back to article YouTube clasps naked dancer to bosom

It's official: smut is now allowed on YouTube – so long as it's artistic smut. And with this recognition that not everything that is naked is evil, YouTube appears to have scored one up on the slightly more straitlaced types over at Facebook. More seriously, by instituting a formal appeals process, it may have set the ball …

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  1. Red Bren
    Paris Hilton

    Titling?

    It probably doesn't mean what I think it means...

    1. IR

      Ditto

      It wasn't just me then!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could do with some [NSFW] tags there really...

    Although I guess it depends where you work.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      FFS

      There should be a point when enough is enough. What's next?

      Declaring the Madonna of Bruges to be a paedo image?

    2. Bryce Prewitt
      FAIL

      Cool story bro

      Really, dude? In an article all about how Youtube is now allowing nudity you don't automatically assume that the links are to said examples of now-allowed nudity?

      You're either a troll or a numpty, your pick.

    3. Ken 16 Silver badge
      Pint

      What's the National Schools Film Week got to do with it?

      cue recursive humour; http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/13/film_week/

      What happens on the _tag stays on the _tag

  3. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Coat

    and now for something completely different...

    I suppose Robert Mapplethorpe is running out the door for a vid cam right now.

    Could the Wiki-leaked footage of Apache pilots mowing down journalists and civilians be considered a performance piece on man's inhumanity toward man?

    "A sensible man knows you can't please everybody. A wise man knows you can't please anybody." -Richard Needham

  4. Arbuthnot Darjeeling

    what

    is a one syllable word that means 'statue'?

    1. Anonymous Bastard
      Boffin

      One syllable words

      "Piece of art"

    2. Andrew Newstead

      maybe...

      bit o rock?

    3. bluesxman
      Go

      RE: what

      "bust"

      That might not make it past the censors either.

  5. Shades
    WTF?

    Am I the only one...

    ...that is a little concerned that "YouTube" decided to specifically mention titling/tagging video's with 'Human Rights' and 'Police Abuse'? Someone cynical would think that this suggestion is to make it easy for relevant "authorities" to find them and flag them (and get them removed). No-one here at El Reg is THAT cynical, is there?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Internal Semiotics

    Well they let gross out stuff stay up by calling it art so I guess Boobies are the least of it.

    (Paris, obviously)

  7. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    Does it contain cherubs or large urns?

    “Nude women are only Art if there’s an urn in it,” said Fred Colon. This sounded weak even to him, so he added, “or a plinth. Both is best, o’ course. It’s a secret sign, see, that they put in to say that it’s Art and okay to look at.”

    “What about a potted plant?”

    “That’s okay if it’s in an urn.”

    - Thud by Terry Pratchett

  8. Just Thinking

    Art my ar*e

    It's a naked woman rolling about in mud. Nothing wrong with that, but art?

    Need an ART? icon

  9. Bill Neal
    WTF?

    Painting?

    So if I were to paint erotic art of a Simpsons nature, that would be alright on koobface, err, facebook?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Those pesky thoughts again

    It seems we are once again rating something, not by what it actaully contains or is, but by what you are thinking about when viewing it.

    Truly bizarre.

  11. Jim Coleman
    Flame

    Erm...

    Can someone remind me why a child shouldn't see naked people? Children see naked animals, and sometimes their naked parent(s). What is so wrong with the human body that kids mustn't see it? What does this teach them? That nakedness, rather than being perfectly natural and healthy, is somehow wrong?

    Is this part of the Christian Legacy? Can we move on from that now?

    There's a yawning gulf between a kid seeing pictures of a naked person and child abuse, you know.

    1. peyton?
      Paris Hilton

      Having sex is also natural

      Are you saying there should not be age restrictions on pornography?

      1. Graham Marsden
        FAIL

        Look at a bit of history...

        ... for the vast majority of their existence humans have lived in one room dwellings with a whole extended family, parents, grandparents, teenagers, children all in the same space. Do you think mummy and daddy turfed everyone else out when they wanted to make a new baby?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Well, to call your bluff...

        ...why -should- there be?

      3. Cunningly Linguistic

        @Peyton: Define...

        ...pornography?

        1. peyton?

          re: @Peyton: Define..

          Well, to be frank, that definition is immaterial to the argument of "if it's natural, it's ok to be viewed by all", which is what I took issue with.

          However, to your point, no one will be more surprised than I when a fully, and exclusively, objective definition of what constitutes the line that must be crossed for nudity to also be pornography, is arrived at. So why rag on a site that says "someone else can fight that fight, we'll just ban it all and not bother with all those mucky law suits thank you very much". It really has nothing to do with perceptions of morality. Kudos to youtube and all, but congratulations may be premature - this will first have to survive the courts if the lawyers find an angle to cash in on, to be called a success.

      4. Rattus Rattus

        Nudity =/= pornography

        Which is, in fact, what YouTube are saying.

        On the other hand - "No it's not a grumble flick, guv, it's art. Nude performance art."

