On UK’s Radio 4 this morning was an interesting discussion about the application of censorship.  Wikipedia, has been subjected to a degree of censorship for having included some album art work by the band The Scorpions which was released back in 1976.  The first version of the cover to Virgin Killer is a poor image of a naked young girl (but can be found on the internet if you want to form your own opinion), and the band where told that at the time, so made an alternative cover available.   I understand that it is possible to purchase a copy of the album with the first verion of the artwork, and tha art work has never been withdrawn.

It is worth noting now that the image concerned is no more explicit than Nirvana’s Nevermind, or Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. The only difference is that these two alternative’s are in my opinion artistically far better, but that is only an opnion.

However as wikipedia included the image and information about the  group and included the artwork the Internet Watch Foundation have been directing ISPs to block the page. There is more information here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpions_(band)#Controversy. The crazy thing about the situation is both the uneven application of the guidance and the fact that it has only taken until now for the foundation to determine that the artwork breaches a 1978 act, and that other sites do not appear to be subject to the restrictions yet.