Vice Squad from the Maldives
By Paul
An 18-year-old man has been fined Rf1,000 (about US$78) by the Criminal Court for downloading pornographic pictures from the Internet.
Haveeru has been informed that this is the first conviction of such kind in Maldives which has no cyber laws in force yet.
A cyber expert was present at the trial and the historic ruling on July 8 was passed on the context that under Maldives' existing laws, downloading pornography from the Internet amounted to "importing pornographic material into the Maldives from a foreign source," Criminal Court's senior magistrate Hassan Saeed told Haveeru on Thursday.
It is obvious the lawyer who tried the poor teenager did it for his own vanity and ambitious lawyers are the last thing a poor country needs.
The economist Steven Landsburg, in his book Fair Play: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values and the Meaning of Life gives the following advice to his daughter.
Surf the Internet. I’d much rather have you getting your pornography from cyberspace than by rummaging around your parents’ bedroom.In fact, I’m glad the net makes it easy for you to get ahold of things that other people would prefer you not to get ahold of. Family values crusader Donna Rice complains that “any child with a computer can access vile pornography in matter of seconds. And once they have seen it, it can never be erased from their mind.” You betcha, Donna. The Internet is the natural enemy of those who are out to erase other people’s minds.
Let’s be honest- access to pornography is not part of the cost of the Internet; it’s one of the benefits. The whole purpose of the Internet is to facilitate communication and to thwart those who would hamper the free exchange of information.
Lawyers will probably not understand it. For more on economics of vice see the excellent blog Vice Squad.