  12. Graham Bartlett

    @Nonesuch

    If the dead are rising from the grave, I suspect that smut is (briefly) not going to be the biggest concern on the internet.

    Although if the zombies are marching through the mall moaning "WEBBBCAAAAMMMMSSS" instead of "BRRRAAAIIIINNNSSSS", you're probably safe.

  13. Oninoshiko
    Paris Hilton

    I don't get it.

    I don't understand this at all. The EFF and NCAC's opinion seems to be that everyone with a internet connected computer should have to use it to spread every opinion.

    This is a private company saying "you cannot post this on our servers" that seems to be their right. I could see if it was some government, that's a whole other matter, but Google (YouTube) should be able to censor themselves in whatever random way they want.

    If these artists want to exhibit their art, they are free to put up their own web server to do it on.

    Freedom of the press is not freedom to my press.

    1. JDB
      Thumb Up

      YES

      I cannot vote this post up high enough. It's not censorship when it's private industry - it's choice.

    2. Steve Roper
      FAIL

      So...

      when TV stations and newspaper censor or slant the news to an agenda that's OK is it, because it's YOUR TV station, YOUR rules? So if Google, which all but controls the Internet these days, decides to remove your website from their search results for whatever reason they like, forcing you into bankruptcy because you've just lost all your traffic, that's OK is it? So you think big corporations should just be able to do what the fuck they feel like, because they're private entities and aren't bound by the freedoms enshrined in a number of constitutions, right?

      Anyone with an IQ higher than that of a flatworm would realise that as an organisation becomes bigger it SHOULD become more publically accountable. Otherwise - well, do the words "corporate dictatorship" mean anything to you? Probably not.

      I hope for humanity's sake that you two idiots haven't reproduced.

      1. Oninoshiko
        Headmaster

        I do love doing this...

        >when TV stations and newspaper censor or slant the news to an agenda that's OK is it,

        >because it's YOUR TV station, YOUR rules?

        Television and radio use the public airways, due to limited bandwidth, regulation of public airways is appropriate. Newspapers slant their reporting all the time.

        >So if Google, which all but controls the Internet these days,

        we declared Google owner of the internet? did I miss the memo?

        >decides to remove your website from their search results for whatever reason they like, forcing

        >you into bankruptcy because you've just lost all your traffic, that's OK is it?

        1) Not all sites are for-profit

        2) Google (to my knowledge) is not even being accused of this (what they actively host on youtube is nowhere near the same as what their search engine links to)

        3) The amount of distrust of their results if they where ever caught doing the hypothetical you suggest would remove whatever percentage of a REAL monopoly they have

        >So you think big corporations should just be able to do what the fuck they feel like, because

        >they're private entities

        BEAUTIFUL strawman! I want to point out how well crafted it is!

        Not once did I say google (or any other corporation, for that matter) "should be able to do what the fuck they feel like." What I DID say was that the content they put up on their web-site should be their choice, just as the content I put on mine is my choice.

        >and aren't bound by the freedoms enshrined in a number of

        >constitutions, right?

        You will have to explain to me this concept of being "bound by freedoms." This really seems an almost Orwellian phrase (and gives me the willies). "Freedom is slavery" see the overwhelming similarities?

        No, governments are (in theory (if you need to know why I say it's a theory, ask the Chinese about Article 35)) bound by the limitations of their respective constitutions. These limitations on governments are to limit the ability to pass blatantly unjust laws. Furthermore, choosing not to express an idea is, in and of itself, the expression of an idea (namely your lack of affirmation of the idea you are not expressing).

        >Anyone with an IQ higher than that of a flatworm would realise that as an organisation

        >becomes bigger it SHOULD become more publically accountable. Otherwise - well, do the

        >words "corporate dictatorship" mean anything to you? Probably not.

        >I hope for humanity's sake that you two idiots haven't reproduced.

        I want to compliment your use of argumentum ad hominem here. Well done, sir!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    so...

    how does this explain why "goosh goosh" is still on youtube?

    1. Geoffrey W
      WTF?

      Good grief

      Thanks SOOOOO much for pointing me at that!

      Since there is so much discussion and controversy about naked female breasts surely there must be a huge world toppling war going on over *That* video? I suppose context is everything but there is no context to this video other than what it contains. Why is this allowed and some harmless breasts are only allowed after appeal and justification? The human race is pathetic. I'm off back to the trees.

  15. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Happy

    Balls!

    Yeah my mates have a few "artistic collections" stored in various TrueCrypt volumes to keep them from the Missus and the kids!

    Judging by the chav mentality of most of the YouTube audience, fat chance of seeing any naked flesh that even remotely resembles art!

    Naked flesh + video + YouTube = Porn! Simples!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    ART tags

    I look forward to the future REG articles with ART tags

  17. Cunningly Linguistic
    Paris Hilton

    Ahhh...

    ...so that's why American became "Merkin".

    All that organic dental floss... shudder.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    The difference between art and pornograhy

    What's the difference between art and pornography?

    If it's out of focus, it's art

    If it's in focus, it's pornography

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