Outrageously Offended

I think there's a point at which words fail, and one simply clutches their sides, laughing absurdly while sighing at the same time.

I asked myself the same question Rose. Made no sense to me.

Well I guess we'll just have to take the pedophile's word on what his motivations were, kinda like we're gonna have to take your word on yours.

Does his "striving to create" art justify or even, in the teensiest tinyest bit, mitagte what he does? What if his photos are really really good?

how about with an explanation of how what you do DOESNT make you those things

LOL. That's simple, nobody responded to the points I made about Avie photos, but boy did they respond to my objections to "art" justifying bad behavior. Now I'm just wondering where you'd draw the line on the whole "artist breaks bad but promotes discussion of a very serious issue so the police should let him walk away," concept.

I felt it necessary to visit this "museum" in order to make certain no pictures of myself or my friends were on display. In doing so, I contributed to the parcel owner's dwell total. I feel this is extortion of dwell under the threat of public exposure of photos taken without permission. I've been griefed.

HMMMMM....Avatar genitilia verse pedophilia....how the hell does that even fit in the same equation?

Okay, I have to jump in to respond to this one. I would kick myself for not doing so.
If someone says that you are a greedy heartless tramp do you have to prove otherwise? Is that the "law"? Since when does anyone have to prove someone wrong of their moral accusations? Or were you just kidding?

Aestival, will you please get that i didn't break any rules?

There is a huge difference between bad behaviour and criminal action. Pedophilia is a crime.

Someone shooting ping pong balls from their vagina on stage could be considered an art form or bad behaviour - depending on the beholder. Provided that both the entertainer and the beholder are adults I do not believe this is criminal.

This is a far cry from pedophilia. Which is criminal any way you present it.

This thread is nearly as amusing as the game that my little sister and I used to play on long family car trips.

The game was called "I'm not touching you", and it involved my index finger, pointed at her arm, and well the goal, you see, was to see how close I could come to touching her arm, without actually touching her.

This was the first edition rules, of course, before our parents released the second edition expansion that included the new "Your side of the car seat" rules.

Oh, the fun we used to have.

The person shooting ping pong balls is fully aware that their vagina is veiwable in a public forum. I should know as I have been party to this sort of thing on occasion not with ping pong balls but with champagne. But it was my decision to make it public not someone elses.

Rose I am a bit suprised at you on this. If I made a representation of a native american which you believed in bad taste I am sure you would come out to complain but you think it is ok for a guy to create a digital representation of the exploitation of women....just makes me wonder.

We are still talking about a Virtual World here aren't we?
If you want privacy then don't log on to a public server.

Just my 2 cents.

again with the "if you don't agree with mei'll attack you". What a country.

It is not a public server. I for one pay a pretty penny to be on sl which makes it not so public, right.

No it is the if I don't agree with you I have the right to say it...and yes that makes it a great country.

Isis, do you pay for all the servers? It's public. When you buy a train ticket you don't get to start redecorating it do you? It's still public. Granted the laws are slightly different in real life...but this is not real life now is it? These are not physical people in this game now are they? No, they are virtual. I think people are just arguing for the sake of arguing when it comes to things like this.

Isis - I didn't say that I thought Taco's "art" was in good taste, I haven't seen it so I can't judge one way or the other.

Nor do I believe that pictures of vaginas exploit women. In fact, I think that the secrecy about a female body does more to exploit women than exposure. So the comparison to a digital representation of racism is not valid for me on this issue.

I believe that the REAL controversy on this issue is that Taco did not ask for permission from the Avatar before taking and displaying the photo of the Avatars genitalia. Not asking permission was by community standards, not very considerate, generally asshat behaviour. Though no one is really sure if it is against the TOS or not. Looks like we will find out considering all the controversy it has drawn.

My original point was that the Avatar is a digital representation of the person - sort of like a Barbie doll. I initially had a really difficult time understanding everyone's anger because it's not like it's a real person. Most AV's (mine included) don't even have genitals.

It appears though, that the Avatar has become greatly personified and as such, Taco should have considered the RL person behind the Avatar more. Certaintly I will in the future.

(Please don't construe this to indicate that I have ever taken photos of anyone without permission... well ok... there was that one of Lee Linden.... but.. but.. I HAD to have it.)

Your train argument is obtuse. Let someone on a train try this load of crap and see how far they get. This is not a public service. All here are subject to the terms of agreement and we all pay to use the service. And you know what I am a physical being and my avatar is a representative of who I am. Virtual or not. So are you saying that anything that you make I can steal and resell because it is all virtual right? What right do you have to say what I do with any pixels then?

Well that's close to my original point. Only mine was like, "I'm amazed anybody is surprised Avies are personified!".

We're not running around looking like video game army guys here, or like little cubes and balls. Avies are made to look, act, dress and interact with each other like people. We laugh, cry, wave, clap like people. The folks who go to the trouble to add vaginas (and penises) even want to have sex like real people! And to top it all off, WOW, what a surprise they're even played with by real people who have real emotions and real ideas of personal space and privacy!

Guess what nerdboys, there's real people in SL, not just the computer controlled bimbo's you're used to shooting in your other games!

I remember when I played Barbies, it was VERY important to me what the dolls were wearing, what they were wearing under their clothes and which other dolls got to see what and when. Guess what, it's still important to me! Sorry if you don't like it, or if you think my wanting all of my dolls to wear underpants is "reverse exploitive" or "submissive" or anything. Or to put it another way, don't shove your morality down my throat!

And don't invade my privacy!

You are right pics of vaginas do not exploit women but those who take them without the womans knowledge do. And it is valid Rose. If one thing is offensive to you based on racism and another is offensive to me based on sexism and folks being unknowingly exploited, how can you say that your idea of offensive is of greater import than mine?

Haha I just can't believe this dude took the time to take the pictures, make a museum for it, and then make a thread. Just makes me assume Taco is one sick fucker who probably gets off on bukkake or something haha.

Anyway, I've always felt the AV is just and AV. I wouldn't care if he took a pic of my crotch.

The question is, did Taco realize he was going to offend people by taking pictures without permission? If he did all this, not caring whether he would piss people off or possibly knowing for sure that this would piss people off, then it's a matter of respect. I wouldn't go out of my way of doing a project knowing it would cause an uproar.

As for the whole thing about this being about art, I assume it's not. I'm just assuming Taco is just a perv and that's that.

Whether we find display of the pictures acceptable or offensive, informed consent remains the community issue.

/sigh And I thought I got too involved with SL. Jeez people. Taco didn't climb under your desk in RL and take pics of your top-secret panties and vaginas. He took some up the skirt pics of AVs representing females in public areas of SL. Damn..take some deep breaths and smile. I mean really. Get a grip! As muich as some of us would wish otherwise, they are pixels and those panties and vaginas were created by other SL residents. You can go to a vendor and flip through it and see those same attachments/skin/tats in many public SL malls. Because they are attached to you, or someone you know, that makes them suddenly private and secret and no-peeky? and once again.../sigh

I think you did.

How about you please answer my last question? Or did you already figure out where it's going? That no amount of wrapping yourself up the flag of "art" is going to excuse the inevitable consensus that you're a creep who's violated people's privacy in almost the most invasive and intrusive way you could do SL. Then you went out of your way to get a reaction.