[Foundation-l] Sexual Content on Wikimedia

[private musings]

G'day all,

This is a sort of 'essay spam' I guess, so for those aspects of this post, I
apologise! I've also been criticised on some Wikimedia projects for proposing
policy <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Sexual_content>, flooding
and generally getting a bit boring about this issue, so I hope you'll
forgive me one post to this list, on this issue.

I believe Wikimedia is currently behaving rather irresponsibly in this area,
and believe that, for various reasons, a calm examination of the issues is
difficult. I have written a rather light-hearted, though serious minded and
'not safe for work' essay about this on the english wikipedia
here<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Privatemusings/Let%27s_talk_about_sex>-
but would like to specifically raise the following points which
represent
my perspective;


   - Wikimedia should not be censored at all - Legal images and media of all
   types should be freely available to use, and re-use.
   - In some contexts, such as sexual content, it is desirable to be
   rigourous in confirming factors such as the subject's age, and 'release' or
   permission - it is this area which is lacking a bit at the moment.

I'd like to illustrate by drawing your attention to two images currently
being discussed on the 'Commons' project;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Topless_Barcelona.jpg and
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:That%27s_why_my_mom_always_told_me_to_cross_my_legs_when_I_wore_a_skirt.jpg

It's my belief that hosting these images without the subject's permission
shifts the balance of utility vs. potential for harm towards recommending
the images be deleted. I'd love to hear your thoughts :-)

cheers,

Peter
PM.