On 31/01/2008, Bryan Derksen bryan.derksen@shaw.ca wrote:
Peter Ansell wrote:
I apologised, but as yet the entire incident has turned into a firestorm I have only ever heard about in american politics. Poor Aussie isn't used to being attacked. Still not taking back the essential comment about GFDL childrens pictures posted on the net.
Laura made a good observation over on the AN/I thread that purveyors of child pornography are unlikely to be concerned about whether the pictures they're using are properly licensed. The issue of whether the photos are under the GFDL seems like another irrelevant tangent.
If the pictures were never posted to a public place then there would be zero risk of them being vandalised by a paedophile. That was the real issue. Is a child not worth zero risk? From the sounds of the posts it seems like the complaint was about her and not the child. Wikipedia editors should understand the GFDL as a prerequisite though, including the revocation of any right to sue a person who modifies a photo in any way as long as they attribute its authors correctly.
I am passionate about keeping all possible avenues for exploiting children closed. It is illegal to post pictures of someone elses child on the net in Australia, and I naturally assumed that they saw the risks I guess, mostly because of the emphasis on bathrobes I think.
Wikimedia falls under a different jurisdiction, fortunately, or http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Children would be a lot more sparsely populated. And those photos are of their own kids so that law wouldn't apply here anyway.
Still, given the wikipedia review topic about the recent issue with commons having a "Category:Lolita" and the vandalism of scout photos, there is an issue. Its a shame that freedom of speech outweighs child safety in Florida, US.
I would appreciate even simple comments about how badly things could be taken, as I had not noticed the veracity of the statement until I was brought back to it again. The crux of the statement shouldn't be attacked though even if I expressed it in a bad way.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to say here.
It is a completely different culture in which people both get annoyed quickly and try to make scandals out of a few words, and in which parents are ultra-sensitive about their parenting styles. Thats the Australian part I was trying to get at. If someone here had thought to tell me that it could be offensive then I would have retracted the comment then and there. Now that I have thought about it I think the point of the comment, child safety considerations, is relevant still. If Florida doesn't give a stuff then I hope Wikipedia has a conscience to care outside of what is explicitly needed by law.
Peter