Six of Britains largest ISPs censor Wikipedia

[Jelly]

Via The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/07/brit_isps_censor_wikipedia/):


Six British ISPs are filtering access to Wikipedia after the site was added to an Internet Watch Foundation child-pornography blacklist, according to Wikipedia administrators. As of Sunday morning UK time, certain British web surfers were unable to view at least one Wikipedia article tagged with ostensible child porn. And, in a roundabout way, the filtering has resulted in Wikipedia admins banning large swaths of the United Kingdom from editing the "free encyclopedia anyone can edit."
On Friday, Wikipedia administrators noticed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Major_UK_ISPs_reduced_to_using_2_IP_addresses) that Virgin Media, Be Unlimited/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, PlusNet, Demon, and Opal were routing Wikipedia traffic through a small number of transparent proxy servers as a way of blocking access to the encyclopedia's article on Virgin Killer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer), a mid-1970s record album from German heavy band Scorpions.


Rest of the story in the link at the top.


Attempting to access the Virgin Killer link from this computer gives me a blank page. I'm against child abuse, and any porn that results from it, yeah, but filtering Wikipedia for what is apparently an artistic cover should be beyond their jurisdiction.


As well as this, the album in question is readily available in the UK, cover and all, and a google search turns up a page full of the same images that the IWF blocked. Jerks.

[StankBacon]

wow...

[ima_from_America]

Companies have no right to do that.

[Evil_Monkey]

Wow, that's ridiculous.

I get a white page also.

[nooBBooze]

The internet belongs to the peo...brb NSA

[Saggy]

Link worked for me. Now I feel dirty...

[rossmum]

Some guy out here got done for having what can only be described as the Simpsons porn. Apparently cartoon people are still people, and although it's fucked up on a whole other level, it's also worthy of a massive fine and 2 years of community service. Another guy got all his computers searched and got done on child abused charges for trying to upload a video of someone playing a bit roughly with a kid to LiveLeak (and no, it wasn't sexual at all). Basically, everyone is now going to think he's a pedo or he throws his kids around or something.

[kid908]

0.o ok...that's very weird. and the link works for me too but mainly because im in the us. can't they just take the pic down? i read at the bottom the following :

Internet Censorship: In 2008 the Internet Watch Foundation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation) (IWF), a UK-based non-government organization, added the Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia) article Virgin Killer to its blacklist[15] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer#cite_note-14)[16] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer#cite_note-15) due to the online encyclopedia's use of an image of the original Virgin Killer album cover...

there's more but this is the first 2 sentences.

[NullZero]

At least it doesn't affect me yet :\

For anyone curious: http://wilko.sitefrost.com/virkil/Virgin_Killer.htm

[Limited]

I can view it, and now think that is one fucked up album cover.

I'm with Sky :)

Also why did Jelly get an infraction.

[Rentafence]

How about the case in Australia where teachers aren't allowed to correct papers with red pen, because it's an aggressive color and can be psychologically damaging?

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24745009-29277,00.html?from=public_rss

[Syuusuke]

I can view it, and now think that is one fucked up album cover.

I'm with Sky :)

Also why did Jelly get an infraction.

Everytime someone posts something tech-related in the Off Topic section, korn's panties gets tied into a knot. So he has to relieve of it somehow.
---

I didn't think anything like this happened, but I wouldn't rule out the fact that it can ever occur.

[ultama121]

I'm speechless... first Australia, now the UK. Damn. This better be resolved soon enough.

[paladin]

Wow. Thats... I mean... I can't say anything.

[Hotrod]

Wow. Thats... I mean... I can't say anything.
Is special the word you're looking for?

[Boba]

I'm going to go against the grain of whatever discussion about the ban is occurring and just say that Virgin Killer is a great album. I fucking love Scorpions, anyone else feeling this o/?

[JunkfoodMan]

Goddammit, not BE.
I'm with BT, but I was thinking of going with BE when I move out (uncapped speeds, actually unlimited).

[Syuusuke]

I'm going to go against the grain of whatever discussion about the ban is occurring and just say that Virgin Killer is a great album. I fucking love Scorpions, anyone else feeling this o/?


|o

Your question mark is in the way.

This censorship is sort of...getting ridiculous, might as well censor google images because of its potential...

Shit am I giving away ideas?

[Jelly]

So, the IWF has unblocked it again (http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.251.htm), saying they won't censor images that are hosted abroad.