That Happened!

New York - It is the first case ever of UK ISPs censoring a Wikipedia article.

The censored article included the image of an album cover of an unclothed girl who, many believe is not an adult. The album cover in question is from the “Virgin Killer” release by German band ‘The Scorpions’. The album, cover design by the German branch of RCA Records, was released in 1976. While the music on this album received much praise, the album cover itself immediately brought on immense criticism and controversy. “Virgin Killer” ended up either being pulled, or replaced by many stores in several countries. In time, The Scorpions lead singer Klaus Meine, expressed regret over the inappropriate cover choice.

The URL of the censored article is now on a list which is published by the nonprofit group called Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), who works in conjunction with law enforcement in order to keep child pornography off of the internet.

Close to 100% percent of UK ISPs use the aforementioned list to help keep an eye out for inappropriate internet content. Adding the article to the list has brought on an unexpected consequence. This back end process eventually let to all non-registered UK users being unable to edit any and all articles on Wikipedia.

“We have no reason to believe the article, or the image contained in the article, has been held to be illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world,” Wikimedia Foundation’s general counsel, Mike Godwin, said in a statement released Monday. “We believe it’s worth noting that the image is currently visible onAmazon (NSDQ: AMZN), where the album can be freely purchased by U.K. residents. It is available on thousands of websites that are accessible to the U.K. public.”

There has been much debate regarding this album cover already this year, as evidenced by edit history to the Wikipedia story. A notice states that the album cover will not be removed. It will be up to individual users to block images such as this one if they don’t want to be subject to such viewing.

It looks as though 32 years of comments and controversy over this album image will continue on for quite some time. Surely, much discussion is going on amongst Scorpion fans as to whether or not an image should hold top billing over a bands music.