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Dutch Judge Cracks Down on Hyperlinks

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.

9 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. No indirect links? by phil+reed · · Score: 3, Funny

    Better drop that link to Google then.

    --

    ...phil
    "For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
  2. Sigh by st0rmshad0w · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think I need to walk away now, go live in the woods away from human stupidity, before I have a 'Scannrs' moment.

    Would the last of you to leave please lock up and make sure the internet is switched off?

  3. Re:what about the URL by josh+crawley · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or you can Rot-13 it. They'll never know....

  4. the terrorists have already won... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If normal people can't view information on how to disable railroad trains, then only the terrorists will be able to derail trains...

    ... oh... wait....

  5. Re:dutch != deutsch by JWW · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah the Netherlands, don't they have the loose drug and sex laws?

    But hyperlinks, oh my they had better ban those.

    Hypocrites.

  6. Re:No need, since Google already censored themselv by SisterRay · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, not correct:

    When trying the search for "kleiner leitfaden" (which is German for "handy guide") in Google Groups you will go to here , then choose the third message and look at the Complete Thread. You will go to here , than scroll up and you'll see one of the forbidden articles.

    Then, try the same "kleiner leitfaden" in Google WWW. You will go to here. . The seventh link is pointing to here and again you will have the article in front of you.

    Then, enter the title of the forbidden Indymedia site in Google WWW. The first link, try the Cache: here

    Enough said.

  7. Re:Big picture?! by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 2, Funny
    But action and political pressure shouldn't resort to violence or destruction - otherwise it's going down the road of the RAF, Red Brigades etc.!

    Yeh, curse the Royal Air Force and their destructive ways. Why can't they just drop flowers from their aerial death machines.

  8. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Hmmm..

    Kevin Bacon ->
    Web Browser ->
    Google ->
    Google search list result ->
    Article

  9. Solution! by Com2Kid · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since the US seems dedicated to making the rules of the DMCA apply around the entire world, I say that somebody ROT13's the thing and if anybody tries to break it, they sue for bypassing encryption without autherization!

    How do you know that they broke it? Well simple, who ever sues you MUST have broken the encryption in order to know what was in the file!

    \!_!/