It’s 2008 — how is it the Scorpions are still in the news? The Guardian has an update on the controversy surrounding the Wikipedia article on this best-forgotten relic of Euro-metal’s glory days:
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says it is still reconsidering whether its ban should remain on the image of a young girl used on the Scorpions’ album Virgin Killer – after that ban prevented a number of British users accessing Wikipedia.
A spokeswoman for the IWF said that to her knowledge it was the first time in its decade-long history that any image or page banned by the IWF had been reassessed, and the first time that any page or image on Wikipedia had been banned. Normally the IWF bans more than 10,000 images and associated web pages every year.
The ban is being reconsidered under the IWF’s appeals and correction procedures.
Here’s a take from the always-interesting Mike Godwin, general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation and formerly of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
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. We believe it’s worth noting that the image is currently visible on Amazon, where the album can be freely purchased by UK residents. It is available on thousands of websites that are accessible to the UK public.