At 9:46 AM 9/11/96, Stephan Schmidt wrote:

Hi,

thinking about what happend in Germany, are there any 'digital rights' organisations in Germany ?

If not, we would like to found one. Are there any international orgs (EFF?,...) who can help us ?

A wonderful idea, Stephan! You might try contacting EFF to see if a German branch exists (though EFF is not a strongly member-oriented organization, though people tell me this may be changing). Germans should embrace the idea that the cure for bad speech is _more_ speech. Specifically, for the current German concerns, the "cure" for speech by semi-Nazi skinheads and Holocaust deniers is free and open speech. Hard to deny the Holocaust when web sites have thousands of pictures, when archives exist. (And when speech saying the Holocaust "never happened" is outlawed, a certain fraction of the population thinks it's cool and chic to engage in this speech! Human psychology and all. This is probably what 90% of the skinheads are all about, plus some run of the mill hatred toward Turks and other immigrants who they think are taking away their jobs....) I understand that Germans have free speech in a lot of areas, and have less censorship of sexual material than the U.S. has (television, especially). But the areas where they _do_ censor, such as discussion of the Second World War and related issues, are the ones the world see. Germany needs to embrace completely free speech. This is the best way to ensure that another dictator like Hitler does not get elected to power. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."