microsoft censors art
Tuesday, 5. February 2008, 07:52:56
unbeleivable that live spaces has notified me demanding that i delete the nudes on my site
http://0007artists.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0
but they are so confused that they also, at the same time blocked me from doing so... i spent some time trying to communicate with them.... now to hell with them. anything i ever say to microsoft comes back to me in a form letter with arcane instructions about messing with my registry... who can follow those instructions. even when you do it just messes things up worse.
i give up on them.
their email:
SRX1054323560ID - Windows Live Spaces Warning - Action Required (0007artists)
From: Microsoft Customer Support (SPACE.WNLV.WW.00.EN.SYK.MNL.AU.T02.SPT.00.EM@css.one.microsoft.com)
Sent:
Tue 1/01/08 9:36 PM
To:
i_artman@hotmail.com
Hello i_artman,
We have found images involving nudity on your Space, 0007artists.
Kindly remove this image and any other images, messages or links on your Space that violate the Windows Live Spaces Code of conduct within 48 hours.
Violations include, but are not limited to, nudity, partial nudity, pornography, harassment, and illegal or offensive behavior. For a complete description of content that is not allowed on Windows Live Spaces, please visit our Code of Conduct at: http://spaces.live.com/coc.aspx
If you remove all violating content, your space will again be in accordance with the Windows Live Spaces Code of Conduct, and will remain accessible for your use. Otherwise, we will be forced to close down your space.
You may delete photos from your Space by following these instructions:
1. Log into your Space
2. Click on the "Edit Your Space" link (upper right portion of the page)
3. Click "Options"
4. Click on the "Storage" link in the Options pane
5. Select the images to be removed
6. Click on "Delete selected items"
Thank you for helping Windows Live Spaces provide a friendly and safe experience for all of our customers.
Sincerely,
Windows Live Spaces Customer Support
my first response before i even tried to fix it to their satisfaction:
dear microsoft,
i really can't believe that you have found anything salacious among my paintings. i am a fully schooled fine artist. the world has never objected to nudity in fine art. you might as well close down the metropolitan museum of art in new york or the art institute of chicago. even the louvre in paris is chock full of nude sculptures and paintings.
please take another look and hopefully, you will revise this monumental blunder for microsoft.
http://0007artists.spaces.live.com/
take a look at my paintings at :
http://www.hungryeyegraphics.com
http://my.opera.com/I_ArtMan
poetry too....
do let me know what you decide.
sincerely,
scott cumming (I_ArtMan)
some of you have seen the harmless paintings they are censoring.
i just want to know how microsoft can host real pornography on the internet and censor me.
http://0007artists.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0
but they are so confused that they also, at the same time blocked me from doing so... i spent some time trying to communicate with them.... now to hell with them. anything i ever say to microsoft comes back to me in a form letter with arcane instructions about messing with my registry... who can follow those instructions. even when you do it just messes things up worse.
i give up on them.
their email:
SRX1054323560ID - Windows Live Spaces Warning - Action Required (0007artists)
From: Microsoft Customer Support (SPACE.WNLV.WW.00.EN.SYK.MNL.AU.T02.SPT.00.EM@css.one.microsoft.com)
Sent:
Tue 1/01/08 9:36 PM
To:
i_artman@hotmail.com
Hello i_artman,
We have found images involving nudity on your Space, 0007artists.
Kindly remove this image and any other images, messages or links on your Space that violate the Windows Live Spaces Code of conduct within 48 hours.
Violations include, but are not limited to, nudity, partial nudity, pornography, harassment, and illegal or offensive behavior. For a complete description of content that is not allowed on Windows Live Spaces, please visit our Code of Conduct at: http://spaces.live.com/coc.aspx
If you remove all violating content, your space will again be in accordance with the Windows Live Spaces Code of Conduct, and will remain accessible for your use. Otherwise, we will be forced to close down your space.
You may delete photos from your Space by following these instructions:
1. Log into your Space
2. Click on the "Edit Your Space" link (upper right portion of the page)
3. Click "Options"
4. Click on the "Storage" link in the Options pane
5. Select the images to be removed
6. Click on "Delete selected items"
Thank you for helping Windows Live Spaces provide a friendly and safe experience for all of our customers.
Sincerely,
Windows Live Spaces Customer Support
my first response before i even tried to fix it to their satisfaction:
dear microsoft,
i really can't believe that you have found anything salacious among my paintings. i am a fully schooled fine artist. the world has never objected to nudity in fine art. you might as well close down the metropolitan museum of art in new york or the art institute of chicago. even the louvre in paris is chock full of nude sculptures and paintings.
please take another look and hopefully, you will revise this monumental blunder for microsoft.
http://0007artists.spaces.live.com/
take a look at my paintings at :
http://www.hungryeyegraphics.com
http://my.opera.com/I_ArtMan
poetry too....
do let me know what you decide.
sincerely,
scott cumming (I_ArtMan)
some of you have seen the harmless paintings they are censoring.
i just want to know how microsoft can host real pornography on the internet and censor me.
