"FedEx Kinkos Won’t Print Our Christmas Card"

Bob Hubbard

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Bob Cringely and his family send out family portrait cards every year for Christmas, and the gimmick is the entire family is nude, but not really nude: all the naughty parts are hidden away behind carefully placed props or accessories. The Fedex Kinko's in Charleston, SC doesn't appreciate his family's sense of humor--the woman there even remembered him from last year, and not in a good wa

http://consumerist.com/2009/12/no-fedex-kinkos-will-not-print-your-naked-family-christmas-cards.html
http://www.cringely.com/2009/12/fedex-kinkos-wont-print-our-christmas-card/
 

Ken Morgan

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So does that mean they won't print off some vacation photos with speedo's and string bikinis? They show a lot more then the Xmas cards.
 

celtic_crippler

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Hmmm.... When I first read the blog I was like "What's the big deal?" because it gave the impression that it was in good taste and body parts were covered by strategically placed objects...

I looked at the pic... and that wasn't the case.

The way they had one of the kids posed was a little creepy to me. The adults seemed to be more covered up than the kids and that seemed kind of ... wrong.. to me.

I'd have to wonder about any "friend" that requested nude pix of my kids.

I can see why they refused to print them based on the location. Maybe in New York they would have...or maybe California... but one shouldn't be surprised that they wouldn't print nude pix of children in the Bible Belt.
 

jks9199

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I agree, the kids (especially the one on the right side), could have been better covered.

But there was nothing there that would get you in trouble for possessing child porn, and the posing was clearly not sexual. It's nothing you'd have to post in After Dark here on MT.

It's not my particular idea of a good Christmas card, and looking at the kids, I figure he's got another year or two max to do this... And I bet that his kids are really gonna thank him for these pics to be floating around in years to come.
 

Ken Morgan

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To quote Celtic....."a little creepy".

Agreed, creepy, in very bad taste, but in no way illegal.

I know of some families that have no issue with everyone in the family walking around naked in the house. To me, very strange bahaviour, but...not illegal.
 

Tensei85

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Can't really comment on the amount of skin shown, but the quality of the pic was great!
 

Jenny_in_Chico

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On one hand, I want to say "Hey everyone, what is wrong with celebrating the nude human form? It's natural, not obscene!"

On the other hand, there are kids involved, and the parents are sharing nude images of their children with others. Not entirely consensual, because the kids can't really give informed consent because of their age.

I think that it is a positive thing for parents and children to be comfortable in their nudity in the privacy of their home...I mean, I walk around naked in front of my sis all the time...but I think the job of the parents is to protect their children from harm, and distributing photos of them partially nude is asking for trouble. Sure nudity is beautiful, but why the hell would I want to display my child's beauty to weirdos?

If it was just the adults then there would be no problem, in my eyes.
 

Gordon Nore

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I wouldn't be receptive to getting such a card in the mail. As to whether it's illegal, there have been a couple of high profile cases in the US recently where youngsters who 'sexted' photos of themselves have been charged with distributing child pornography. If I worked for FedEx, I wouldn't take the chance of processing or shipping this material.
 

Phoenix44

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I think it's cute. But this family should just get themselves Photoshop or something and do it themselves.
 
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Bob Hubbard

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Parents have lost their kids over the "naked in a tub" shot. While I can appreciate the shot for it's quality (and it's better than last years), it's not a shot I would do myself.

Remember, a nude shot of a child is perfectly legal.
Unless it's porn, then it's not.
That determination is much disputed.
 

KELLYG

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This is not the cute baby in the bath tub or the cute baby buns up on a bear skin rug. The thing that disturbs me the most that this has gone from Christmas cards being sent to friends and family to being on the INTERNET. This switches my personal opinion as to the nature of the pics. Now everyone in the world including perves have access to the photos of the children that and not old enough to consent to having their almost nude body's being distributed world wide. Remember one man's are is another man's porn. This day and age we need to make sure that our children are protected from being violated, how can this be done if the Parents do things like this?
 

Tez3

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People who are truly comfortable with being naked don't need to tell everyone they are! A lot of people I know are happy walking around naked in their houses and even more are happy being naked on the beach or naturist site, it's considered so normal to them they don't make Christmas cards of themselves naked, nor do they have to shout out about it.

To me it's like people who tell you how cool they are or martial artists who go on about how hard they are. If they were cool or hard they wouldn't have to tell us. These people are literally what we call 'posers', not the real thing and yep it's creepy in that sad, 'look at me' way.
 

crushing

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I wouldn't be receptive to getting such a card in the mail. As to whether it's illegal, there have been a couple of high profile cases in the US recently where youngsters who 'sexted' photos of themselves have been charged with distributing child pornography. If I worked for FedEx, I wouldn't take the chance of processing or shipping this material.

I agree. Unlike the family in the Christmas Card, the Kinkos is covering its ***.
 

Gordon Nore

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I agree. Unlike the family in the Christmas Card, the Kinkos is covering its ***.

Interesting to put it that way. Going through the links, I couldn't find any reaction from FedEx. Cringley does play this in his blog as a David and Goliath story. He's the little guy, denied his innocent creative vision by a corporation.

I think it's entirely possible that it's just the staff at this FedEx store that would prefer not to lose their jobs at Christmastime for the sake of someone else's artistic vision.
 

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