David Cameron really, really has not the faintest what he is talking about when it comes to the internet.

David Cameron really, really has not the faintest what he is talking about when it comes to the internet.

Earlier this week, I asked a simple question of his latest pronouncements on online porn, child abuse, internet filtering and related stuff: is he an internet ignoramus – or a master manipulator?

Today, I think the answer is clear: like far too many of our legislators, his grasp of matters internet is fleeting at best, leading him over and over to an excess of soundbite over substance.

Let’s start with two simple propositions, both of which his press office readily agreed to:

1) David Cameron is in favour of companies such as Google adopting filters to filter out online porn, and will bring in regulation to ensure this happens if they fail to act voluntarily.

And 2) he is definitely not in favour of regulators intervening to block or ban page 3.

Dominant State, Submissive Populace: Spanking. Consensual physical or verbal abuse. Physical restraint. Female ejaculation. Strangulation. Facesitting.

Spanking. Consensual physical or verbal abuse. Physical restraint. Female ejaculation. Strangulation. Facesitting.

No, it’s not an anarchist’s Christmas wishlist. The above is a selection of the #ThingsBannedInUKPorn in December last year. The AudiovisualMedia Services Regulations 2014 forces content creators in the United Kingdom to stop including these acts (as well as many others) in their video-on-demand content. (It won’t be illegal to view online content portraying these practices however, as long as the content is produced abroad.)

There are many angles commentators have taken when criticising these recent restrictions on pornography production: all of which can be thought of as anarchist in some sense. As market anarchists are inherently sceptical of power structures, it may seem surprising for us to adopt an unashamedly accepting stance on extreme power imbalances in the bedroom. In fact, it is this top-down imposition of limits on sexual behaviour between consenting adults that is objectionable and oppressive.

A DVD you would wish your wife or servants to view? Drake Blaize, Michael Peacock trial and the law

Now that the obscenity trial against Michael Peacock is over, what have we learned? (Apart from the fact that there are still people who get their porn from DVDs rather than the internet?)

Rather wonderfully, the jury came back with a verdict of Not Guilty, unanimously, on all counts after about a tea-break’s worth of deliberation.

It’s that perhaps we are finally beginning to become comfortable with the idea of consent, the notion that one does not have to practice a particular sexual kink or orientation to not condemn it, and that people who approach an escort who goes by the handle “Sleazy Michael” and rent or buy DVDs from him are possibly, just possibly, not being blindsided by the nature of their content.

Which is probably a great relief to my publisher, given that I’ve written about more than a few of these so-called “obscene” acts (in chick-lit bestsellers no less). The law used to bring the charges against Michael, the Obscene Publications Act 1959, was the very same invoked in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial.

Making a Fist of It: The Law and Obscenity: We have not heard the last of R v Peacock

On Friday 6 January 2012, a historic case came to a conclusion in Courtroom 7 of Southwark Crown Court. Michael Peacock was unanimously acquitted, after a four-day trial that saw the outdated obscenity law of England and Wales in the dock.

Peacock had been charged under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for allegedly distributing ‘obscene’ ‘gay’ DVDs, which featured fisting, urolagnia (‘watersports’) and BDSM.

Peacock had advertised the DVDs through Craigslist, his own website (which also promoted his services as a male escort), and in a magazine. The Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command (SCD9) or London’s Metropolitan Police — which encompasses the former Obscene Publications Squad — saw the advert and began an investigation.

They contacted Peacock, arranging to call around at his Brixton flat and purchase the five most popular fisting DVDs, which they did; then, after examining the DVDs, returned to the flat to arrest Peacock. Peacock also sold DVDs on his website, sleazymichael.com, and in the London-based gay magazine, Boyz. ‘Gay, straight, bi and trans’ DVDs were available (the word ‘porn’ was not used in the adverts) for prices starting at £8.50. No lesbian, underage, ‘K9’, bareback, brown or blood DVDs were available, but a total of 2,247 DVDs were catalogued and Peacock estimated he made a modest £70 a week from their sale.

Defining Subordination & feminist perspectives. Porn & BDSM

"Clare Phillipson suggests trenchantly, in defending the prohibition: ‘We do not need research to prove that the creation and distribution of material which depicts women being tortured for sexual pleasure … is anything other than harmful"

But this moderately plausible assertion is not enough to condemn extreme pornography without further evidence.

Defining Subordination

WEB: www.sinfulandwicked.co.uk MOB: 07426 490 214 TWITTER: @sinfulandwicked

15 women who deserve their own biopics

15 Women Who Deserve Their Own Biopics

WEB: www.sinfulandwicked.co.uk 

MOB: 07426 490 214 

TWITTER: @sinfulandwicked

Turkey's Atheists Face Hostilities and Death Threats

Onur Romano, a founding member of Turkey’s Atheism Association, opens the office and checks the mail. For once, he says, there are no death threats.

"Sometimes they send photos of some al-Qaida members chopping people off heads and putting all the heads in a bucket," he says. "They tell us your head is going to be in one of the buckets, that's how you are going to leave your office, stuff like that."

In officially secular Turkey, whose population is 99 percent Muslim, atheists are voicing alarm about what they call increasing intolerance fuelled by the country’s pro-Islamist government.

"Through Facebook, Twitter, emails, and to our call centre, we have received a couple of hundred death threats already," Romano continues. "We have a total of three security cameras, and we have two panic buttons hooked up to the nearest police precinct. But we are determined."

On Turkish TV channels where growing numbers of Islamic clerics espouse their beliefs, Atheists are a popular target. Romano says much of his group's work involves countering such views.