Wikipedia Censorship Cancelled by British ("Oops!")

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: December 10, 2008 7:21:32 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Wikipedia Censorship Cancelled by British ("Oops!")



             Wikipedia Censorship Cancelled by British ("Oops!")

                 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000480.html


Greetings.  A few days ago I expressed disdain regarding the
censorship, by six British ISPs, of a Wikipedia page showing a
three-decades-old image that a British "watchdog" group -- IWF
(Internet Watch Foundation) -- had declared to be unacceptable
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000478.html ).

The blocking of the Wikipedia page, about the 70s-era heavy metal
album "Virgin Killer" reportedly had the side-effect of blocking
anonymous Wikipedia editing by users of those ISPs, and had the
perverse result of drawing global attention to the image of a young
girl -- an image which is very widely available on servers throughout
the world.

Today comes word that the IWF has backed down, admitting, in effect,
that trying to block the Wikipedia page was an inappropriately dumb
move that resulted in more people seeing the image in question than
ever before! ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7774102.stm"; )

I'm glad to hear that IWF has seen the error of their ways in this
particular case.  But this whole sorry saga demonstrates the
continuing insanity of trying to censor the Internet, and especially
of putting the power to declare materials as supposedly "verboten" in
the hands of groups that ISPs then mindlessly obey.  Not that the
material really becomes unavailable to people who want to find it, but
the hassle and collateral damage can be very real.

And seriously gang, essentially just saying "Oops -- never mind!"
afterward isn't an acceptable procedure for Internet management -- and
I use the term "management" very loosely indeed.

Just don't hold your breath hoping that the proponents of ISP-based
and government-mandated Internet censorship learn the futility of
their dreams from this example.  It seems that there's just no
successful arguing with magical thinking -- not even in the 21st
century.  But we gotta keep trying.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com