A person posing as a new open source contributor, Nils Dagsson Moskopp aka erlehmann, introduced himself on the mailing list debian-devel-games.
Further discussions introduced the idea that a particular work of interactive fiction, "Unteralterbach" should be included in Debian. Some list members played the game, which has content and plotlines which reportedly include disturbing in-game actions and graphic representations of sex with children. More discussion of this spread to debian-women and debian-legal.
It seems that there was no serious push to include the offensive game. But quite a few people wasted their time and energy having to argue about artistic representations of child abuse on a large open source project, since some list members defended the idea. In some cases, swayed by arguments about free speech, anti-censorship, artistic merit, and attempting to prove they were not prudish, people became co-opted into being participants in a disgusting joke, perpetrators of a needlessly hostile environment to a disturbing degree. The original troll was laying the trail for a long performative mailing list flame war. It is important to note the patterns here in order to recognize them in future.
Contents
Links
- Upstream: http://unteralterbach.net
- Harm done by discussion itself: https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/03/msg00066.html
I ask everyone involved to take it into account that we're hurting actual people that are part of the project just by having this debate.
Warning
- Sam Kuper warns of censorship: https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/03/msg00039.html
My point was that if legal (in some jurisdictions) and literary discussions of abuse are completely excluded from Debian, then an act of censorship has been performed, which may itself be viewed as a real - though different - harm.
- Bas Wijnen defends the game and its possible inclusion since Nils is a "well-mannered person". https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/03/msg00055.html
- No serious consideration given to this by Debian core team: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-games/2014/03/msg00016.html
Origin
Origin of the game: https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/03/msg00051.html
Bernd And The Mystery Of Underageville is a game by, and for, a German-language 4chan-style image board, Krautchan.
Description of game
https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2014/03/msg00051.html
This is a game where you play a paedophile. The aim is to rape local little girls, whilst evading the authorities. Success is rewarded with graphic scenes of sex with children, failure with being thrown in prison. The sex content is only optional in the sense that you can out yourself to the authorities and get thrown in jail rather than continue with the actual game content. Where "game content" consists of a few hundred drawn images of graphic sex acts with children. "
