vegetaleb
The Lebanese government is trying to kill freedom of expression on the internet by imposing the Lebanese Internet Regulation Act, or LIRA. The man behind this proposal is Walid el Daouk, the minister of information.
So if you want to keep freedom of expression on our internet instead of turning it into Chinese like internet,take a stand!
If you want more information on LIRA, check the original draft
http://annahar.com/article.php?t=mahaly&p=4&d=24669
English translation:
http://josephchoufani.blogspot.com/2012/03/stop-daouka-lebanese-internet.html
Thanks to blogbaladi for the infos
rolf
I skimmed over the translation of the Legal text, and I can't seem to understand what the fuss is all about. Sure I don't encourage such a thing and I'm sure it's a restrictive and obsolete, but where does it try to kill freedom of expression?
xterm
المادة الاولى: النشر بواسطة الوسائل الالكترونية او غيرها حر لا قيد على هذه الحرية إلا بمقتضى القوانين المرعية الاجراء. يحظر نشر بواسطة الوسائل الالكترونية ما يمس الآداب العامة والاخلاق وما يتعلق بألعاب الميسر والقمار.
This one I think.
vegetaleb
Lebanese can turn an innocent law into a stalinian tool, that's why this law can open doors into dark possibilities
Jinx
I read the translation and what I understood :
-if you want to set up a website you need a license
-gambling,porn.... sites will be banned
-the goverment will have full control over data flowing to our computers ...
(correct me if im wrong)
samer
Here's why you should be concerned:
• The proposal uses vague terms like "morals" and "general ethics" (لآداب العامة والاخلاق). These can easily be abused by a judge in a censorship case.
• A person can only register one website. I think this is because they want to avoid having a proxy person registering on someone else's behalf (kind of like of these Private WHOIS services work)
• If you have a criminal record, you can't get a license, and hence can't legally publish content online. This one is just crazy.
• The proposal targets electronic media in general. If my analysis is correct, forums in general and LebGeeks in particular will be affected.
rtp
A person can only register one website.
That doesn't make sense... What if i own two websites?
Chup
The proposal targets electronic media in general. If my analysis is correct, forums in general and LebGeeks in particular will be affected.
Lebgeeks isn't hosted in Lebanon.
It shouldn't be affected
samer
Chup wroteThe proposal targets electronic media in general. If my analysis is correct, forums in general and LebGeeks in particular will be affected.
Lebgeeks isn't hosted in Lebanon.
It shouldn't be affected
Yes, but the law applies to people. Most of our active members reside in Lebanon.
MrClass
Will they monitor websites that are owned by Lebanese but hosted outside Lebanon? If no, then I guess we are good since most sites are hosted outside Lebanon.
Or, maybe they will monitor websites with domain names ending with .lb
Joe
The point is a bit blurry:
If you're not allowed to own more than one website, but you own websites abroad, that's suspicious. How much of this complies to "morals" and "general ethics"?
I don't understand how anyone can still imagine controlling what gets published online. The technology is far too powerful so that Big Brother will probably never be a real threat.
Instead what we have is some politicians for whatever corrupt reason trying to push laws that will give the the illusion of attempted control. Huge waste of time and resource.
That would be nice and funny if it were harmless. Some poor scape goats will end up paying the price. I really hope I'm not the one who will be thrown in jail for saying something deemed "upsetting".
rolf
If you have to register every website you want to launch, we should be concerned about this killing the web sector in Lebanon. It's already a miracle that it would survive with the kind of connection we have.
vegetaleb
They want to control political websites against you know who, specially since there is a TV online
Ayman
I have been hearing about it around Twitter but didn't really read what it is about. Based on what you guys are saying, if this is what the law implies, life of freelancers, startups, bloggers etc... will be greatly affected negatively.
I also heard in order to be able to register a website you will have to have a registered company and a fixed office address for it. That's what I heard from someone. Can anyone confirm?
We live in a place(sorry cant say a country) where many criminals run away from justice, weapons spread in the hands of people in their homes, rapes happen everyday on streets i.e. chaos and the governments can't fully control them and never made people feel 100% safe. Now they want to control the web? Even if LIRA passes, they wont be able to control sh**.
I can't really imagine day some peaceful blogger gets accused of illegal web publishing(or whatever they would call it) while real criminals are never caught.
Rubz
Thers a million things that need to be addressed that are way more critical to our daily lives - this is lame
The internet in lebanon is fine the way it is - unless dominating forces want to sensor/proxy/shut it down like someother countries in the area
Nemesis-301
about the part, banning porn and gambling sites, I actually fully support that...!
rolf
Nemesis-301 wroteabout the part, banning porn and gambling sites, I actually fully support that...!
How about banning sites with low quality content... would you support that?
rtp
Nemesis-301 wroteabout the part, banning porn and gambling sites, I actually fully support that...!
If they close the casino and all the super night clubs then it might make sense to close porn and gambling sites...
xazbrat
Nemesis-301 wroteabout the part, banning porn and gambling sites, I actually fully support that...!
Whether or not it has wide spread support (which is why that part got put in there), it still leaves lots of room for interpretation on other aspects.
Remember who is sponsoring this----the minister of INFORMATION. If someone writes something that someone in the government has issues with, then they will probably get thrown in jail. Remember a few lebgeeks who got messages that their gmail accounts were hacked and the ip's were traced to the president of lebanon--that is just a precursor of things to come.
Nabs
This is a draft, people. It has to be reviewed before approved. However, it does have its cons and pros. The legislation wants to make people working in online media involved with politics and showbiz legally registered journalists, with licenses and stated salaries and taxes. Recently, things had gotten out of control. There had been lots of scandals and swearing that reached people of both domains. That is their concern. They do not want to stop porn or gambling sites. They want to stop LEBANESE BUSINESSES running those. See, the legislation is just an extension to the law that is already here now. A person can register as many websites as pleases, as long as they are not involved with showbiz and political media. If they are, that person is entitled to work for just one. So no, it doesn't affect this forum, it doesn't affect anyone's 100 blogs, and it doesn't affect anyone's online business, as long as it has nothing to do with showbiz, politics, gambling, or porn.
Here's what you need to worry about: Downloading warez. The legislation gives the right for any company concerned about piracy to just knock on your door and search your files very legally. That is bad, for everyone. I'm going to get in touch with some authority figures tomorrow, ask some questions, get more straighter answers than those.