NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Brits' Failed Heavy Metal Censorship Attempt Disrupts Wikipedia Edits
Firefox already have a extension/script posted to aid in bypassing this attempt at censorship: antiproxy4wikipedia 0.1 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9896 At 07/12/2008 03:15 PM, Lauren Weinstein wrote: > Brits' Failed Heavy Metal Censorship Attempt Disrupts Wikipedia Edits > > http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000478.html > > >Greetings. Today we're handed yet another in a veritable cornucopia >of examples showing why attempts to censor the Internet may disrupt >and hassle, but can't really effectively block anything, and >frequently have exactly the opposite of the intended effect. > >In this case, we learn how a British watchdog group flagged a >Wikipedia article about a heavy metal album -- Scorpions' "Virgin >Killer" -- which features a naked prepubescent girl on the cover >(partially obscured by a "broken glass" effect). > >Six British ISPs, who seem to slavishly follow the edicts of the group >in question, blocked all access to the associated Wikipedia page by >running Wikipedia through filtering proxies, which had the side effect >of breaking some forms of Wikipedia editing, apparently due to the >proxies showing all users as coming from single IP addresses >( http://tinyurl.com/wikipedia-censorship-uk ). > >And of course, this action has now generated far more interest in that >album cover than would ever have likely otherwise been the case, and >naturally that image can be located trivially and virtually instantly >as a multitude of copies at any number of image search sites. It took >me less than 15 seconds to find it at a non-Wikipedia source just now. >Anyone in Britain can easily do the same thing. > >Whether or not the image in question is viewed as offensive, the utter >stupidity and futility of attempting to block such materials on the >Internet has been demonstrated again and again -- and the collateral >damage that can be caused by such attempts is made ever more clear. > >These are technological realities that cannot be effectively changed >by political posturing or "magic" filters, regardless of how upsetting >we may individually find any particular Internet content to be. The >sooner that we accept this fact, and understand that the traditional >mechanisms of top-down content control are no longer relevant in >today's world of global communications, the sooner we can move on to >dealing with society's real problems in manners that are truly >effective, rather than just useless "feel good" flotsam and jetsam. > >--Lauren--