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German Censorship update (fwd)
A friend of mine works in the Bundestag and had a chance to question the
German "Minister of the Future" (nickname) about upcoming internet policy.
Here's the summary of what he had to say:
----FORWARDED MESSAGE-----
I have had a chance to go through a few of the things that I got
regarding Net censorship and here's the basics.
The German government is going to definitely propose some censorship
guidelines governing providers with bases in Germany. This will come
from the Justizministerium and will probably be brought before the
Bundestag in June. It will certainly not be voted on or passed into law
any time soon though.
The angle they are going to take is the angle, "we have to protect our
kids." So everything they do will be done by changes in the German Youth
Protection Act. Not through any technology or science act or committee.
Of course any censorship code adopted would affect adults too, but the
Germans are so sly that they will try to sell it to their population as a
method to protect the young. From sex net sites, from right-wing
radicals, from Heaven's Gate Cultists, whatever. And yes, Big Brother
will legally decide what's good enough for you- it would not be a
voluntary code like the MPAA code is.