Chicago (IL) - Six British Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are reportedly filtering user access to Wikipedia due to the site’s addition to the Internet Watch Foundation, after accusations arose that the site was hosting what was considered by some to be child pornography.

According to an article published by ZDNet, The content in question involves the German band Scorpions, and a controversial album cover from the 1970’s. The album, titled Virgin Killer, features a naked prepubescent female. The album was banned in many countries upon its release in the seventies until a replacement cover had been created.

In an attempt to block user access to the article on Wikipedia, Virgin Media, Be Unlimited/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, PlusNet, Demon, and Opal started routing the traffic through transparent proxies, that has caused the companies even more issues.

Because the ISPs have chosen to route the Wikipedia traffic through proxies, many of individuals who edit Wikipedia appear to be coming from the same, or a similar IP range, which results in Wikipedia attempting to ban a single customer from an ISP for vandalzing the site. In turn, it is banning every individual on that ISP.

British Telecom is not filtering traffic at this time.

When users in the United Kingdrom attempt to edit content on Wikipedia they receive this error message from the site:

"Wikipedia has been added to a Internet Watch Foundation UK website blacklist, and your Internet service provider has decided to block part of your access. Unfortunately, this also makes it impossible for us to differentiate between different users, and block those abusing the site without blocking other innocent people as well."

There is an ongoing discussion on Wikipedia’s administrator’s notice board, that contains a list of all of the affected ISP addresses, current workarounds, and any updates the site has for its users.  

not alone!

Dec 08, 2008 12:04     

I'm Italian and I've always thoght Italian Internet legislation was made by people who didn't know even to switch on a PC. I've always looked to other european countries enviously. Now I feel a little bit better: I'm not alone. The problem is that I hoped that Italy would become like other eu contries, not viceversa.
Steve report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Please give us your money.

Dec 08, 2008 15:37     

I hope it's not too off-topic to note here that (a) we're an educational charity (b) we live off public donations (c) we have a funding drive on right now :-) We have no money to spend on expensive legal assistance on issues like this. (We do have Mike Godwin, the world's most famous Internet lawyer, as our general counsel, which is just unbelievably cool and very effective.) So all we have is people talking about these issues and giving us their spare bucks to keep the sites running. Thank you :-)

David Gerard report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

What about 'Blind Faith'

Dec 10, 2008 03:52     

I seem to recall that the album 'Blind Faith', the first record release from the supergroup of the same name, also featured a naked young girl on its cover - actually the daughter of one of the band members - and there doesn't seem to have been the same fuss...
John E report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0