Re: scripts to download porn in Debian?

[Sam Watkins <swatkins@fastmail.fm>]

On Sat, Jan 29, 2005 at 07:59:14AM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
> The average girl would rather have beauty than brains because she
> knows that the average man can see much better than he can think.
> Ladies' Home Journal

Your sig quote seems strangely appropriate to this thread, Ron.

I was trying to address two issues.  Unfortunately few people seem to
understand these points.  They have probably been watching too much
porn.


1. People (including children) will get a nasty surprise when they
   choose to download all the comics to see what is available.

   This is NOT a censorship issue, but a matter of appropriate
   packaging.  The way it is, it's like having a XXX magazine hidden
   among the comic-books in a newsagent.

   A "dosage-off" package would solve this problem, as would a
   config-file that completely disables certain offensive comics, with
   reasons given.  We could use similar standards to those used for
   "fortunes-off".  (e.g. racist comics would also be "off")

   This issue has already been explored, please don't post about it any
   more.


2. Should Debian publish highly offensive content which is DFSG free?

   I say "no".  There are limits to what is acceptable in Debian.
   The anarchist FAQ is acceptable.  The bible is acceptable.
   A package of hardcore pictures is obviously not acceptable,

   Supposing I were to assemble a collection of public-domain porn,
   would that be allowed to be included in Debian?  Of course not.
   Apart from anything else, we wouldn't be able to distribute the CDs
   freely.  I don't see "hot-babe" in sid yet, either.

   I seriously doubt that "smutfest: 1001 porn downloader scripts"
   would be approved for inclusion either.  That probably wouldn't be
   legal to distribute to minors either.  In that case, it couldn't go
   on the CDs.  (If it did, it would be illegal to sell them from
   ordinary shops in many parts of the world, e.g. Australia.)
   I don't know where the law stands on this, but I think it is
   borderline, it would probably be illegal to distribute
   porn-downloader scripts to minors (over the counter) in many parts of
   the world, therefore it could not go on our CDs.

   The Sexy Losers script without a doubt falls in that category (it is
   a script for downloading hardcore porn).  It should not be in Debian.

   This is also NOT an issue of censorship, nor is it a question of
   trying to protect children.  Obviously any child or adult who wants
   porn can get it off the internet.  The difficulty in modern society
   is for anyone who wants to avoid porn, one would have to walk around
   with eyes shut.

   It is an issue of Debian's public reputation, and of the law.  Does
   Debian wish to be associated with pornography, to implicitly approve
   it, by including programs designed to download and view it, or
   including actual pornographic content?  pornview, hot-babe and
   dailystrips / dosage's Sexy Losers scripts are apparently "okay"
   according to many Debian developers.  I disagree.


Another issue - if a script is designed specifically to download
non-free content, shouldn't it go in contrib?  According to Debian's
official view that anything made of bits is software, the scripts to
fetch the comics should go in contrib.  Please correct me if I'm wrong
about that.