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).
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
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. 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).
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
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. 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.
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