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Originally Posted by SOMBRI
Lol. Where on earth did I say I was against freedom of speech?
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Right here:
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I think for any self-proclaimed bloggers in the world, they should be licensed or governed somehow.
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Freedom of speech and of the press under English law began in 1695, when the Licensing Act was allowed to lapse. Prior to that, the Company of Stationers held the sole right to operate printing presses and publish written material, and the Crown had the power to seize or destroy any press operated by any other person and imprison the operator. If you wanted to print a newspaper, a book, or even a pamphlet or poster, you had to be a member of the Company. The practical result was that censorship was ubiquitous and oppressive. People were frequently put to death for their opinions.
A blogger's licence would simply impose the same requirement on electronically published writing. We no longer have the death penalty, but a new Licensing Act (under whatever name) would give the state the absolute and arbitrary power to destroy the livelihood of any person who wrote anything that those in power disapproved of. It would mark the end of freedom of speech in any country that adopted such a law.