[awjr]

There is an extremely dark underbelly of 'real life' violence porn out there sadly. CCTV and smart phones have enabled this to be recorded for all eternity on those types of sites.

In the same way that on youtube Russian Car Crash videos get huge viewings, those that show loss of life happening are usually hived off onto extreme websites where there is an audience for that type of material.

[gambiting]

One could ask why underage pornography is illegal while this isn't. In both cases someone suffers and the act being recorded is in itself illegal, plus the video is viewed for amusement/pleasure of the viewer most of the time.

[Bartweiss]

I suppose the obvious differentiator is whether content was performed to be recorded, or incidentally filmed. 'Snuff films' and other intentional-for-filming recordings are usually illegal (or at least investigated to find the producers), while recordings of general violence aren't.

It's a touchy distinction (as any intent charge is), but it makes a certain amount of sense - one major reason for criminalizing content is to reduce demand and thereby hopefully prevent further production. Recording an accident or unrelated act of violence presumably doesn't create any incentive for more violence.

[nommm-nommm]

I think the parent is asking more about possession and distribution of murder not being illegal (presumably, in some jurisdictions) whereas possession and distribution of child pornography is. Not all of the pictures/videos/etc hosted on those sites (rotten.com, bestgore.com, etc.) are accidental recordings.

>Recording an accident or unrelated act of violence presumably doesn't create any incentive for more violence.

Getting visitors for your gore site is pretty good incentive for more violence and more extreme content. Same with selling of early non-web based content like the Faces of Death series.

[gambiting]

Yes, that's what I meant. Merely possessing underage pornography is a crime that will land you in prison, even if you haven't participated in creating it in any way, but possessing a snuff film, or even a rape video where the person is not underage is not illegal. Rotten.com specifically is full of videos which are not in any way or form accidental.

[teddyh]

> possessing a snuff film […] is not illegal.

Please don’t be too concerned with people possessing things which do not exist. There are no snuff films.

[gambiting]

My definition of snuff film is for example a terrorist beheading video produced specifically to be distributed. Such things definitely exist. Is yours different?

[eon1]

What a weird attitude to take.. how could you be so absolutely certain?

[teddyh]

> Snuff films' and other intentional-for-filming recordings are usually illegal

Actually, there are no such films. I’m not saying someone could not, in theory, create one – I’m saying that, to my understanding, no such films have ever been shown to actually exist. Be careful with what you assume.

[jpatokal]

There are plenty of videos showing intentionally filmed murder: the Mexican drug cartels and various Middle Eastern terrorist/vigilante/death squad outfits are notorious for this kind of stuff. The "snuff film" hypothesis is just that it's possible to sell this kind of material for a direct profit and/or that they're "made to order" by buyers, which are highly unlikely.

[OxO4]

How about:

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

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

[lovelearning]

I watch russian (and other) car crash videos, not for the gory content, but because I find them very educational. I feel they help me become a better, more responsible driver.

[aerique]

I played Carmageddon for that. Well, that game actually made me a more cautious pedestrian.

[talklittle]

Interesting. I wonder how many self-driving car researchers incorporate car crash videos into their AI (anti-)learning datasets?

[lovelearning]

Couldn't find anything in the literature - they probably don't, or perhaps it's such an obvious requirement that it's not even mentioned. Given that driving culture and etiquette are very different in every country, I'd guess a system trained for US roads, traffic rules and social behaviors does not generalize as well for Russian or Chinese or any other country's roads.

[nommm-nommm]

What percentage of them are gory/shocking, in your opinion?

[lovelearning]

On Youtube, there are a few channels that kind of focus on the gory side, which is why they have a lot more static images taken from the outside after the mishap.

But the ones I watch are regular dashcam video footage where some kind of mishap is captured while it's happening - sometimes just a fender bender, sometimes road rage, sometimes serious accidents, sometimes a third vehicle which just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time . I'm of course biased towards such channels, but the number of such channels are far higher in my opinion, atleast on youtube (sites like vimeo or liveleak possibly have a different ratio).

It wasn't really gore that was most "shocking" to me. It was realizing just how easily and suddenly an accident could happen. In fact the most shocking one I remember was an in-car footage of a cab passenger thrown violently like a ragdoll when its rear was hit hard by another vehicle. It happened in the blink of an eye and it was severe. Now I insist all my backseat passengers wear their seat belts, despite a lot of eye-rolling and groaning :)

[kaybe]

Some of them also have amazing saves by the people involved. I'm not sure one can actually learn how to do that in an extreme situation from a video though.