Your Rights Online: UK ISPs Are Censoring Wikipedia

Bob Hubbard

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Your Rights Online: UK ISPs Are Censoring Wikipedia

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday December 07, @09:23AM
from the how-not-to-accomplish-something dept.

Concerned Wikipedian writes "Starting December 4th, Wikipedia administrators noticed a surge of edits from certain IP addresses. These IPs turned out to be the proxies for the content filters of at least 6 major UK ISPs. After some research by Wikipedians, it appears that the image of the 1970s LP cover art of the Scorpions' 'Virgin Killer' album has been blocked because it was judged to be 'child pornography,' and all other attempts to access Wikimedia foundation sites from these ISPs are being proxied to only a few IP addresses. This is causing many problems for Wikipedia administrators, because much of the UK vandalism now comes from a single IP, which, when blocked, affects potentially hundreds of thousands of anonymous users who intend no harm and are utterly confused as to why they are no longer able to edit. The image was flagged by the the Internet Watch Foundation, which is funded by the EU and the UK government, and has the support of many ISPs and online institutions in the UK. The filter is fairly easy to circumvent simply by viewing the article in some other languages, or by logging in on the secure version of Wikipedia."
http://slashdot.org/#

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Tez3

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I'm not sure what censorship it means, I just went onto Wikipedia and the Scorpions site. The photo of the album cover with the nude girl on it is still there, it's not blocked at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer
 
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Tez3

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I'm on AOL, perhaps that makes a difference? I've only ever heard of two of those internet companies, Virgin and O2, I've never heard of the others, never seen them advertised so have no idea who they are. Very odd though.
 

BrandonLucas

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If it's such a big deal to take the album cover off the internet and for it to be judged as child pornography, then why aren't the Scorpions or the photographer being charged with anything?

I mean, technically speaking, wouldn't it be considered art, since it's on the cover of their album? I haven't seen the album, and I'm at work, so I can't pull it up here. If it is indeed child pornography, then I'm certainly not condoning it by any means. But I find it hard to believe that an album that has been on sale to the general public for this long would have this type of problem crop up now.
 

Tez3

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To be honest the photo is a bit iffy, I'm a bit uncomfortable looking at it. it does make you think where the line between porn and art is. If the link can be posted on MT for a thread it would actually be worth a good discussion.
 
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I see nothing wrong with the image, in so much as I don't see the pose as sexual, the genital region is obscured by the crack, and a visit to any naturalist site will show pretty much more of the same.

Artistcally speaking, she looks like an amputee, missing a foot and an entire arm.

Poor taste, questionable aristic merit, but not illegal.
 

Tez3

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I see nothing wrong with the image, in so much as I don't see the pose as sexual, the genital region is obscured by the crack, and a visit to any naturalist site will show pretty much more of the same.

Artistcally speaking, she looks like an amputee, missing a foot and an entire arm.

Poor taste, questionable aristic merit, but not illegal.


I agree not illegal, just a bit uncomfortable if you have a daughter or are female perhaps.
I remember it at the time it came out, that makes me old lol! I think now looking at it and knowing how peadophiles look at it also makes me squirm a bit. That knowledge takes a lot of pleasure out of things we used to find enjoyable like pictures of naked babies and naked kids on the beach. We used think ah sweet, now we know that theres people who find it sexual it leaves a bad taste. All our innocence has been spoilt.
 
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When I was much younger, I enjoyed watching a lass named Tracy Lords "work". Wasn't until much later that I found out that she was 14-17 in those movies. When I was 18, it didn't bother me, but today, having an 18yr old son, I feel "dirty" when I think about it. Had a chat with guy I used to work wth on the matter. He said, "It didn't seem wrong until my daughter turned 14 and I started looking at things as a dad."

The argument "well some people get aroused by it" is valid, until you realize that some folks get turned on by cars, lifelike animals, and super deformed cartoons. Some people is just weird.

Regarding the image, pose, etc on the cover, nude child studies have been a staple of art for centuries. Even Brooke Shields was fully nude at age 12 in a movie, and to my knowledge, it's available uncensored on Amazon.

Now, if the girl was bent over, **** in the air in a 'ready for boarding' pose, or bound, gagged, or whatnot, it would be 'porn' not 'art', by nature of the pose and posture.
 

BrandonLucas

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I still can't get to where I can look at the art...I'm at work, and I just discovered that my internet at home is down...

But, judging from the description, I'm not sure what the picture has to do with The Scorpions anyway...I mean, I know Nirvana's Nevermind album had the naked baby, but geez....
 
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Your Rights Online: IWF Backs Down On Wiki Censorship 2008-12-09 16:10

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 09, @04:10PM
from the that-streisand-thing-again dept.

jonbryce writes "The Internet Watch Foundation, guardians of the Great Firewall of Britain, have stopped censoring Wikipedia for hosting what they considered to be a child porn image. They had previously threatened to block Amazon for hosting the same image." Here is the IWF's statement, which credits the Streisand Effect for opening their eyes: "...in light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability, the decision has been taken to remove this webpage from our list. Any further reported instances of this image which are hosted abroad, will not be added to the list. ... IWF's overriding objective is to minimize the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect."
http://slashdot.org/#

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jarrod

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i dunno bob...sure, some folks get aroused by inanimate objects, but it is a nekkid prepubescent girl, & if it were a fully developed women i would certainly think of it as a sexual pose. i support the liberties of art quite a bit, but think there is a difference between what's in a museum & in a truck stop music bin.

jf
 

Carol

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I hope no one tells them about the Blind Faith album cover...

Perhaps they won't get censored because they're Brits :D
 

jarrod

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that's true! i bet this is all thinly veiled anti-germanism. WWII was like 60 years ago! get over it!

jf
 
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Well, the record company execs picked the cover to generate controversy....
 

jarrod

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maybe, but i still kinda think the scorpions suck either way :(

jf
 

BrandonLucas

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maybe, but i still kinda think the scorpions suck either way :(

jf

Bite your tongue!! Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth may be strange characters, but....

yeah, you're right. They do kinda suck.
 

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