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Date: 1998-04-10
Zensur: Diana Tunnel Racer Game
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q/depesche 98.4.10
Zensur: Diana Tunnel Racer
Ersonnen, programmiert, gespielt, verboten - jetzt ist der Diana
Tunnel Racer wieder da im Netz.
Obacht, es bedarf dafür eines Macromedia/plugins
INTERNET FREEDOM RESTORES DIANA TUNNEL RACER
Internet Freedom has placed the game "The Princess Di Tunnel
Racer" on our
site after it was forcibly removed from its German site last week.
The game
depicts a Mercedes speeding through a tunnel chased by paparazzi
motorcyclists. As a direct challenge to censorship the game is now
available at <www.netfreedom.org>.
The demand for the game to be removed from the Net reflects the
growing
trend for material to be censored on the grounds that it is
morally
repugnant. Unlike more traditional forms of censorship which
involve
state-sponsored legal action, the Internet is increasingly subject
to
censorship by regulatory bodies, Internet Service Providers
themselves, or
through direct moral pressure. As a consequence a growing number
of
perfectly legal sites have been removed from the Net. The list
includes the
"Dunblane Massacre" game shutdown by Virgin, the Serial Killer
site
shutdown by America Online, the Basque Independence site shutdown
by
Easynet, and the Diana crash photos shutdown by Internet Content
Register.
The Diana Tunnel Racer was designed by a number of American
Internet game
enthusiasts at Fork Unstable Media located in Hamburg
(http://www.fork.de).
Fork see themselves as trash-artists reacting to a politically
correct
society. They were forced to remove the game from the Net after
extensive
media interest.
The trajectory for these developments is for anything morally
questionable
to be eliminated from the Net. This threatens to undermine one of
its
greatest benefits: the potential for freedom of expression on a
global
scale. By contrast, expression is being compromised on three
levels: by
Internet Service Providers who feel forced to impose moral
constraints on
the material hosted by their customers; by a growing number of
non-governmental bodies who seek to arbitrate on acceptability of
material;
and by originators of content who are forced to consider other
people's
moral judgements about their material before uploading it.
The notion that the only responsible attitude to Net material is
to ensure
that it does not cause offense to anybody has serious consequences
for free
speech.
Chris Ellison, spokesman for Internet Freedom, commented:
"Virtually every progressive event in history has involved
opinions that
were considered morally repugnant at the time. Votes for women,
the
abolition of slavery, even the idea that the Earth was not at the
centre of
the Universe, have all involved minority ideas that were widely
regarded as
offensive. If the trend for censoring morally offensive material
continues
unchallenged, not only will the full potential of the Net be
squandered,
but the gains of the last century stand to be reversed."
The Diana Tunnel Racer can be found from Internet Freedom's
website at
http://www.netfreedom.org.
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edited by Harkank
published on: 1998-04-10
comments to office@quintessenz.at
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