[Foundation-l] Statement on appropriate educational content

[Andreas Kolbe]

I can't follow your reasoning there. Ensuring that Commons can be safely
viewed by minors is not censorship, in my opinion. I am actually fine with 
uncensored pornographic content for adults, but I think we will end up 
cutting ourselves off from the younger generation if we don't cooperate 
with filtering systems.

Commons content is dynamic and comprises 6.5 million media files. How 
would a library or school filter that content? And if it is not feasible 
for them to do so, the easiest way out for them, in order to avoid 
controversy, is to not allow access to the site at all, which is our loss. 

Andreas


> The only existing US law that I think Commons might possibly not be
> complying with is the requirement to ensure that the models of some
> pictures are not minors; to what extent these provisions might be
> retroactive, IANAL, much less a specialist in these matters, is
> something that I do not know.

> But I do know about matters pertaining to libraries, and the
> responsibility for filtering is on them, not the information
> providers, or the sites which post the information. Most libraries
> deal with this by outsourcing, and relying on the standards of the
> providers of the filters.  I see no reason why we should cooperate
> with censorship, however well intentioned. We should, however,
> maintain our own standards. (Because it is appropriate to provide some
> guides about our content to users generally, maintaining certain
> images in a collection labelled BDSM, and ensuring they have clearly
> descriptive titles--which remains incomplete in Commons more generally
> than just these images-- would seem to me quite adequate information
> about their likely nature. )


> David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG