Quote Originally Posted by solypsist
austria is allowed to have the laws as they see fit. if they prove to be unpopular or ineffective, these laws can be voted out. austria is a democracy, right?
You're absolutely right. Austria is a sovereign nation and well within their rights to imprison people for making false, foolish and offensive statements. The thread topic was a question of should.

I'm finding however, that even my seemingly limitless respect for national sovereignty (and I think I have a higher degree of it than most in the backroom of all flavors) is being challenged these days. Technically speaking, China is well within their rights to require Google & Yahoo to supply them with any records they require. But you're not going to see me defending the PRC for this policy, or Google and Yahoo for prostituting themselves by complying with it.