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Re: What to do about Germany
On Wed, 3 Jan 1996 11:52:34 +0100 (MET) Cees de Groot wrote
>> What the German goverement threatned to do was inexcusable, but
>> something can be done about it.
>Sorry, but the "German government" did not threaten to do anything at
>all. A (conservative-ish) prosecutor started an _investigation_, which
>in his eyes was nothing more than executing the law (and sorry,
>that's what the guy is paid for).
So what does the above paragraph mean, it was not the goverment that
threated, it was a procecutor who was acting on behalf of the
govement to enforcese the laws of that body which is what he is paid
to do.
Gee, that's what I said, only alot more complicated and detailed. In
the end, the party at fault is the some division of the German
goverment, the procecutor is not an individual person acting on
his/her own behalf.
>If the German government did something wrong, it was accepting a law
>for the protection of minors (Jugendschutzgesetz), which says that
>minors should not be allowed to have access to booze, dope and
porno.
But that's a GERMAN law, the Internet is an INTERNATIONAL community.
If we have to respect the laws of Germany, and their customs and
archaic belief systems, them we have to give the same consideration
to anyother countries backwords, morality-based, mentality. There
are hundreds of countries on the planet, most of them backwards.
Respect everybodys sence of decency and right and wrong and nobody
will be able to transmit anything the least be vulgar becasue it
would violate some countries law some where on the planet.
>Please tell me such laws do not exist in your country...
They do exist, but I have been breaking them since 13, I don't care
to be protected by some "moral" and "ethical" person, I can decide
for myself what I can and can not do.
>If anything, this whole bussiness will be one step in the correct
>direction:
>- Either some modus operandum is found which makes it clear for
>everybody
> how to offer pornographic material and comply with the law at the
> same time (cf. the First Virtual account ID's you have to enter at
> all those sites pointing to www.infohaus.com - in the US, this
>modus
> operandum seems to be ``proof of having a credit card'');
That's just brilliant exhange one evil for another. Instead of
censorship, we take away people's rights to autonymity and privacy.
Sorry, not an option.
> Or the German Government learns about the lack of frontiers on the
>Net, and gives up (which is highly improbable).
Or they can be given consequences for their actions. Let it be known
that people will not tolerate them enforcing their laws on everybody.
The weaker any goverment, the more ineffective it is in imposing
it's will, the better off individuals are.
>considering that German prosecutors don't have the option of not
>prosecuting when they hear about a felony, like for example Dutch
>prosecutors.
No the prosecutor does not have a choice, that's why you attact the
people that make the laws, or the governing body as a whole. They
try to impose there will on me, I will unlease my dirty tricks on
them. Fair is fair.
I have the ablity to impose my will on ohters, I have done so when
certin persons have gotten on my nerves by posting things to
newsgroups that were blatently off topic and they had been told and
warned about it on serveral occasions. But when you go to a sexualy
explicit newsgroup, what do you think you will find, what is the
purpose of such a group? Protection of children is a parents
responsiblity, if they can't handle that responsiblity, that is thier
problem, not mine.
Given my experiencewith the German government,
>however, it will take some time for them >to realize that they need
>a set of rules in this area.
Again, that is Germany's problem, not mine, make it an issue and
suffer the consequences.
--
>OpenLink Software
Tell Kinsley I said hello
Regards,
Michael Peponis
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