(15%)
By KYren, # 5. February 2008, 08:57:17
By I_ArtMan, # 5. February 2008, 10:09:13
Christians have made such a big deal out of sex that you can lie through your teeth, steal anything you want, cheat a cashier, break the law by speeding or cheating on your taxes and no one cares as long as you are not screwing someone you shouldn't. In fact, most people who do all of the above would consider themselves "Good Christians" because they aren't cheating on their spouse but in a true Biblical sense, telling a little white lie is just as serious an offense as killing another human, regardless of who you are screwing.
This form of censorship is smiply misplaced morality. If you get on the bandwagon and shut down an artist for painting a nude, then maybe God won't notice you cheated on your taxes.
So, Bill Gates, et al, are the real losers. You can still post your art here at Opera without fear of censorship.
I am a HUGE fan of the 1st Amendment and abhor censorship in any form. I may not like what someone has to say, but I will defend their right to say it.
Good job on the paintings by the way!
K4
By KayFour, # 5. February 2008, 11:24:46
My opinion is that the microsoft employees that came up with and enforced this is a bunch of bureaucrats following other bureaucrats because if they don't they won't have a paycheck and will be living under a bridge somewhere.
Artman, your art is beautiful and in extremely good taste.
Is there any way we can help? Can we complain to Microsoft?? Truthfully, I got so fed up with them, the last computer I bought was an Apple.
By cakkleberrylane, # 5. February 2008, 12:55:04
NO a la censura en internet !!!!!!!!!!!
By anonymous user, # 5. February 2008, 12:59:35
By enlacesatspace, # 5. February 2008, 13:02:04
By arte_optico, # 5. February 2008, 13:04:34
It is so Microsoft...
I am glad you brought your art here.
By FoxM, # 5. February 2008, 14:53:25
Screw 'em, Scott.
By noah counte, # 5. February 2008, 16:06:55
By artewebs, # 5. February 2008, 17:53:55
free internet! sin censuras y sin microsoft. screw 'em. the human body is beautiful.
my paintings are not designed to titilate, but to celebrate perfection.
By I_ArtMan, # 5. February 2008, 19:56:54
From the very beginning, the nude plays an essential role in the artistic creation. Inherited from Greeks who saw in the representation of the naked bodies the expression of the human perfection...
Keep up the good work Scott
Liu
By Liu, # 5. February 2008, 20:08:10
By I_ArtMan, # 5. February 2008, 20:38:43
By wickedlizard, # 5. February 2008, 22:21:21
By SqueakeyCat, # 5. February 2008, 22:42:14
By I_ArtMan, # 5. February 2008, 23:17:52
MONEY
if they can't get urs, they don't want your good art there, they will keep the porn instead
By SqueakeyCat, # 6. February 2008, 00:59:35
By noah counte, # 6. February 2008, 01:14:46
By I_ArtMan, # 6. February 2008, 01:22:21
By noah counte, # 6. February 2008, 01:37:01
1) Info on how to make a bomb
2) Info on how to hack into someones personal info to obtain their credit card #'s, so they can spend all your money. (I think this is called Identity Fraud)
3) Allow autopsy photos to be viewed (of someones loved one) for others entertainment.
I may be mistaken, but isn't the rule, if you don't like what you're watching...turn the channel?
Re: posts...if you don't like what your reading and find it objectionable...there IS a button on the mouse that is easily clicked and different content can be viewed?
We DO have RIGHTS and I would not allow anyone to dictate what content is displayed on my blog or on a website.
I guess saying the word F..K is OK as long as you are not explaining how it is done????
This is totally ridiculous. And it's wrong. And they have crossed the line.
And, if allowed to continue to cross the line, most blogs will be shut down.
And then, well, I guess it's also OK to have words of ignorance spewed from these religous fanatics, sentencing you to an eternity of fire and brimstone if one does not worship as they do?
I suppose this sort of content is totally acceptable!?!?!?
But an expression of beauty and love of that beauty, condemns you to a public ousting? Belittles your intelligence, misrepresents your compassion and insults you in such a degrading way...your great talent???
PETITION TIME
By JilleeBean, # 6. February 2008, 03:25:24
they are still keeping me waiting for an answer to my answer to 'tania' the name on the execution of censure from microsoft. now i know why they call it micro soft. something over there is soft.
By I_ArtMan, # 6. February 2008, 04:56:28
By wickedlizard, # 6. February 2008, 11:16:07
All of which makes me wonder if you'd get in trouble for paintings where the walls have skin tones, while the people are fully dressed?
By noah counte, # 6. February 2008, 12:29:53
Microsoft are insane
By RuneSB, # 6. February 2008, 15:04:04
I will definitely see that as the finest compliment I could ever receive,
By ricewood, # 6. February 2008, 20:15:04
that's a wild theory but amusing.
thanks rune... i know you have good taste.
allan,
if i weren't so irritated i might be complimented. still haven't heard from them. they are laying low... i give up on microsoft. there are plenty of other places to show my work.
By I_ArtMan, # 6. February 2008, 21:56:20
Heaven forbid people with taste would atually make judgment calls! I guess it's easier to to draw a brightline than to use common sense.
