Cut Tari and Law No. 1 of 1951...

If something can be sad and funny at the same time, then this is it! Cut Tari made a skin flick. She was seemingly a willing partner in an amateur porn shoot in 2005 with the now infamous ladies man, Nazriel 'Ariel' Irham of Peterpan fame. By all accounts it was amateurish, which considering it was a handycam job, might not be far off the mark. Nevertheless, amateurish or not, it was sure to titillate the masses in Indonesia as getting a good look at the nether regions of celebrities is a pretty solid past time for some.

In any event, it would seem that making a porn film and being in a porn film are not illegal per se. This is true for the 2008 Anti-Pornography Law. Although the arguments being made by Cut Tari's lawyer, the 'I am everywhere you are', entertainment lawyer, Hotman Paris, rely on the inability of a 2008 law being applied retroactively to a sex video filmed in 2005. He has a point. Yet, it would seem that being naked in front of a digital camera probably falls under the indecency provisions (Art. 282) of the Criminal Code.

However, where this gets really sad is that the police and prosecutors are going all out to find laws to try and apply in this case. So, it was back into the archived Statute Books to play a little "pin the tail on the donkey". The end result was Law No. 1 of 1951, an emergency law that was enacted under a provisional Constitution and in 1951 Indonesia was tinkering with the way the Republic was to be governed. Nevertheless, Article 5(3) of Law No. 1/1951 has a nice 'catch all' element to it:

where an act is considered to be a crime, but where there is no relevant article in the Criminal Code prohibiting that act, then customary (traditional 'hukum adat') law can apply.

I wonder if the hukum adat that might apply here has any Sharia elements to it. Then again, both profess to not being able to remember where the film was shot. Maybe it was shot overseas and not even in the jurisdiction of Indonesia?

The cold hard reality for the coppers and the prosecutors here is that if you have to go back to a 1951 law that has not been used for this purpose previously then things are looking a little forlorn on the successful outcomes stakes. Let's face it, the drafters of the 1951 law hardly had amateur sex tapes at the forefront of their minds when drafting Article 5 of that law. It is a real stretch, drawing a long bow, if you prefer, to try an make this stick.

Final points...you really have to wonder why the police and prosecutors are persisting with this case. The again, if the SBY can railroad the DPR into approving a suspect candidate for Chief of Police, and the DPR can see no reason why the man who presided over the, still unexplained and unresolved, murder of Trisakti students in 1998 should not be Chief of Police, then what hope do a couple of amateur porn stars have?

Now for some obligatory pictures of Cut Tari...

Naked Celebrities and the Internet...

Having just signed up for Twitter, I figured that I needed to get a little bit informed of the "dos" and "don'ts" of the Twitterverse. And, perhaps, the internet more generally. My travels today in internet-ville have led me to many places already, but in pursuit of celebrity gossip I can across this site called "Celebrity fix" and a current slide show they are running on naked celebrities. Much of it full-frontal but with all the naughty bits hidden under a "too rude" star.

So, some of the celebrities making themselves available in their full birthday suit glory to their grateful fans include Jamie Foxx, Peaches Geldof, Vanessa Hudgens, Rihanna, Jessica Origliasso, Hayley Williams, Ke$ha (which includes what seems to be male ejaculatory fluid on her chest - too much information, right?), Geri Halliwell, Pete Wendtz, the former Mrs. Paul McCartney (Heather Mills), Kate Pierson, and Cassie. Oh, and Lara Bingle.

I am sure that if one was to look hard enough that you would find the uncensored images out there in cyberspace. Happy hunting.

Is there a moral to this story? I wonder, all of these individuals continue to maintain their celebrity and would appear to have emerged pretty much unscathed from the experience of having their naughty bits paraded for all to see on the internet.

This whole phenomenon of sexting is an interesting one. It is also one that I am finding out is an issue in Australian schools today. That said, I am finding that cyber-bullying is a really really big problem in schools.

Oh Dear, Mr. Sembiring Are You Serious?

It is a real shame that this man's name is not Titaful instead of Tifatul. This is particularly so considering the Minister of Communication and Information's fascination with banning pornography in Indonesia. But, never mind Indonesians regularly shorten their names, so from now on Mr. Tifatul Sembiring has the moniker "Tits", which is fair enough as all the letters are in his name and appear in that order...

Now, Tits has declared that he is a man on a mission, presumably from God, to ensure that all porn sites originating in Indonesia are shut down and all porn sites hosted overseas are blocked by Indonesian filtering technology before reaching screens in Indonesia. The plan calls for all these sites to be history before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan as many of us are all to aware is a month where Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and other earthly pleasures during daylight hours.

While most people are thinking that the porn ban that Tits has in mind will only effect images, and that this is not such a bad thing, they are sadly mistaken. If Tits gets his way, then even sentences will be classified and if deemed to be too rude then they will be labelled porn and prohibited. Yes folks, Indonesia is back on the path to burning books and treating its adult population like naughty children who do not know what's best for themselves. Tits is looking at getting this banning and burning thing done on a "massive" scale. It reminds me of a picture I once saw about social media 'experts'. I attach it for your viewing pleasure.

Personally, to each their own on the porn front. I have no problem with making porn more difficult to access, especially the idea of making it as difficult as possible for children to access. I have no problem with prohibiting kiddie porn. Our children need protection from this sort of material, whether that be protection in the form of ensuring they do not become the subjects of child porn or being prevented from seeing what is already out there. However, I cannot see why the government needs to regulate whether two consenting adults enjoy looking at pictures of each other in the nude.

In any event, if Tits is thinking that he is going to be successful in protecting people from themselves then he is going to be in for a rude awakening. The blanket ban, which "massive" suggests will not work. The idea that it will presupposes that purveyors of pornography are stupid and technologically incapable of adapting. This is clearly not the case.

The porn industry is not one that is about just tens of thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, nor millions of dollars. The porn industry is a multi-billion dollar gig. The reality is that where there is a will there is a way...it is the chicken and the egg theory, or perhaps it is even simple supply and demand theory. People want porn, so other people produce it. Indonesians want porn, so somebody somewhere is going to be producing it and Indonesians are going to work out a way to get access to it.

So, Tits it is time you focused your energies on other more important issues in your portfolio. Quite simply, the big red mark you have against your name with respect to your ministerial performance to date has nothing to do with your failures relating to porn. Time to stop trying to deflect attention from your shortcomings by playing the porn card. It is time to get on with doing your job.

Maybe, this poster is something the good minister might want to consider when working out how successful this plan of his might be.

Happy fasting to you Tits!

Vocal Cats

Another little factoid for the file.

Did you know that cats have over one hundred vocal sounds?

Well, now you do!

Once again I do not know who sat down to measure this and why. I also do not know why anyone might want to fund such research. Perhaps it is a study of animal language or something.

Enjoy your Thursday!