Compuserve is Not "Censoring": Look to Governments for the Cause

[Ulf Moeller]

>Thus, it is the government of Germany in this case which is "censoring."

This is today's page 1 article in the newspaper "die tageszeitung".

The article "Zensur im Cyberspace" (censorship in cyberspace)
and the comment "Die Moral der Biedermänner" are available
http://www.prz.tu-berlin.de/~taz until tomorrow.

 From the article (my translation):

"The Bavarian department of public prosecution 'has left it to their
discretion' to take the 'necessary steps' on their own, to avoid
'possible punishability of the management in Germany'. An advice that
CompuServe has followed although there is no kind of legal obligation
for it. Legally, it is still perfectly unclear if enterprises that
provide access to the Internet can be held responsible in any way for
the contents distributed there."

 From the comment by Niklaus Haublützel:

"Reality cannot be outlawed, only improved, and many still hope that
complete freedom of information and opinion in computer networks can
contribute to that. But the company of CompuServe does not seem to
be interested in that. They only want their customers' money, but
not their freedom. [...] Like any censorhip, this one comes with
hipocrisy. Towards their paying customers, CompuServe claims to have
been forced by German prosecutors. Thus one lie creates another.
That they were forced it out of the question. It is only in
dictatorships that the prosecutors judge the defendants - that is why
dictatorships need censors."