When I saw the news the other day that Wikipedia had banned contributions from IP addresses used by the Church of Scientology in response to them relentlessly pushing a pro-Scientology agenda on the website, my first reaction was that it was fair enough. True, stories like this one don't make me feel well-disposed towards Scientology, but this isn't about the existence or otherwise of Operating Thetan Levels – it's simply about repeated violation of the terms of service of a website in order to further ones own agenda. If you ignore the terms of service, surely it's right that the service is withdrawn? ( Read more... )

I bet The Scorpions can't believe their luck. The blogosphere has been swirling with urgent discussion of their 1976 album, "Virgin Killer" since Friday, because of its deeply inappropriate sleeve. I know what you're thinking – the sight of five long-haired Germans in leather or denim punching the air triumphantly is pretty unpleasant, but not particularly offensive; the original cover, however, features a naked girl in her early teens and thus falls foul of the UK's Protection of Children Act 1978 which bans indecent images of children. As a result, a complaint from a member of the public last week led to the Internet Watch Foundation – a self-regulated partnership between police, government and British ISPs – to impose a ban on the image; and crucially, its appearance on Wikipedia. (If you're in the UK right now, a link to the page about the album will direct you via a proxy server to a blank page featuring no information about The Scorpions whatsoever.)( Read more... )

EDIT: The IWF have backed down.