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Wikipedia Co-Founder Reports 'Child Porn' in Wikimedia
posted on by Egan Loo
Larry Sanger, a co-founder of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, wrote on Wednesday that he reported on alleged "child pornography" on the related media site Wikimedia Commons to the FBI and other authorities. He describes two categories — pedophilia and lolicon — of images on Wikimedia Commons which he asserts violates 18 USC §1466A of the United States Code.
The Lolicon category contains seven online images — four illustrations credited to a user named "Midnight68," one illustration credited to a Japanese Wikipedia administrator named "Kasuga," and two photographs of lolicon collections. The images in this category have not changed since April 2 (a week before Sanger reported on the site) and Sunday, and the illustrations do not come from published Japanese manga or anime.
18 USC §1466A is the same section of United States law for which Christopher Handley was prosecuted for possessing "obscene" manga. Wikimedia general counsel Mike Godwin responded to Sanger's letter by saying that this section deals with obscenity and not child pornography. Godwin asserts that material must meet the Miller test of community standards to be deemed legally obscene, and that Wikimedia Foundation is protected from liability as a computer service provider by the Communications Decency Act.
Sanger co-created Nupedia, the predecessor to Wikipedia, but he left the project in 2002 and has since created a rival site called Citizendium. Wikimedia Foundation is the parent organization of both Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
Source: The Register via Slashdot, Icarus Publishing
