Free speech, open source software, and non-consensual pornographic references

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

Interesting and sad:

All’s well that ends well… unless you’re one of the few perverts on the internet (I speak for myself, and never for you, innocent readers) and you happen to know who Misaka is in regard to anything related to upskirts and panty-shots.

While the PyPi community was having deep, worrying discussions about how to avoid censorship and ostracizing individuals, Mr. Smit decided to be a clever boy.

Smit re-named Pantyshot/Upskirt after a Japanese name. Not just any name, but popularly belonging to an Anime (adult comics) character whose superpower is electricity, and is controversial due to notorious upskirt shots of the character – most especially as she is depicted as being 11 years old.

Search for Misaka and upskirt, and you’ll get a Chilling Effects message from Google about the removal of alleged child porn from their search results.

When challenged about the new name in the comments, Smit responded:

Still no satisfied with the rename? How? I did not explain in public what I meant with Misaka.

It depends on how you interpret it, but it’s just a Japanese name. Like the name of my other Python module, Momoko.

Anyway, I chose a normal name this time. Linking it to other possible offensive is your own doing.

Depending on how you interpret it, Smit is using “just a Japanese name” for his package.

Like Momoko, who could be Momoko the Japanese porn star (AV Idol), or Momoko the coquettish 19-year-old Japanese female pop singer, or Momoko the 13-year-old Japanese Anime character. Just don’t “interpret” Momoko along with the term upskirt on Google or you’ll get the same Chilling Effects child pornography warning.

I’m sure it’s all a coincidence. Though I am a bit bitter that I’ve Googled an open source software package’s name(s) and now there are illegal porn term instances in my search history.

The PyPi community does not have an easy road with this. If someone’s offended, a cry of censorship can make even the most sensible community moderators back away from problems. (Not that, to my knowledge, the Cheese Shop has seen many software packages with names like Manhole or Tinypenis.)

At the same time, as we’re seeing with the News of the World/Murdoch/phone hacking scandal, some will always exist that feel they’re smarter than the rest of us, and don’t need to worry about other people’s problems with their actions – as long as they get theirs. If we don’t think it’s okay, we’re interpreting it wrong, and that’s just our problem.

But in an open source community, I kind of think it’s everyone’s problem.