Content Most Foul: the British Library's Nanny Filter Blocks 'Hamlet'

An anonymous reader writes "A man using the British Library's public wi-fi found that access to an on-line copy of 'Hamlet' was blocked for 'violent content'. Now, it is true that 'Hamlet' is pretty violent (8 murders, including one before the play starts, plus one suicide). But the heavy-handed irony of a guardian of British cultural heritage censoring the greatest work of British literature is just too blatant to be ignored. Library staff initially didn't seem too interested in fixing the problem, but in the end they adjusted the filters."

Re:Not So

[radiumsoup]

Anon, Anon C., you should have posted non-anon.

/+5 cometh for thee (or something like that)

Why...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> "Library staff initially didn't seem too interested in fixing the problem, but in the end they adjusted the filters."

Nooooooooooo! They were trying to get kids thinking it was forbidden to them.

Re:Not So

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it also block it if it's in the original Klingon?

Re:Not So

[Anonymous Coward]

Aha! So it was really blocked for copyright infringement.

Re:Not So

[nukenerd]

The British version of this joke is about an American seeing the play, and complaining afterwards that the writer had merely strung a load of quotations together.

Oops, this is an American web site.

Re:Not So

[M. Baranczak]

Both King Lear and The Tempest are better plays.

The Tempest is merely a British remake of Gilligan's Island.