Digital Commons Network^™

Speech And Sovereignty: A Kantian Defense Of Freedom Of Expression, Alec Greven

Honors Theses

This thesis critically examines the moral foundations of free expression and offers a framework for evaluating morally justifiable forms of censorship. This investigation has three parts. The first section argues that rational considerations constrain how moral principles for censorship can be structured methodologically. It concludes that moral principles must be universally coherent and consistently applied. The second section considers several existing justifications for censorship that fall short of these methodological requirements and arbitrarily apply extensionally inadequate moral principles. To be rational, these approaches must either abandon these inconsistent justifications or commit to more consistently authoritarian moral principles. The third section …

Whimsical Pornography: Albert Dubout's Illustrations For Sade's Justine, Olivier M. Delers

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

In Dangereux supplement: I 'illustration du roman en France au dixhuitieme siecle, Christophe Martin explains that images were generally considered to be dangerous additions to a text, because they could not be limited to their intended primary purpose: to provide a visual translation for characters and events depicted in works of fiction.¹ For even as they illustrate, images also offer a reading that necessarily shapes the reader's perception of a novel. In the process, the images themselves become texts with their own complex system of signification. As such "supplements" go, illustrations of Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade's novels …

Back To The Bad Old Days: President Putin's Hold On Free Speech In The Russian Federation, Rebecca Favret

Law Student Publications

This paper addresses new laws promulgated in Russia that restrict freedom of speech. Each implicitly reflects the Kremlin's hostility toward political dissidence in the aftermath of serious protests following President Putin's reelection and elections to the legislature. Disturbed by the outcry, which took place in cities across Russia but also infiltrated the Internet, the Russian legislature passed strict laws censoring Internet speech, prohibiting behavior and speech deemed "extremist," and curbing the size and type of public gatherings.

The new legislation is examined through the lens of some of the Kremlin's most infamous and recent targets: namely, the Internet blacklist and …

Nokia Siemens Networks: Just Doing Business – Or Supporting An Oppressive Regime?, Judith Schrempf-Stirling

Management Faculty Publications

This case study examines the relevance of taking social and political factors into consideration when a corporation is making a key business decision. In September 2009, Simon Beresford-Wylie, the outgoing CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), was reviewing the company’s achievements — while acknowledging the latest public criticism regarding NSN’s business relationship with the Iranian government. In the summer of 2009, NSN was accused of complicity in human rights violations linked to Iran’s presidential election. The company sold network infrastructure and software solutions to the Iranian government, which then used this technology to observe, block, and control domestic communications. Should …

Copyright As Censorship - Part Ii, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the Statute of Anne, the English legislation that ushered in the modern era of copyright law. The Statute of Anne is celebrated for a number of reasons, and perhaps foremost among them is its rejection of copyright as an instrument of censorship. In a previous essay in this series, I discussed one way in which copyright law historically acted as an instrument of censorship: its refusal to grant protection to works that courts judged immoral. In this essay, I discuss copyright’s role in facilitating a different kind of censorship: lawsuits in which a copyright …

Copyright As Censorship - Part I, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the Statute of Anne, the English legislation that ushered in the modern era of copyright law. The Statute of Anne is celebrated for a number of reasons, and perhaps foremost among them is its rejection of copyright as an instrument of censorship.

Before Parliament enacted the Statute, the distribution of books was controlled by the government through royal charters, which granted monopolies over printing and empowered the chartered firms to seize unauthorized books and bring their publishers before the courts. The Statute of Anne put an end to this practice and replaced it with …

'Si Ridesti [Il Leon Di Castiglia] La Fiamma Sopita': Ricordi's Censored Libretto Of Ernani And Some Vicissitudes Of The Conspiracy Scene, David B. Rosen

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Dangerous Bodies: The Regulation And Contestation Of Women's Sexuality At The Movies In Virginia, Melissa Ooten

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications

In 1922, the General Assembly of Virginia created a motion-picture censorship board to regulate out of popular culture images its cultural arbiters ruled detrimental to state officials' attempts to modernize and "clean up" the image of Virginia. On-screen depictions of women's sexuality repeatedly fell prey to the board's "protectionist" ideology, by which censors argued that their work "protected" society's most vulnerable citizens. In reality, such an ideology served as an extension of state power to keep subjective, realistic portrayals of these already marginalized citizens out of popular culture in order to justify their continued status as "second-class" citizens within the …

A Tale Of Five Cities: The Peregrinations Of Somma's And Verdi's Gustavo Iii (And Una Vendetta In Dominò And Un Ballo In Maschera) At The Hands Of The Neapolitan And Roman Censorship, David Rosen

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

The Censorship Of 'I Masnadieri' In London, Roberta Montemorra Marvin

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Censorship In Verdi's 'Attila': Two Case Studies, Linda B. Fairtile

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Censorship Of 'I Masnadieri' In Italy, Roberta Montemorra Marvin

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.