3DO ZONE Forums

Due to the new law for the protection of children and youth, all german websites, photos, videos, clips, blog websites, etc... need a "Movie rating" like for 6, 12, x-rated and so on.

This audit costs money - so, depending on how many photos you have or reviews written on a site, you have to pay or take everything offline. If you do the movie rating by yourself you can get punished or a disciplinary written letter.

The first websites are offline, endless will folllow. Mine too.

Source:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/ ... 44566.html
http://www.giga.de/usernews/00030325-ne ... nung-fuer/



I'll see you then.

1_9_8_4

just do like the rest of the interwebs and get a webhost not in the country. But seriously... they let some garbage law like that pass? I bet people who never even used the internet passed that one. Not only that, even all the german sites is just a small fraction of the internet. You cant control the internet. No one can. It's a monster!

They always say it's to protect children and that's always a lie. Even the statistics for children being solicited for sex on the internet in the USA. whenever some 14 year-old girl gets talked dirt to by a 14 year-old boy they counted it as two kids being solicited for sex, making it sound like some "predator" is out to get them. Now an entire country is under house arrest??

You know what this sounds like? Smoke Free New York. New York state banned smoking in businesses. The claim, it was for public health, then what do they do? Oh they allow establishments to have smoking as long as they pay for it otherwise they close you down. In other words the law, like this new German one, was created so that they can now charge you for something you used to have free.

daaaaaang. Sounds like the big losers will be German web servers

I never get german censor laws. There is a comedian in the UK that plays a 'typical UK Pub Landlord' and he spouts in an ironic way, the cultural differences, and the typical racial prejudges. And he's making fun of the british really. Anyway, he has a theme where he goads the live audience into a challenge and repsonse, it goes something like this:

Landlord: "if we had no rules, where would be we be?"

Audience: "France!"

Landlord: "if we had too many rules, where would we be?"

Audience: "GERMANY !!"

Seems to me for 50 years the german goverment have been trying to make germans lovely-woverly-huggy-squishable-kissy-cuddly softies you would want to keep as pets. Now, I've had some great times in Germany, very drunk, loving the place to bits, but you just aren't are you...? (No more than british are, or indeed the french or spaniards or New Yorkers)

I often feel that these types of law, and we have them too, are just political bragging rights. A way of plumping up a resume (CV) or simply proving how civilised we are. So, when our leaders are all sat round the table, they can make developing countries feel even crappier.

"...and yes Mr President of Third World Dump, 99.999% of OUR population is online, and they never argue, or say bad things, or even glance at naked flesh, they merely strive to make the world a better place and reduce their carbon footprint and love. So, have your 6 millions nobodies finished starving to death yet...?"

This kinda reminds me of the whole Net Neutrality thing that's going down here in the states. Over here, we have corporate interests funding both sides of the debate, and being represented by technologically illiterate politicians who think the internet is just another entertainment service, like cable TV or something.
On one side, you have Internet Service Providers, who want laws allowing them to charge more for certain types of data, or data from certain sources. Then, you have "cloud" businesses like NetFlix and file sharing sites that want all data to be treated equally in terms of cost, but who are also trying to twist the laws in their favor specifically. Meanwhile, their political mouthpieces are just saying what they're being told, because they don't know enough about the issue to even comprehend it.
Then, of course, you have your situation in Germany.
This sounds to me like a classic case of corporate meddling. In order to audit the shear mass of data they're proposing, the German government would have no choice but to employ private contractors.
I think you can see the connection.
Of course, they're hiding behind a moral agenda. Yeah, sure. When are governments going to learn that restricting something like this only makes it more desirable, and thus only makes the problem worse? Passing arbitrary laws doth not the problem solve. Just ask the Japanese.

Soon it will be like the book "Fahrenheit" and it will be illegal to read books. And people that burn all the remaining books will be call fire-fighters.

Nah, it won't be anything like that. It won't be CENSORSHIP you have to deal with, it'll be stuff like the privatization of libraries and such.
Pay-per-page, anyone?

Good news: The law was blocked by the same party which invented it. Now, websites and blog sites may remain online.
Until next time.
Germany is a good feeling technology dictatorship pumped full of euphemism and latent threat.

oldskool wrote:Soon it will be like the book "Fahrenheit" and it will be illegal to read books. And people that burn all the remaining books will be call fire-fighters.

Ah! Read, what Beatty in "F451" said: That before books became illegal, everything was brought down to the lowest common denominator, which is the reason why most movies, songs, shows and books are flat and bold. And so everyone could feel smart and lucky.