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Encryption For All Sponsored by German Govt.
fiffilinus writes: "The German Ministry of Economics uses the CeBIT computer fair as a forum to propagate its GnuPP (Gnu Privacy Project -- I know, it is *not* GPG, but GPG is part of the package) encryption package to the public, giving away CD-roms with the package. The CeBIT press release can be found here. The download for those who can't make it to CeBIT is here. The package is available in English too, but the page itself has to be put through the fish, as usual. Finally a government that moves in the right direction ..."
Why is it that we need to go to Germany to get software to protect our freedom of speech?
What is wrong with this picture?
comment directly in my journal
With a few thousands illegal patents delivered by europe software patent factory, it would be fun to count how many patents this government sponsored software infringes :). Hopefully
some German politicians clearly said no to patents. After France, there's hope to get a software patents free Europe if Germany officials say no too.
First they decided to get rid of Windows in the government and are moving to OSS for all government IT installations if I remember correctly. Now they're promoting hard encryption for all their citezens. This seems like a government that truly cares about the rights of its citzens, especially where privacy and technology are concerned.
/. Enlighten us, please...
What is the catch? What makes Germany less or more desireable for people who are concerned about their rights as they relate to technology, privacy, or otherwise?
I know there are some english speaking Germans reading
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Open source software is becoming more supported by EU countries for political reasons (Government should use non-proprietary tools), social reasons (open access), quality reasons (speaks for itself), and so on. There is quite a lot of money being spent on open-source development by various EU agencies, the German government being just one example of many. Sadly the UK government is in Microsoft's pocket at the moment :(
Europe has changed in 8 years. I don't know whether these laws in Germany have changed or not, though I suspect the EU mandated they be removed since they were in effect protectionist.
That being said, sometimes a bit of regulation is a good thing. If the gov't makes rules to force businesses to prove their product work and deliver what the commercial says, is that an infringement of liberty? Right now, you can buy a $5 blender at kmart that will work - once. The stronger consumer rights in (parts of?) Europe mandates warranties that keep such scams off the market. Things cost a bit more, but they appear to be working better and for longer than the stash I bought when I lived in the States.
Basically, more liberty for the consumer, less for the business. I believe that businesses that abuse their liberties should have those taken away, just like what happens when the citizens behave irresponsibly.
Stop the brainwash
Somehow, I doubt the government's good intentions.
...)?
I actually am serious about the following. I've seen more people here express the same sentiment. Do you people really not trust government in general that much? I know I don't trust the American goverment either, but here in Europe we don't have the feeling we need something like a right to bear arms to defend ourselves from the government. The government still consists of people. People we choose, and people who work for us, the people. Sure, politicians are politicians, no matter where they are, but there are enough checks and balances that I don't think anyone in Europe seriously thinks the government is working more for its own good, rather than for that of the people it's serving.
Yet from what I observe, there are very few people anywhere in the world who believe the government of the USA to do the same.
Now I wonder... Does this make people believe that Europeans are naive, that our governments are just as bad? Or do you actually trust the American government after all? (And if not, doesn't that say something very significant about that government?) Or did you never realize a government can actually work for the good of the people, providing them security not only from itself, but also from other governments which aren't to be trusted as much (Echelon, Carnivore,
I'm trying to ask this as non-offensively as possible, while still pointing to where I think the differences can be found. If you are offended, please, realize that was not the intent of this post. I simply really wonder about how you people from across the pond look at trusting both your own government and other governments.
what the fuck is everyones problem, why does everyone assume every move made by every goverment everywhere is evil. Come on, this is a good move done by a goverment for once. you should stop looking for hidden motives and enjoy the fact that somewhere out there there is a goverment not run by a deush-bag from texas who values a 1984 style goverment. Germany is making an already free technology more available to its citizens. I will give the German gov a BIG thumbs up about this one. No doubt there are many coders that will check to make sure there is no backdoor in the software, and if there is, you'll hear about tommorow on theregister.co.uk and /. the day after that.
Also another big thumbs up to germany from going from nazisim in WW2 to where they are today.
why is everyone so god damn paranoid, if you guys hit the ol' pipe without me I am gonna be pissed