Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Dutch Judge Cracks Down on Hyperlinks

Posted by michael on from the deep-sigh dept.

The webzine Radikal (mirrored in Holland, because it has been banned in Germany) published several articles on disabling railroad trains (in the context of preventing shipments of nuclear materials); the German national railroad discovered it, and the fun has been going on ever since. Rejo Zenger writes "Today a dutch judge ordered Indymedia NL on the request of the Deutsche Bahn to remove some links from a page on their website. These links were pointing to the mirrors of Radikal sites. A few of these sites were containing two articles that have been forbidden in court before. The links were indirect links (surface links) instead of direct ones to the articles (deeplinks). So, none of the links was pointing to the offending articles directly! The judge "orders Indymedia immediately after receiving this sentence to remove and to keep removed the hyperlinks, which are placed on (a) website(s) under the control of Indymedia, if those hyperlinks lead directly or indirectly to the Radikal articles [...]". This is BAD. As almost all links indirectly point to the Radikal articles we can abolish the web now. The announcement, Dutch with English to follow shortly. The decision of the judge (dutch only)." Indymedia's press release (English) covers it pretty well. Update: 06/21 19:54 GMT by M : My summary in the first sentence has been corrected.

4 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Normally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Normally I'm all for free speech. But if they're shutting down indymedia, they have my full support.

  2. Defending the common criminal by freebsd+guy · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    I am a huge supporter of freedom of speech. I do not believe that the government should restrict any speech that does not cause direct harm to an individual (e.g. hosting web pages with pirated software or child pornography should not be illegal IMHO). However, I have to agree with the judge in this case: linking to articles that provide detailed instructions for sabotaging trains and killing dozens, if not hundreds of innocent people, should not be tolerated. Free speech is a privilege, not a right, and it should be used responsibly - not to hurt people. Posting instructions on how to cook meth (which harms no-one) is a reasonable exercise of one's first amendment rights. But posting instructions on how to derail passenger trains, how to build C-4 bombs, or how to permanently destroy a woman's mink coat is inexcusable and deserves no protection.

    All major religions are based on the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself. If you weigh this when you're considering posting something controversial to the internet, you will be better able to decide what is an appropriate expression and what is only going to hurt people.

    Just my 2c.

    freebsd guy

  3. Re:Train train by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Reminds me of an article in yesterday's NY Times about how the Germans are following around a guy they know financed Mohammed Atta, but won't arrest him because they have such a respect for individual rights there.

    Curse those Germans and their rights. Maybe they should follow the USA's lead and forget about enshrined rights whenever it suits some higher purpose.
    I was going to call you some very bad names for being so stupid but the fact that you and your entire nation are probably blissfully unaware of being trounced by Germany in the World Cup today makes up for it all. In fact it must come as a surprise that there is a sports tournament with 'World' in the title and yet foreign teams are allowed to enter.

  4. Classic leftist two faced hypocrisy.... by cmkrnl · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    If for example some hate filled fascist faction was posting the 'exact' same instructions to stop trainloads of 'refugees' being transported across Germany,

    One would hear nothing only howls of outrage from 'Indymedia' and its camp followers about how terrible it was that the Dutch were allowing this material to be hosted.

    'IndyMedia' has the dubious joy of being doubly oxymoronic in its name, Its neither 'independent', nor it is any form of meaningful 'media'. Its just an assembly line for ultra left propaganda.

    Curmudgeon

    [Cue the inevitable downwards moderation from ignorant politics undergrads]