I could get arrested by German authorities (German censorship) (fwd)

[tank <tank@xs4all.nl>]

A letter from Felipe Rodriqeuz, chairman of XS4ALL internet.


Forwarded message:
> From felipe@xs1.xs4all.nl Sat Sep 14 22:34:56 1996
> From: Felipe Rodriquez <felipe@xs4all.nl>
> Message-Id: <199609142034.WAA29923@xs1.xs4all.nl>
> X-Length: 00001286
> Subject: I could get arrested by German authorities (German censorship)
> To: declan@well.com, hkunzru@wired.co.uk
> Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 22:34:52 +0200 (MET DST)
> Cc: barlow@eff.com, lr@wired.com, rena@bionic.zer.de,
>         geert@xs4all.nl (Geert Lovink), patrice@xs4all.nl (Patrice Riemens),
>         boom@xs4all.nl (Marianne van den Boomen),
>         fvjole@xs4all.nl (Francisco van Jole)
> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25]
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I got a message from Lorenz Lorenz-Meyer, Editor DER SPIEGEL online. He
> spoke to the German Authorities and got some shocking news.
> It seems that there is a possibility that I, as CEO of Dutch
> internetprovider Xs4all, could get arrested by German authorities.
> 
> This seems a bit far-off, but he is not the only person that
> warned me about this possibility. People in the left-wing movement
> in Holland have informed me about the agressive behaviour of the
> German government against the Radikal publications. Subscribers 
> have been violently arrested in the past. It was also predicted
> by them that the German Authorities would not easily stop their
> censorship of radikal. There seems to be a lot of old pain.
> 
> Contemplating a bit further about the risk of being arrested,
> I thought about these developments on a larger scale. The first
> thing that popped to mind is that all the owners of the Radikal
> mirror-sites may also be arrested if they ever visit Germany. These
> are over 30 people and organisations. One of the sites Radikal was
> mirrored on is EFF. The Board-members of EFF could, in theory, 
> be held responsible by the German Authorities. John Perry Barlow
> could be arrested next time he comes to give a lecture in a 
> German city, because the EFF has illegal German documents on
> it's website. Declan McCullagh has put the Radikal information
> in the Well. He and the managers of the Well might be questioned
> when they enter Germany. Et cetera. It would be an outrage if
> anything like this happens, but friends and this journalist told me
> that it could happen to me anytime I travel to Germany.
> 
> I'm tempted to disconnect the Radikal pages from Xs4all, because
> of this intense intimidation. But if Xs4all would bend to this kind
> of intimidation, we would create a precedent. The Germans might see it as
> a 'reward' for their acts. They'd be stimulated to continue on this
> road, and may become an example for other countries.
> Imagine if every country would have these standards. Any country can
> order their own ISP's to block a certain foreign site. Imagine the
> authorities of those countries have the powers to prosecute against
> foreign ISP's when they visit their country, or when they are extradited.
> These acts of agression against ISP's and internetusers will profoundly
> change the Internet if they'd be tolerated. 
> 
> The possibility of being arrested in our neighbour country is almost
> too surreal to think about. But now people start telling me to seriously
> prepare for it, in case it may happen. It would not be the first time
> a foreign citizen was arrested and put in jail by the Germans for
> dissiminating information. Just a couple of weeks ago a US citizen
> was arrested by the Germans because he sent nazi documentation to
> Germany through the mail, i think his name was Koch, but i'm not 
> sure.
> 
> 
> Here is the message lorenz sent me:
> 
>  Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 13:13:52 +0200
>  To: felipe@xs4all.nl
>  From: Lorenz Lorenz-Meyer <lorenzl@well.com>
>  Subject: third attempt
>  
>  Hi Felipe,
>  
>  I just had an extensive and controversial talk
>  via phone with Mr. Hannich, spokesman of the german
>  Generalbundesanwalt, about the legal action taken
>  against the distributors of "radikal". As is the
>  nature of talks with official spokespersons it was
>  not utterly satisfying. But anyway. Just one question:
>  
>  The possible targets of german public
>  prosecution are not only german ISPs.
>  There are 'preliminary proceedings' of the 
>  Bundesanwaltschaft against 'unknown' - i.e. 
>  the persons responsible for making
>  "radikal" accessible in Germany over 
>  the Internet, _even if they are in foreign
>  countries_. I'm afraid that this already includes 
>  you. Have you been notified of this fact?
>  And do you have plans to guard/defend yourself?
>  
>  Regards,
>  
>  Lorenz.
> 
> 
> 
>