Ban (law)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Cover of the Nazi Germany 1937 Degenerate art exhibition.
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A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something.
Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act (equating it to a form of censorship or discrimination).
For nearly the entire history of book and film production, certain media products have been either boycotted by political and religious groups or literally banned by a regime for political or moral reasons. Paradoxically, banning a media product often completely fails to achieve its intention of preventing a media product from being perceived- the publicity given worldwide to banned products often results in it being given attention it might not otherwise receive.
With the advent of the internet, the ability of groups or governments to ban media products is hindered. Obvious problems with using the internet as a distribution system include the inability for a producer to profit from his or her product. Recently, Michael Moore stirred up controversy by encouraging people who were curious about but didn't want to financially support his film, Fahrenheit 9/11, to download it and watch it on their computers.
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Banned books
"The book which most deserved to be banned would be a catalogue of banned books," once said Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Many societies have banned certain books. Grounds for banning are 1) political, 2) religious, 3) sexual and 4) social. The invention of the printing press and movable type led to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and a climate where every book either first needed an imprimatur or a Royal Privilege.
Banned films
For nearly the entire history of film production, certain films have been either boycotted by political and religious groups or literally banned by a regime for political or moral reasons. Paradoxically, banning a movie often completely fails to achieve its intention of preventing a movie from being seen—the publicity given worldwide to banned films often results in it being given attention it might not otherwise receive.
With the advent of the Internet, the ability of groups or governments to ban a film is hindered. High-speed Internet access give more people access to digital copies of movies that might not be available for viewing in theaters.
Banned music
Censorship of Music, the practice of censoring music from the public, may take the form of partial or total censorship with the latter banning the music entirely. The music in question may be a song, or part thereof, a collection of songs (such as a particular album) or a genre of music.
Both songs and albums have been banned in the past. It has become less common in western countries. However, the censorship of particular words deemed as profanity is still commonplace.
See also
- Forbidden
- Homo sacer and the sovereign state of exception
- Shunning practiced in the Amish community
- Censure and Excommunication, which may result in a ban pursuant to Religious law
- Prohibition - usually referring to historical and current laws regulating prohibition of alcohol
- Banned substances in sports
