Right to Oblivion

[Tunnelcat]

The new problem in the internet age. Can a person force internet entities like Google to "delete" their bad or criminal history references? Apparently in the EU, someone can. In this case, it was a convicted criminal, who had already served his time in prison. He argued that he had paid his penitence and thus wanted Google to remove references to his conviction and incarceration. In the U.S. however, publication of a person's criminal history is protected by the First Amendment. So what does everyone think about this one? Will this EU decision lead to more erosion of internet free speech rights?

http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online ... -forgotten

[Will Robinson]

Short answer: I think it could.

But that accepts the premise that there are rights that protect free speech 'on the internet'. I'm guessing they don't really exist.
Each country might have their own view of what is accepted and try to prosecute some entity that 'broadcasts' 'illegal' content into their inter tubes.

I wonder how gay porn sites fare in Muhammed's favorite places?

[Tunnelcat]

...I wonder how gay porn sites fare in Muhammed's favorite places?

I'd think ANY porn sites, even heterosexual, would be targets to the extreme religious.

[callmeslick]

interesting conundrum presented by that one. Actually, it goes past anything specific to the interweb. I have always wondered about the fairness of how we deal(in terms of employment and other access) with those who were convicted and served their sentences. I guess you can see it as 'censorship', that any data be removed from archival records, but I can see both sides.

[Top Gun]

It's reported that bin Laden had a ton of porn stashed in his Pakistani hideout, which tells you just how "religious" he really was.

But yeah, this rubs me the wrong way. I mean I understand that there are certain laws that allow for minor offenses to be expunged from one's criminal records given enough time (and rightly so), but you can't just take a matter of public record and say, "You can't talk about this ever!" I think a much better approach would be quantifying exactly what prospective employers can consider in terms of one's past actions and/or online presence.

[Tunnelcat]

We'll see tomorrow what happens at least with net neutrality. As always, the GOP wants the free market to have it's way. So will the FFC chairman vote to regulate broadband, or rule so that those who can pay get special access to the shiny superhighway, while us lowly peons with little or no street cred crawl around on the dirt side roads?

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/14/house- ... /?ncid=rss

http://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-to-lay-out ... ys-report/