:Ben Metcalfe Blog

Yahoo! Taiwan 2009 Hack Day Stripper-gate: an addendum

Yahoo! have been mopping up the PR fallout from the stripper show that occurred during the Yahoo! Taiwan 2009 Hack Day (if you missed the story, check out Violet Blue or Simon Willion’s posts).

Well, the plot thickens as the most damning photos of the event have mysteriously been removed from public viewing. Flickr user CocoChou had taken probably the most damning photos of the the stripping event and uploaded them to his Flickr set of the Hack Day under a Creative Commons license.

However, the 4 photos – which many blogs were embedding and linking to – have been made private in the past few hours, although curiously all of the other 72 photos from the event are still public.

It’s not clear whether Yahoo!, which of course owns Flickr, has put pressure on CocoChou to remove them or whether he removed them independently of any interference. However, it’s difficult to think of reasonable motivations why someone would remove these 4 particular photos from their original 80 and keep the rest up. I have, of course, emailed CocoChou to find out – and I’ll update this post if/when I hear back.

Fortunately I downloaded copies of these photos before they were removed, and in the public-spirited nature you’ve all come to know and love, I’ve re-uploaded them to my Flickr account. Of course I am able to do so legally as they were originally released under a Creative Commons license, which I have perpetuated:

Lap dance from Yahoo! Taiwan Hack Day 2009

Lap dance from Yahoo! Taiwan Hack Day 2009

Lap dance from Yahoo! Taiwan Hack Day 2009

Lap dance from Yahoo! Taiwan Hack Day 2009

6 comments
  1. Cheeky says: Wed, Oct 21st, 20097:03 pm

    Aren’t strippers by definition naked at some point? All I see are scantilly clad women.

  2. Clarke says: Thu, Oct 22nd, 20096:32 am

    Cheeky, as the owner of a well known directory site (think yahoo for strip clubs, LOL) I can confirm that they do indeed need to be naked at some point, otherwise they are just very enthusiastic dancers ;-)

    Have to say I been to a lot of online networking events in the UK that almost always end in a group of guys (and odd girls) heading to a lap dancing club, so I think Yahoo should be congratulated for putting the 2 together, fingers crossed the UK team are reading and making note :-)

  3. Yahoo Hack Day Girls Lap Dance | UK Strip Clubs Blog says: Thu, Oct 22nd, 20097:45 am
  4. Paulsom says: Sat, Oct 24th, 20099:33 pm

    Hi taiwan has been my favourite country i love it make it more snappy

  5. yoyok says: Sat, Nov 7th, 20097:16 am

    jossssssss

  6. nadeem says: Sat, Nov 28th, 20092:06 pm

    hello i like make frand

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