[ncpm] !!Free speech suppressed in South Yorkshire!!
- From: "Joy Slave" <joyslave@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 10:19:14 +0000
The www.yf-sucks.org.uk site was pulled - what finer praise can a parody
website have?
>Dear blueyonder customer,
>It has been brought to our attention that the pwp webspace registered > to
>this account is being used for a site that has caused offence to a > third
>party, against the terms and conditions of service.
>We have removed access to the content.
>Regards,
>Blueyonder Security and Abuse Team.
So, the site must have 'pushed someone's buttons'. If it didn't hit home
then it could be easily ignored, n'est ce pas?
This has been sent to Blueyonder. Could've done better but time, time...
>this account is being used for a site that has caused offence to a
>third party, against the terms and conditions of service.
Please explain further.
The site that was hosted in the pwp webspace was not intended to cause any
offence to anybody so if you can inform me which parts or sections of the
site have caused particular offence then I will ask the site designer to
remove them.
The site designer took particular care not to use:
(a) any names of any real individuals
(b) any names of any real organisations
(c) any original text or graphics from any third party website.
I therefore do not see how it is possible to cause offence to a fictional
person or fictional entity. In fact, the site hosted in the pwp webspace
was basically written as a work of satirical political fiction to supplement
a pressure group campaign that is currently running in Sheffield.
A little background - the "Pride In Sheffield" campaign has been running
since October to highlight the potential sale of Sheffield's National Centre
for Popular Music (NCPM) to a local University for the use as a Student
Union building. This is a public building paid for with £15 million of
Lottery money and will probably be sold to the University for £1.8 million.
A regional re-development agency - which is unaccountable to taxpayers or
voters - is looking favourably at this particular proposal. The NCPM
building is an iconic building situated in the heart of Sheffield's
"Cultural Industries Quarter" - an area reserved for creative and artistic
businesses and endeavours. "Pride In Sheffield" disagrees with the
potential change of use of the building - no more than that.
The "Pride In Sheffield" campaign operates a mailing list and the archives
are viewable here - //www.freelists.org/archives/ncpm/. The campaign
also has the support of some local MP's and councillors, celebrities, the
designers of the building and many local people who live and work in
Sheffield. There is also a website here:
http://www.prideinsheffield.org.uk.
The website hosted with blueyonder was part of a humourous attempt to draw
attention to the situation. A disclaimer page supporting the site explained
that the site should be seen as a caricature of a number of characters
involved in the story - including the "Pride In Sheffield" campaigners
themselves. The domain name - www.yf-sucks.org.uk - is part of the Internet
tradition of saying "so-and-so sucks" when disagreeing with a faceless,
monolithic entity i.e. www.microsoftsucks.com, www.aolsucks.org and so on.
I coudn't find a 'Blueyonder sucks' page but found this interesting lampoon
of Windows XP that blueyonder are hosting:
http://www.markyp1963z.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk - I hope that you now don't take
this site down.
Satire and caricature have long been part of the canon of British political
comment and currently find their expression in TV programmes such as "Have I
Got News For You" and publications like "Private Eye" magazine. Open any UK
newspaper on any day of the week and you will find statements that are
critical of those who have been charged with looking after our interests -
it is not offensive to disagree with the political situation.
I could go on but I think that I have made my point reasonably clear. This
is a real-life David and Goliath story and, to continue with the metaphor,
Goliath has asked an innocent bystander to step in and take David's
slingshot away. The regional re-development agency has countless staff and
a budget of millions. All we have who are campaigning for a better
Sheffield are our wits, our numbers and our spirit.
>We have removed access to the content.
Please advise me of which parts of the content should be removed, if
necessary, so that we can get this site reinstated.
>Regards,
Let see what happens now...
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