very little about how the Canadians treat their porn and obscenity issues, I'll toss in a few observations. First, the Canadian system is a bit outdated in the sense that the still seem to operate on a blacklist basis. Let's face it, porn is fast and cheap commodity. By the time it hits the official blacklist it's probably been out for a long time and thus it's not really stopping the flow of "obscenity" via the mail, not to mention the internet. It's one of those things that keeps bureaucrats employed and gives the general public a feel good tingle knowing that customs agents will be eyeing those shiploads of dvds coming in from Detroit while forgetting that dvds are rapidly going the way of the 8 track. Second, the internet makes policing porn sites almost impossible. Look at Videobox for example. You can find everything from vanilla to some more fetishy hard stuff. The categories of porn are often blurred more than they were in the past so unless you start monitoring all websites and all types of porn you simply can't stop it. I had mentioned in the "Free Speech and Porn"thread a while back that the Canadians were thinking about passing an internet law that would essentially let the government track just about everything people did. I sort of doubt anything of substance happened with it but that's sort of the idea you were getting at: the only to stop "obscenity" is tightly control internet access to websites and/or monitor what everyone is doing. You're unlimited internet privileges that you have now will slowly start to disintegrate over time because "national security" will be the mantra under which democratic governments will push internet restrictions or monitoring programs. My advice, hit the GagFactor series now instead of waiting for your gag reflex to kick in when you see what's coming down the road. | |
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| 11-09-09 05:17pm - 5533 days | #3 | |
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rearadmiral (0)
Active User Posts: 1,453 Registered: Jul 16, '07 Location: NB/Canada |
Porn really does seem to be treated differently in Canada from what it is in the U.S. At least in the larger New England states where I have some experience. It appears that the larger New England states and those on the west coast have a more libertarian bent. Canada has no similar libertarian streak in it. Part of the issue in Canada is what much of our obscenity laws are based on. Back in the early 90s our obscenity laws got a bit of a working over by the supreme court. That's bad, but to make it worse, the court had evidence from the American ultra-feminist Catherine MacKinnon, who has the idea (I'm over-simplifying a bit) that all porn is equivalent to hate propaganda. The Canadian supreme court bought that load of crap and created a new standard that was very limiting. I've heard, but have never confirmed, that MacKinnon earlier tried that same argument at the U.S. supreme court and was ignored. Another key problem is that in Canada (and I'm not really sure about the U.S. here), government has a position of prior approval when it comes to porn. What I mean is that it would make more sense if I was told what the law was and was expected not to break it. In the case of porn though, government steps in and previews the porn and makes a decision whether I can see it or not. That'd be like government putting speed limiters on all cars to ensure that no one broke the speed limit. I don't mean to create an image of us all being wimps up here, because like in the U.S. there aren't many people who would stand up to government and say 'hands off my Max Hardcore.' Especially since Max is now cooling his dick as the guest of the government somewhere. You are correct about a proposed law that would change how the police can access my ISP records. The proposal isn't explicitly for allowing constant monitoring of internet habits though. It purports to simply remove the requirement for the police to get a warrant to view my ISP records. If they want to see them, no probable cause is required. Ask and ye shall receive. An obvious criticism of this proposal is that given how police don't tend to exercise any restraint on their power, there really is no difference from the proposed law and constant monitoring. If our current Prime Minister happened to be born in the U.S., he's so far to the right I'm sure the Republicans would scoop him up in a heartbeat. The interesting thing about this proposed law (which probably won't pass in this form but who knows. Politicians won't stand up to church ladies screaming 'won't someone please think of the children!) will be how it is used on people like me. They say it will be used to check on people accessing child porn, but how will it be used on me if they find I'm downloading a movie from AdultDVDEmpire or Hot Movies? I might be downloading a supreme court-approved video like an old Shane's World, but I also might be downloading the banned Gag Factor series. As currently drafted, the new law will allow them to ask my ISP what I'm doing with no evidence at all that I'm doing anything wrong. So excuse me while I start downloading all the banned porn I can get my hands on... | |
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