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German Search Engines Self-Regulating

Posted by Zonk on from the showing-initiative-is-good? dept.

Philipp Lenssen writes "Heise reports the German search engines Google.de, Lycos Europe, MSN Germany, AOL Germany, Yahoo.de, T-Online and T-Info today in Berlin announced the forming of a self-regulating organization (Babelfish version) under the hood of the German FSM (the "Voluntary Self-Control for Multimedia Service Providers"). Their combined goal is to streamline the process of censoring content ruled illegal under German law, so that a user's search results are stripped from such items."

9 of 465 comments (clear)

  1. Re:.de by Captain+Scurvy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Whenever I access google.com in another country, I'm always forwarded to that country's google site. google.ru, google.jp, etc. I'm not sure if this is true of Germany, but it seems likely.

  2. Re:Darn...no more Hitler pics by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 3, Informative
    So that means no more Hitler...or anything remotely linked to WWII...
    I do not like the German limits on freedom of speech, or the current initiative to censor search results. But it is not as bad as that. There is no problem with historical documents connected with Hitler or the Nazis. What is regulated is "Glorification of National Socialism". You can publish old copies of Stürmer (in fact, many high school history textbooks have at least excerpts), you cannot write "Heil Hitler! Lets go kill some Kanaken!".
    --

    Stephan

  3. Re:America by Ancil · · Score: 4, Informative

    Even cryptography is restricted by the government, making the European version of putty.exe (SSH client) illegal in the United States.
    What a shame -- I have mod points, but there doesn't seem to be a "-1 Completely Wrong" option. I'll just have to reply.

    This is complete bullshit. These restrictions went away years ago. At some point, the NSA realized that breaking into your house and installing a secret keylogger was much easier than trying to prevent you from downloading encryption software.

    Heck, go here and download Microsoft's .NET common runtime for free. In case you aren't a programmer, this package contains implementaions of DES, TripleDES, Rijndael (AES), Public Key Encryption, Cryptographic Hashes like MD5 and SHA-1 (now 1000 times weaker!!), Digital Signatures, etc.

  4. Re:Censorship is bad by leonardluen · · Score: 3, Informative

    So why self-censor?

    because they are breaking german law if they don't

  5. Violence is in Germany what nudity is to the US by harmonica · · Score: 4, Informative

    The situation is kind of reversed. While there is no problem with nudity (even full frontal nudity in prime-time television), violence is frowned upon and you won't see as much of it as you can on US TV. Movies with scenes of violence get more restrictive ratings. Check out akas.imdb.com and compare the "Certification" part of movies with violence or horror.

  6. Re:America by Ectospheno · · Score: 3, Informative

    In some states, you are not allowed to view certain pornography.

    Um, no. In certain states you can't purchase or sell certain pornography. You are allowed to own and view it though.

    Even cryptography is restricted by the government, making the European version of putty.exe (SSH client) illegal in the United States.

    Err, wrong again. Its the export of strong crypto that is restricted. You can use strong crypto without exporting it all you want.

    Only on slashdot could the parent be modded insightful with clearly incorrect information.

  7. Re:Darn...no more Hitler pics by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 4, Informative
    Like Mein Kampf -- you will have problems googling the full text of this.
    That is a quite different issue. Mein Kampf is still under copyright. The copyright was seized by the Allies after the war, and transferred (with other seized assets) to the state of Bavaria when the Federal Republic of Germany was founded (Hitler was legally registered in Munich, the capital of Bavaria). Bavaria, as the copyright holder, does not allow the production of new copies. It is a matter of civil, not criminal law. As soon as the copyright expires (should be 2015, unless we get a new extension), it will be possible to reprint the book - or publish it online.

    I don't know if annotated copies for scholary use were an exception or if they were produced under fair use.

    --

    Stephan

  8. Re:.de by slavemowgli · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google does that based on your IP, yes. However, there is a link to the english version at the bottom of the page, and going to http://www.google.com/intl/en/ will always get you the english version, too.

    --
    quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
  9. Re:.de by fiddlesticks · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://google.com/ncr is what you need.

    (NoCountryRedirect) - takes you to 'real' google.com

    --
    http://milkshake.dexy.org