Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Censorship?

From the Rap Sheet comes the odd news that Graeme Flanagan's excellent archive of Robert McGinnis covers is coming down because someone complained that the site contains direct links to live porn sites. I've been all over that site and never come across any porn links. Even if there were, I'm fairly certain that linking to a porn site isn't a crime unless you're in Saudi Arabia or Utah. Unfortunately, the note Mr. Flanagan sent out is vague about exactly who is pressuring him to take down the site. Is it his ISP? McGinnis' family? Dick Cheney? If some jerkass had pulled the copyright card I would understand why the site is coming down, but I just don't understand what's supposed to be going on here. It's quite puzzling.

2 comments:

J. Kingston Pierce said...

You're not the only one puzzled, Nathan. I sent an e-note to Graeme Flanagan today, asking for clarification of exactly what's involved here. But he seems unable at the moment to supply more information. It's disturbing, though, that a site as inoffensive as his could be yanked out of the electronic ether simply because some petty, bluenosed tyrant raises a bogus objection to its content. What's to stop any other small Web sites or blogs from being mis-accused of pornographic connections, and similarly taken down? I'll let you know if I hear more about this issue.

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