by David Steven | Dec 8, 2008 | Off topic, UK
Yesterday, I posted on UK action to block a Wikipedia page because it includes an image from a 1970’s Scorpions album cover that the Internet Watch Foundation has deemed child pornography. IWF has now issued a statement:
A Wikipedia web page, was reported through the IWF’s online reporting mechanism in December 2008. As with all child sexual abuse reports received by our Hotline analysts, the image was assessed according to the UK Sentencing Guidelines Council (page 109). The content was considered to be a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18, but hosted outside the UK. The IWF does not issue takedown notices to ISPs or hosting companies outside the UK, but we did advise one of our partner Hotlines abroad and our law enforcement partner agency of our assessment.
The specific URL (individual webpage) was then added to the list provided to ISPs and other companies in the online sector to protect their customers from inadvertent exposure to a potentially illegal indecent image of a child.
As I noted yesterday, you can buy this album from Amazon.co.uk (and presumably in the High Street) with original cover art. No word on whether PC Plod plans to take action (though presumably he’s still too busy arresting MPs for grooming fresh-faced civil servants) – but heavy metal fans are advised to throw out any potentially offensive vinyl (all of it, to be safe)…
by David Steven | Dec 7, 2008 | Influence and networks, Off topic, UK
Prepare yourself for a bad-tempered row over UK attempts to censor Wikipedia. The reason? Virgin Killer – a 1970s album from German heavy metal band, Scorpions. The result: Wikipedia is now shut to (anonymous) edits for large swathes of the British population.
The album cover features a picture of a prepubescent girl and was banned in many countries – though you can still buy it (with the original cover art) on amazon.co.uk. The Wikipedia page discussing the album, and the controversy around its cover, has now been blacklisted by the Internet Watch Foundation, a quasi-official body that censors “images of child sexual abuse hosted anywhere in the world”.
IWF’s blacklisting has led to six ISPs blocking the page – something they’ve done by filtering all traffic through two proxy servers (if this reminds you of the Great Firewall of China – it should).
Unfortunately, the result of this is to make it seem as if vast swathes of the British population are visiting Wikipedia from the same IP address. That makes stopping abusive edits more or less impossible – so Wikipedia has had to ban all these users from anonymous editing:
Wikipedia has been added to an Internet Watch Foundation UK website blacklist, and your Internet service provider has decided to block part of your access. Unfortunately, the method they are using makes it impossible for us to differentiate between legitimate users and those abusing the site. As a result, we have been forced to block several IP addresses from editing Wikipedia.
Reports that all 1970s heavy metal are to be removed from the Internet on the grounds of musical taste, meanwhile, have been denied by the Internet Watch Foundation…
