[Foundation-l] [Commons-l] commons and freely licensed sexual imagery

[private musings]

Re : This having been discussed, and my opinions being vigorously shot down
- well yes, both you and Mike are largely correct - which to my mind is
actually cause for concern for the sensibly minded - it's also my opinion
that there's many such folk out there - many of whom choose not to get
involved in discussions like this because of their unsavory nature (/me
waves at various correspondents ;-)

I believe that this is an example of principle overriding pragmatism in a
way that has great potential to cause the project harm - both in reputation
and utility. If you're reading this and are a bit confuddled about the
parameters of discussion in this area - here are some handy bullet points;


   - Commons currently hosts many pictures, taken in a public place, without
   the apparent permission of the subject, of various folk in various states of
   undress (think topless women at the beach as the best example) - I think
   this is inappropriate and disrespectful, though undoubtedly legal.
   - Commons hosts pictures (such as the one linked to upthread) which seem
   highly unlikely to me to be genuinely released under a free licence, with
   the much more likely explanation that a n'eer do well has cheekily stolen a
   pic from some website - I believe good faith is often exploited in this
   regard.
   - Finally - commons, and various other wikimedia projects contain an ever
   growing number of sexually explicit images (people having sex with each
   other, and their friends, in various ways) - it's the clear consensus of
   this thread (in my view) that this is desirable, supported by the community,
   and in fact not really worth talking about at all. I have seen no
   substantial discussion of ways to ameliorate any issues this position may
   bring up (Record keeping requirements, children's access to images etc.)


thas' all :-)

cheers,

Peter,
PM.




On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 12:37 AM, David Moran <fordmadoxfraud at gmail.com>wrote:

> This one's been discussed ad nauseam already, and I think the community's
> discussions pretty unambiguously tend towards keep.
>
> FMF
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 2:18 AM, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > My opinion on this is clear: Commons should welcome both photographs
> > and pictures. Whether a project shows a picture or a photograph should
> > be the project's decision, not that of Commons. Some may prefer one,
> > others the other. Sexuality is in scope on Wikimedia projects, so its
> > images are in scope at Commons.
> >
> > Andre
> >
> > On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 6:03 AM, private musings <thepmaccount at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> > > g'day all,
> > >
> > > There's an interesting deletion discussion taking place here;
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Sexuality_pearl_necklace_small.png
> > >
> > > concerning an image of a woman with sperm on her neck. To my mind it's
> > very
> > > doubtful that this is in fact a freely licensed image, but regardless
> of
> > my
> > > cynicism, the IP who nominated the image for deletion (the 5th time
> it's
> > > been nominated, and the 4th time was by me, in December) raised the
> > > possibility that we (both commons, wikipedia, and perhaps by extension
> > all
> > > wmf projects) might be better to opt for drawings rather than
> photographs
> > of
> > > sexual activity?
> > >
> > > I'm sure many are familiar with my view that the foundation is an
> acutely
> > > irresponsible host in this area (I'm not a fan, for example, of the
> > pictures
> > > taken of topless women on beaches without their permission which
> commons
> > > currently hosts) - but wonder what the feeling is out there in regard
> to
> > > freely licensed images of people having sex - we've currently got quite
> a
> > > few on commons, and it's likely to be a growth area. There's a dirty
> pun
> > in
> > > there somewhere, but I can't be bothered to make it......
> > >
> > > cheers,
> > >
> > > Peter
> > > PM.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Commons-l mailing list
> > > Commons-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
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