Ogrish.com
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ogrish.com was a website which presented uncensored 'news coverage' and multimedia material based for the most part on war, accidents, executions, and crimes. Much of the material depicted is generally considered offensive (uncensored real gory videos and images). The content was depicted as a means to challenge the viewer, with its catch line being 'Uncover Reality'. The site now redirects to liveleak.com, a domain registered in October 2006 featuring mostly user submitted material and allowing the embedding of media on other sites.
The site was a source of major controversy. It hosted many graphic videos of violent events (most notably terrorist attacks), often without the permission of the families of the people shown. This has led to heated arguments concerning the rights of the people pictured and the nature of the pictures and videos on the site. An example of this was in September of 2005, when graphic pictures of Hurricane Katrina victims were posted on the site without the families' consent. Also in 2002, graphic pictures and videos of the infamous jumpers of the September 11, 2001 attacks were displayed in the site.
In August 2005, German watchdog Jugendschutz contacted the local branch of telecommunications company Level 3 about Ogrish, whose IP address was then blocked in Germany. Since several ISPs connect through the blocked Level 3 connection in Frankfurt, Germany other countries outside of Germany are also affected by this block, including: Netherlands, France, Poland, Italy and Switzerland. The Youth Protection group found that the provider violated German legislation that requires websites to verify the age of its visitors before granting access to adult content. When disturbing pictures and footage of the Madrid train bombings appeared on Ogrish, the site was blocked by Spain and ordered to be taken offline. These orders were however not pursued.
In addition to regularly updated front-page submissions, such as videos, Ogrish.com also offered a forum, blog, and wiki. Ogrish previously offered a subscription service to its archive; however, this service was discontinued sometime in late June to early July for unknown reasons. In February 2005, Ogrish began publishing OgrishMag, a magazine featuring gore images and articles about violent death and contents similar to those from the site. Such images' origins are questionable, as in order for a gory image to be taken, there must first be a gory event. The website often hosts content that would be considered cruel by most people.
In early 2006, for the first time since it started, Ogrish.com changed its design to a much faster-loading, cleaner layout. Its previous layout was very "dark" and graphic-intensive. On January 27, 2006 the "Flame/Lame/Hate" section was replaced with The Ogrish Zoo, a more politically correct version that forbade racial slurs. This change lasted barely a day, and after some consideration was finally replaced with "The Underground", a private and hidden member group accessible only at the request of an established member to an administrator. On April 21st Ogrish closed this section, finally making the transition from a "Gore" website to an "Uncensored News" website. In April 2006, Ogrish.com introduced a Podcast service (DJed by Shawn Wasson, who's also responsible for SickSiteRadio and BareKnucklePolitics.com) and added a new forum section called Underground Media--members have the choice to join this section to see more images and videos. The forums are still online and now accessible via www.ogrishforum.com
Ogrish.com typically received between 150,000 and 200,000 visitors per day, however during times of “bad news,” the number of visitors could reach up to 750,000 per day.
The website's name derives from the archaic word "ogrish" according to the site's FAQ, "ogrish" or "ogreish" is defined in older dictionaries as a giant or monster in legends and fairy tales that eats humans and or a person who is felt to be particularly cruel, brutish or hideous.
[edit] Liveleak
Liveleak.com is the new Ogrish website.
[edit] External links
- Financial Times article about Ogrish.com (Note: This is only a preview; the full article is only available to registered members of the Financial Times website.)
- liveleak.com
