Wikimedia welcomes IWF backdown in album cover controversy

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 03:08

Business IT - Networking

The censorship decision that led to some or all of Wikipedia becoming inaccessible to up to 95 percent of UK Internet users has been reversed.

Controversy erupted earlier this month when the Internet Watch Foundation classified classified as possibly illegal an image of a Scorpions album cover depicting a naked girl.

Consequently, a number of UK ISPs blocked either the page concerned or entire sites operated by Wikimedia, including Wikipedia.

Users and Wikimedia volunteers were up in arms about this, as the image concerned has been widely distributed in various media and has not been ruled illegal.

At the time, Wikipedia asserted that under US law (where Wikimedia sites are hosted) the image was not obscene.

Now, the IWF has backed off.

"We are grateful to the IWF for making this swift decision, and to thousands of internet users from around the world for their outpouring of support," said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

What else did the Foundation have to say about the matter, and who else has been complaining about the image? Please read on.