UK ISPs Are Censoring Wikipedia 668
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."
Re:That's OK. (Score:5, Funny)
Worked just fine for me (BBB, Sweden), so now I've found out they had a small nude girl on their cover and have spread the URL. Also it made me kind of naughty feeling and penis-tingeling ....
Streisand-effect indeed.
Re:That's OK. (Score:5, Funny)
What? So it's really a service called virgin media which block virgin media? That sucks :/
Good idea.
What does Virgin say? (Score:3, Funny)
If the album's name is "Virgin Killer", I think Virgin [virgin.com] should take a stand on this.
Re:That's OK. (Score:5, Funny)
The naked human body is a testament to the Creator's majesty and perfection, not a sin, and I see no reason why we should cover-up a naked human anymore than we cover-up a naked deer or naked bear or naked seal.
You forgot naked beaver.
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Re:That's OK. (Score:5, Funny)
I have beavers in my backyard.
They are completely naked and despite the protests of my Bible-thumping neighbors, the beavers are welcome to remain on my property & be as naked as a jaybird if that's what they desire.
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Funny)
whooosh
Re:I think that by modern law, they are in the rig (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's OK. (Score:5, Funny)
I have beavers in my backyard.
Beavers are OK. It's shaved beavers that will cause you to run afoul of the law. And possibly incur the wrath of various PETA groups.
Re:It probably is chold pornography (Score:3, Funny)
You totally forgot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevermind [wikipedia.org]
Re:That's OK. (Score:3, Funny)
You know, in the UK, at this point (with that picture in your browser's cache, too), you'd be thinking of how to explain the jury that what you said did not imply that you're "being sexually aroused" by the image, in a trial on charges of possession of child porn.
Re:Um, it's not pornography (Score:2, Funny)
An adult woman in the same setting would be seen as being in a "sexual", or rather, possibly, slightly suggestive pose, because she's potentially a mate for half the population. Whereas a 10 year old girl isn't (only to a tiny fringe).
You haven't been to Tennessee have you?
Couldn't help it, sorry.
Re:Um, it's not pornography (Score:4, Funny)
Agreed, the people who most often protest the hardest against such things are the people who most often think about such things. There's a pervert in every censor.
Re:It probably is chold pornography (Score:1, Funny)
The key issue is, what's she up to now and will she redo the pose for me?
Re:Confirmed, Be There ISP is blocking access (Score:3, Funny)
I could see it... I am not being filtered. Frankly, I don't see child porn...
This is where we see the genius of this new censorship system in action: They have transparently replaced the child porn picture with an innocuous picture of a naked girl and nobody's the wiser! Brilliant, my hat's off to these people!
</sarcasm>