News

Florida bill seeks to intimidate bloggers

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged censorship Florida law on by

Politicians don’t like critical articles about them. Mike Masnick writes that Jason Brodeur, a Florida state senator, has introduced a bill to force bloggers to register if they write about DeSantis or other elected Florida officials and get any payment for it. They would then be ordered to file monthly reports on their blogging.

As Masnick notes, the bill is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Its purpose is obviously to scare bloggers out of writing about DeSantis. The bill text is available on the Florida Senate’s website.
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Penguin Random House announces unbowdlerized Dahl books

This entry was posted in Commentary News Writing and tagged books bowdlerization censorship publishers on by

Penguin Random House, which holds the publishing rights to Roald Dahl’s books, had replaced Dahl’s texts with bowdlerized versions. They wanted to “make the books suitable for modern readers,” who evidently have reverted to the Victorian era. They discovered, though, that a lot of people today aren’t “modern readers” and can stand to read what an author actually wrote. As a result, Random Penguin has announced it will issue editions with the original text along with the sanitized versions.Stack of Roald Dahl books. Source: Wikimedia

Perhaps I should mention I’m not a fan of Dahl as a person. His reaction to Khomeini’s murder contract on Salman Rushdie was “This kind of sensationalism does indeed get an indifferent book on the top of the best-seller list — but to my mind it is a cheap way of doing so.” He characterized himself as antisemitic and said, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity.” The portrayal of the Oompa Loompas is creepy, no matter how movie makers dress it up. For that matter, the punishments inflicted on the “bad” children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are rather horrible. They didn’t do anything that bad!
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The Dedham Library Christmas tree incident 2

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged libraries Massachusetts on by

A branch of the Dedham, Massachusetts library decided not to put up a Christmas tree this year because it made some people “uncomfortable.” This has led to an acrimonious controversy which several news outlets have covered.

The situation goes to show how violently hostile people become over minor issues. More specific to this blog, it shows the kind of pressure libraries come under with increasing frequency.
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New York’s threat to free speech on the Web 1

This entry was posted in Censorship News and tagged censorship law liberty on by

A law recently passed by the New York State Legislature poses a serious threat to online speech. FIRE is already challenging this outrageous law, which I doubt can survive a legal battle, but in the meantime, it poses a threat to anyone running a site that’s read in New York and allows user input.

The law applies to the ill-defined category of “social media networks.” That doesn’t just mean Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It could apply to anyone who runs a Mastodon instance or even runs a blog that allows comments. FIRE says:
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David Friedman’s battle with Amazon

This entry was posted in News Publishing and tagged Amazon KDP law on by

David Friedman is the son of economist Milton Friedman. While he isn’t as famous as his father was, he’s respected in libertarian circles. On November 8, he reported on his blog that Amazon has terminated his KDP account, taken his books offline, and denied him the right to collect outstanding royalties.

Update: Friedman reports Amazon has reinstated his account.

Apparently KDP, Amazon’s self-publishing arm, terminated my account in September, sending me a message I missed. They claim I had multiple accounts, why I have no idea, and also that “this account is related to an account that was terminated due to violations of our Content Guidelines.”

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Beatings in Manchester, LARP control in Chengdu 1

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged China fandom science fiction on by

How did this become the leading blog on boycotting the Chengdu Worldcon? I don’t know, but here are two new items for the list of reasons to stay away.

In Manchester, UK, employees of the Chinese Consulate assaulted protesters on the street. They dragged a man into the consulate and beat him, as well as grabbing posters from the protesters. The UK government has done nothing. The Chinese version is that the consulate staff was defending itself against a barrage of hurt feelings, and that they were trying to hold the man back as he crawled into the consulate, dragging their hands with his hair.
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Chengdu Worldcon GoH applauds Russian attacks on civilians

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged China conventions science fiction on by

Sergei Lukianenko, one of the guests of honor at the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu, has called the Ukrainians “fascists” and applauded Russia’s attacks on populated areas in Kyiv.

The 2022 WSFS meeting condemned Chengdu’s choice of Lukianenko as a GoH. As far as I know, Chengdu hasn’t responded, nor has Ben Yalow. If I’ve missed anything, please let me know.

The convention’s shills tell you, “So what if China has no free speech? Just go there, shut up, listen to the GoH speech, and come back.”

By now there should be a huge movement in fandom to boycott the Chengdu Worldcon. Why isn’t there?