Hacker Remix

Ethically Sourced Lena Picture

46 points by dbaupp 11 months ago | 25 comments

nickthegreek 11 months ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35010229 (March 3, 2023 — 298 points, 217 comments)

johnea 11 months ago

Title is completely misleading. There was no ethics breach in sourcing the original Lena photo.

It should also be made explicit here, that for decades Lena herself had no issue with the photo or it's use in CS.

Other people began to complain, and Lena felt they had a point about exploitation of women, and agreed to back that cause.

defrost 11 months ago

> There was no ethics breach in sourcing the original Lena photo.

Aside from the mass copyright infringement?

eg: Optical Engineering, Vol. 31, Issue 1, (January 1992). Editorial: Copyright Problems https://doi.org/10.1117/12.60707

and every other public reproduction of a drum scan of a pulled apart Playboy centrefold.

sillysaurusx 11 months ago

I was going to object that the original had a complicated background and lots of contrasting colors (which is important when testing graphics algorithms), but this one actually fits the bill too. The background might be white, but there are still plenty of dark areas.

mainecoder 11 months ago

20 years later the person in the picture regrets his presence in the picture and for perpetuating micro toxic masculinity aggression by making light of the very situation the late brave Lena faced and suffered through her time and it is with this in mind that the person in the picture would no longer want to be included in hyper reality image research papers.

Arnt 11 months ago

Didn't she appear on stage at siggraph and say something very different? Citation needed.

jeffreygoesto 11 months ago

For reference: https://lenna.org

littlecranky67 11 months ago

I get a security warning about potential malicious website when trying to following that link from Firefox.

dist-epoch 11 months ago

> The certificate is not trusted because it is self-signed.

sillysaurusx 11 months ago

Ditto for safari, but I was able to click through. The website seems anything but malicious, so I wonder why.

jeffreygoesto 11 months ago

I guess getting a proper certificate was too much effort before LetsEncrypt and that site is pretty (pun, if you want) old...

pavel_lishin 11 months ago

Ah, if only Morten's name was Lenny...

11 months ago

rfl890 11 months ago

Sexy.

pointlessone 11 months ago

Lenny.png

11 months ago

tokai 11 months ago

What makes it ethically sourced? Both this and the original was taken with consent. Is it that noone will get horny from this new one? Because in that case I have bad news, some people love round bearded men.

But seriously, I don't understand how this is better than the original. They have the same issues.

telesilla 11 months ago

The original, which is for sure a lovely photo, is difficult because the image exists for a purpose which isolates, and simultaneously draws attention to, certain demographics. I recommended checking out Berger's series Ways of Seeing, which explains it a lot better than I can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ways_of_Seeing

I'm sure Lena could say she had the photo taken for herself and her own enjoyment of her beauty, however it was paid for by by a men's magazine so self-appreciation probably not what she or the photographer had in mind.

"Berger asserts that only twenty or thirty nudes in the European oil painting tradition depict a woman as herself rather than as a subject of male idealisation or desire."

benterix 11 months ago

> "Berger asserts that only twenty or thirty nudes in the European oil painting tradition depict a woman as herself rather than as a subject of male idealisation or desire."

I fully agree. Now, could you explain what is the problem with that?

archagon 11 months ago

If you care to do some reading: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze

benterix 11 months ago

I started reading but there is a lot of content with little substance and repeated phrases, with some debatable opinions like "because the woman does not have a penis, her female presence provokes sexual insecurity in the unconscious of the male, wherein women are passive recipients of male objectification."

Could you point out what is actually wrong with one person being attracted by another person?

lsb 11 months ago

The model rescinded her consent to be used as a technical benchmark photo, a while ago

geraldwhen 11 months ago

That’s not how that works. Internet history should not be destroyed because of prudism gained in old age.

sillysaurusx 11 months ago

Conversely, there’s nothing wrong with respecting someone’s choice.

I was going to write “No one’s stopping you from using Lenna,” but admittedly if you tried to submit a paper with it, you’d face a stiff headwind. I don’t think that’s her fault though.

speedgoose 11 months ago

We can also be nice.

lsb 11 months ago

The history is still there, in archives, and modern usage is what we’re talking about

TiredOfLife 11 months ago

No copyright infringement.

11 months ago