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Friday, May 11, 2007

Hong Kong man fined for linking to porn

The problem with this link is that the South China Morning Post is a subscription-only site. However, this article in today's paper is exactly the type of thing you give coverage to and cries out to be exposed to the world. In brief, a man posted a link to a website that had "porn" in a web forum. He was tracked by his IP address, arrested, pled guilty and fined HK$5,000, roughly US$650.
This is coming hard on the heels of the appeals trial for the only man in the entire world to receive a jail sentence for posting Bit Torrent seeds.
I've written about these two things briefly in my blog: Link, and Link. Here is an excerpt from the newspaper article:

- - - - - - - - - -
HK$5,000 fine for Net porn link
Man published an obscene article by directing surfers to offensive photos
Friday May 11, 2007
A Hong Kong man who posted a message with an internet link to an overseas pornographic website was fined yesterday for publishing an obscene article via the internet.
The prosecution and conviction, the city's first under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, involved the use of a common computing technique, the police's commercial crime bureau said.
The judgment has worried the local internet community, particularly with regard to possible constraints on the free flow of information.
Questions were also raised on whether guidelines are sufficient to halt online distribution of obscene material.
Woo Tai-wai, 48, pleaded guilty in Kwun Tong Court to publishing eight obscene photos via a local internet forum.
He provided a linked message which, when clicked, would enable other forum users to access an overseas pornographic website showing the photos.
A hyperlink is a graphic or text string which, when clicked, opens a new web page or jumps to a new location in the current page.
Deputy Magistrate Jason Wan Siu-ming fined Woo HK$5,000 in light of his guilty plea and clean record. He also said that while the articles at issue were obscene, they were not extreme or of deviant taste. (...)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:13:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: June 10 \| June 09 \| June 08 \| previous days \| by month and year Friday, May 11, 2007 Hong Kong man fined for linking to porn Spike says, The problem with this link is that the South China Morning Post is a subscription-only site. However, this article in today's paper is exactly the type of thing you give coverage to and cries out to be exposed to the world. In brief, a man posted a link to a website that had "porn" in a web forum. He was tracked by his IP address, arrested, pled guilty and fined HK$5,000, roughly US$650. This is coming hard on the heels of the appeals trial for the only man in the entire world to receive a jail sentence for posting Bit Torrent seeds. I've written about these two things briefly in my blog: Link, and Link. Here is an excerpt from the newspaper article: - - - - - - - - - - HK$5,000 fine for Net porn link Man published an obscene article by directing surfers to offensive photos Friday May 11, 2007 A Hong Kong man who posted a message with an internet link to an overseas pornographic website was fined yesterday for publishing an obscene article via the internet. The prosecution and conviction, the city's first under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, involved the use of a common computing technique, the police's commercial crime bureau said. The judgment has worried the local internet community, particularly with regard to possible constraints on the free flow of information. Questions were also raised on whether guidelines are sufficient to halt online distribution of obscene material. Woo Tai-wai, 48, pleaded guilty in Kwun Tong Court to publishing eight obscene photos via a local internet forum. He provided a linked message which, when clicked, would enable other forum users to access an overseas pornographic website showing the photos. A hyperlink is a graphic or text string which, when clicked, opens a new web page or jumps to a new location in the current page. Deputy Magistrate Jason Wan Siu-ming fined Woo HK$5,000 in light of his guilty plea and clean record. He also said that while the articles at issue were obscene, they were not extreme or of deviant taste. (...) posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:13:19 PM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: June 10, 2007 \| June 09, 2007 \| June 08, 2007 \| June 07, 2007 \| June 06, 2007 \| June 05, 2007 \| June 04, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: