Cav's Place

Yesterday, I happened to glance at Rick Falkvinge‘s site again, looking for an article I had stumbled into at some point, but instead my eyes fell on a recent post titled “Three Reasons Possession of Child Porn Must Be Re-Legalized in the Coming Decade” and I went on to read that, being increasingly surprised that what he was writing was so close to my own views on the issue, only better written and with far more hard facts to support them than I’d have been able to produce. However, people who would normally be bothered by the very mention of the issue, which unfortunately means the vast majority, would probably be better off reading the follow-up post first, because the comments seem to largely agree that it’s even better written and the choice of words doesn’t immediately prompt a knee jerk reaction nearly as much as the original one does.

This post isn’t supposed to be about the issue itself. I have briefly mentioned my views on this a few times in the past, when the topic had to do with censorship or even with catching criminals, seeing as banning the images clearly makes it a whole lot harder to do so, but I probably never actually picked up on the issue itself, and certainly not like this, so such a post should come if I’ll somehow manage to get myself to write something so serious and important again. However, I’m currently in an argument with someone over it, so you can say that I’m gathering some additional material which will probably end up helping.
All I’m trying to do now is add to the growing number of “balls of steel” awards that Rick Falkvinge seems to be getting for writing something like this, especially considering his position as more or less the voice of Pirate Parties everywhere. Both posts are very good reads for anyone who actually takes the time to do so without reacting as soon as the topic is even mentioned and touch on issues that truly need to be discussed, so I highly recommend them to anyone who believes they can actually think logically about the matter for a moment and am happy to say that, after reading all the comments from the follow-up post, there do appear to be a fair number of such people.

Admittedly, the original article does focus quite a lot on Swedish laws, which are extremely strict, but the entire world seems to be heading down that path, so they can apply everywhere, regardless of whether your country already has similar laws in place or, most probably, will soon try to enact them. And all such laws do is make it harder to catch the true criminals, by making it next to impossible to obtain and submit evidence, while at the same time turning perhaps the large majority of teenagers and even a fair number of children into criminals for absolutely no good reason and providing an excuse for increased censorship and control. That’s what it’s all about; it has next to nothing to do with protecting children and the sooner people realize that, the better.