By noah counte, # 7. February 2008, 00:28:48
Very interesting, from an Artificial Intelligence Point Of View...
By FoxM, # 7. February 2008, 00:37:03
By cakkleberrylane, # 7. February 2008, 00:40:22
By noah counte, # 7. February 2008, 00:46:55
if it is commonly accepted as for the common good that panjandrums busy themselves with minding everyone else's business, except their own, we are in big trouble.
By I_ArtMan, # 7. February 2008, 04:46:26
We have found images involving nudity on your Space, 0007artists."
so,
involving: definition.
4 b. american heritage dictionery:
To influence or affect: The matter is serious because it involves your reputation.
looks like a good class action pro bono lawyer might make a reputation sparring with the supreme court. and get some millions for me in damages to my reputation. you decide... is beauty in the eyes of the beholder subverted by lasciviousness?
no.
beauty is a prime force; a causal imperative. and craving is a disease.
i will be glad to help. my a+ dissertation at columbia university musters a good bibliography on pornograhy and the law. esp. cockburn... look it up... it's not a pun.
even if my visual poems to the beauty of the body were deemed illegal by law, it would still be thrown out of court. cf. d.h. lawrence... "pornography and the law" .
that fundamentalists are making a last ditch effort to take over the world, whether it be christian or moslem (the only ambitious religions). but there will always be people who think for themselves. and they will have children who are free to gather information and decide without coercion what is real and what is fantasy.
By I_ArtMan, # 7. February 2008, 08:39:38
it's so useful, just pretend it's porn and censor it.
in Hongkong, they even censored michelangelo's David.
"to protect the children" you know.
on TV, you can kil people and show dead bodies or free violence but never EVER show a mother's breast. That's porn.
good luck Artman, keep fighting.
By pfelelep, # 7. February 2008, 12:09:31
http://my.opera.com/pfelelep/blog/nudity
Artists vs the World, those were the days...
By pfelelep, # 7. February 2008, 17:37:44
Ironic how we can watch people being blown up, beheadings and children being abused and it's called news or entertainment, yet you cannot post your beautiful paintings that show the grace and beauty of the world.
By sanshan, # 7. February 2008, 17:50:11
but the draperies are still there, aren't they?)
By pfelelep, # 7. February 2008, 17:56:14
By sanshan, # 7. February 2008, 17:57:12
nice drawings pfelelep... you know exactly why it's not pornogrphy.
By I_ArtMan, # 7. February 2008, 18:10:18
"In coincidenza con la morte di Michelangelo, venne emessa una legge per coprite i genitali ("Pictura in Cappella Ap.ca coopriantur"). Così Daniele da Volterra, un apprendista di Michelangelo che dopo questo lavoro venne soprannominato "Braghettone", coprì i genitali delle figure con delle specie di perizomi, lasciando inalterato il complesso dei corpi. Quando l'opera venne restaurata nel 1993, i restauratori scelsero di non rimuovere i perizomi di Daniele; comunque, una copia fedele e senza censure dell'originale, di Marcello Venusti, è oggi a Napoli al Museo di Capodimonte."
Translation:
After Michelangelo's death a law was made to cover the genitalia in the affresco. Daniele da Volterra, who was an apprentice of Michelangelo's, covered the genitalia with relatively small pants saving the shape of the bodies and he was nicknamed "Braghettone" (big pants) after that. In 1993 during the conservative precedures made on the painting it was decided to leave the pants in place instead of removing them. A copy of the original, whithout the censorship, made by Marcello Venusti, is in Naples in the Museum of Capodimonte.
By LorenzoCelsi, # 7. February 2008, 18:23:40
By RuneSB, # 7. February 2008, 18:33:53
runesb, i guess the christian chinese are in control of hong kong.
By I_ArtMan, # 7. February 2008, 18:56:03
By LorenzoCelsi, # 7. February 2008, 20:36:34
http://www.hungryeyegraphics.com
By I_ArtMan, # 7. February 2008, 20:40:09
As artist you probably know you can't please everybody. MS maybe is a little conservative and/or don't want to "rate" the contents in order to avoid to be sued by some religious group and such.
There are also some tactics, for example #3 picture is probably more "classical nude" that the others.
By LorenzoCelsi, # 7. February 2008, 20:54:40
By I_ArtMan, # 7. February 2008, 23:28:42
What am I doing wrong?
When I searched with the link, I get an error message...DOES NOT EXIST???
This really has my juices flowing because I have read the so-called Code of Conduct and I see nothing that would put you in violation.
Jillee
By JilleeBean, # 8. February 2008, 03:59:19
well, yesterday, i reported my inability to get in and delete the offending pictures as a bug. i haven't heard from them about that either. so it's kind of strange.
By I_ArtMan, # 8. February 2008, 04:09:14
Jillee is still going to voice her opinion!
You're my buddy, ArtMan!!!
By JilleeBean, # 8. February 2008, 04:42:57
By I_ArtMan, # 8. February 2008, 07:25:31