European Parliament set to vote to ban all porn

[UmmOkay]

Next Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote yes to a report calling for a legislative ban on all pornography in “media”. This “media” is worded to include the internet, and is broad and vague enough to even include photos you take of yourself and send to friends, as well as simple text messaging. This horrendous attack on our fundamental freedoms of speech and expression needs action now.
The deceptively-named report is titled Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU, which sounds good and something you’d give your approval on first glance, right? We’ve seen this kind of deception before, with bills named things like “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA), “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” (ACTA), and the “Patriot Act”, that were all named to trigger a “yes” vote, but which were really about tearing down the most fundamental of our rights and liberties.
The current state of affairs in the European Parliament is a clear majority in favor of this report, much because of its title and a belief that there’s nothing odd about it.
Next week’s vote, which will probably be on Tuesday, isn’t really on legislation as such – rather, it is about requesting legislation to be drafted on the matter, and final legislation will come back to a vote. Thus, this isn’t the final vote in the legislative process; rather, it’s the first vote in the legislative sausage machine (“what goes in, must come out”). This is a so-called initiative report. Still, it is important to send a very clear message that this is unacceptable at first opportunity, or it will become a legislative proposal which is much harder to fight.

FULL STORY:http://falkvinge.net/2013/03/06/next-tuesday-the-european-parliament-votes-to-ban-all-your-porn-yes-really-take-immediate-action/

[RopeFiend]

The Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands all make a significant national income from 'porn', so I fail to see how it's going to be an EU-wide ban.  Most likely it'll die in the trenches, as any ban like that would have to be individually ratified by each of the member countries within their own legal system.

It's an amusing idea, but it'll never come to pass as far as I can see, and certainly not across ALL of the member countries.  I can pretty much guarantee that those three won't sign it into their own law.  They're all 3 much more common-sensical than the French or English ruling bodies. 

[Bexy]

When you scroll down here, you'll see this motion was already adopted on 6th November 2012. I'm still seeing plenty of porn...

The EU does what the EU has been doing since the beginning, making up NWO style regulations and meanwhile draining citizens from our cash. It's still up to the member states to see what they do with the motion and how they interpret its application. Simply depends on the scumbags that run each individual country what they want to do. If it's beneficial to them to enforce something, they will and then they have this silly EU paper to wave around to 'justify' it.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2012-0401&language=EN

[Lois]

The EU Parliament really does not have any power. It exists solely for the political grandstanding of a few wishing to be real politicians someday.

[Janus]

So much for sovereignty. Don't folks realize that once you sign away pieces of yourself it is very difficult to get them back?

[Katiebee]

Europeans have been doing that since the time of the Romans. It's nothing new.

[Janus]

Europeans have been doing that since the time of the Romans. It's nothing new.

And still haven't learned....Shame

[Lois]

The EU Parliament really does not have any power. It exists solely for the political grandstanding of a few wishing to be real politicians someday.

You're completely wrong. The EU has little power over the larger economies in Europe (Germany, France and the UK) but it has a great deal of power and influence over the smaller member states and even the larger states whose economies are struggling. As well as that, the EU is slowly but surely gathering power, moving towards a ferderation of states not too unlike the US, albeit at a snails pace.

So is this ban on porn binding to member states?

[Bexy]

The EU Parliament really does not have any power. It exists solely for the political grandstanding of a few wishing to be real politicians someday.

You're completely wrong. The EU has little power over the larger economies in Europe (Germany, France and the UK) but it has a great deal of power and influence over the smaller member states and even the larger states whose economies are struggling. As well as that, the EU is slowly but surely gathering power, moving towards a ferderation of states not too unlike the US, albeit at a snails pace.

Got to agree with GB.  They even go so far as to put fake Twitterers in place to counter the growing group of Europeans who are voicing their preference for less EU power. Lots of people would like to see that whole parasitic entity disbanded and go back to their original currency, but no one is really doing something about it. That's because things aren't bad enough yet. Bet that will change when the northern European countries start drifting towards Greece scenarios.

As for this ban on porn being binding, currently no. This is the list on the currently enforced treaties:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm

[Lois]

I am confused then.  I said the EU Parliament did not have any power and was told I was wrong.  So I asked if the porn ban was binding and was told "no".

Clearly I am out of my depth.  So I'll end my contribution here with a quote:

“You cannot blame porn. When I was young, I used to masturbate to Gilligan's Island.” ~ Ron Jeremy