Letters to the Editor

• Why it's important

  [Read the article: You and YouPorn are now free to make porn]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  You may remember back when this whole WWW thing started, a quote started making the rounds that went, roughly, "Freedom of the press only applies to people who own printing presses. And now everyone owns a printing press."

  And at first people said "Wow. Cool." And then most of us quickly realized that the reason most of us didn't own printing presses was that most of us didn't have anything to say that was worth printing, and we went on about our business. But the people who do own printing presses and the people who would like to control what you hear and see (because controlling what you say is un-Constitutional) didn't say wow, and they didn't say cool. They said "Shit. We have to do something about this." And Congress proceeded to attempt to regulate the Internet as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do so (it wasn't), and they used the same methods and laws they had been using to regulate TV and publishing for years to do it, placing incredibly high barriers in the way of freedom of speech in any medium that had permanence.

  And permanence and distribution are the key to all of this. Poor people have always been free to express themselves in almost any way they wanted, but only rich people could make it last forever and distribute it beyond a small circle of friends. The First Ammendment was the American Kama Sutra, a bone tossed to the proletariate so they could entertain themselves while only the wealthy were able to make their free speech mean something, because only they could do it in a way where anyone could hear them. That's what changed, and that's what this fight is all about.

  Does anyone really think that in a world where a woman can get a judgement against her for over $200,000 for filesharing no one would ever go after an individual for posting pictures of himself spanking his monkey on a DIY porn site? Until this ruling, speech itself was less protected than the monetization of speech. Now we have a precedent that says that speech and the monetization of speech are 2 totally seperate issues that have to be treated as such, and that furthermore distribution plays no role in determining if speech is protected. We've never had that before, and it was 15 years overdue. And that is news.

  So thanks, Farhad. You have gone a long way towards redeeming yourself after that Britney Spears guy thing.

  Permalink Thursday, October 25, 2007 01:42 AM

• Don't worry so much

  [Read the article: Should I come out as an atheist?]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  As others have asked, why go to this college? I'm going to take a shot and say Stetson Law, because it's the only school I know of with a religious affiliation and a reputation as a top 5 school in a specialized field. And I know that probably half the people at Stetson Law don't give a shit about religion, they just want a diploma from a top 5 school so they can make a lot of money. So you are hardly unique in your situation.

  Ultimately, your religious beliefs are nobody's business. If you were secretly Muslim they would be between you and Allah, but your belief system makes them yours alone. As long as you attend the required religious classes and give them checks every semester you have held up your end of the bargain. The "statement of faith" is nothing more than proof against litigation for stepping all over your First Ammendment rights when they talk about Jesus in physics class or whatever. It's not like you are posing as a doctor or an airline pilot. It's not that big a deal. Jim McMahon signed a statement of faith when he went to BYU, and I think the entire state of Utah winked when he did.

  The real problem seems to be that you are embarrassed by your belief system, which is something I can't understand. This is not like being secretly gay, or something similar with no right or wrong involved. You're right. So are they, but that's beside the point. You have chosen (or fell into) a belief system that explains the entire universe to you, and for some reason this makes you feel ashamed. I don't get it.

  You are being far too passive. Get new friends at school, ones who are there for no other reason than to get a prestigious diploma, just like you. If the friends you have now can't accept the fact that you are an athiest then they are not your friends, they are cult members. And talk to your parents. They raised you to be like this, if they like it or not. They didn't mean to, that's what parents really mean when they say "I didn't raise you this way", but they did and you all need to deal with it.

  And finally, I wouldn't worry too much about the school finding out. As long as you give them money, get good grades, and show that you are loyal to the institution (if not their beliefs) you'll be fine. Colleges don't make a habit of expelling future wealthy alumni.

  Permalink Thursday, October 25, 2007 05:28 AM