Judgement is a matter of making distinctions.

There are many images of horrible violence which are not torture and some images where the violence isn't as apparent which I personally consider torture: sleep deprivation, bright lights in eyes, and continuous music (and I'm sooooo tempted to add whiney threads and bitchfests to the list ;^) ), however the TOS has specific words under the "no torture" clauses and when an image is reviewed by the team we have to look at those phrases when making a judgement.

Torture isn't just hurting and killing... it is done for perverse reasons such as extorting confessions or getting a sexual high or punishment/revenge/humiliation... and the deliberate and prolonged infliction of pain is more important than whether somebody dies or is dismembered. If they are dead they aren't suffering any more, and the torturer is no longer entertained.

In hunting, the infliction of pain is unusual. Trapping is another matter, but even there the infliction of pain isn't a goal. In warfare it is of lesser importance than just killing the enemy and adding a notch to the stick.

A gruesome image of a child with feet blown off from a land mine or napalmed and naked are not torture because nobody applied pain to those kids just to get their yucks. Casualities of war. A soldier with a hole in him from a bullet is no different. Casuality of war. A victim in an automobile accident or a plane crash can be just as shockingly wounded, but that is not torture, even if it took place on a battlefield.

So in an image... is somebody suffering? Why and how and for what reason? Did they voluntarily get into that position and can they get out? (bondage and sexplay issues) There are a LOT more questions than whether the image shows a dead body or shows somebody in manacles.

We do not pull images lightly: there has to be good justifiable reason... and the artist gets both an IM and an email stating the specific reason(s)... and there is always the possibility of review by an Admin if the artist disagrees with the decision of the team.

hauksdottir
Renderosity Moderator

Message edited on: 09/17/2004 07:33