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German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names
Jason Levine writes "Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber killed a German actor in 1990. Now that they are out of prison, German law states that they can't be referred to by name in relation to the killings. Therefore, they have sued to get Wikipedia to remove their names from the Wikipedia article about the killings. The German edition of Wikipedia has already complied, but the English edition is citing US freedom of speech and a lack of presence in Germany as reasons why they don't need to remove the name. In a bit of irony, their lawyer e-mailed the NY Times: 'In the spirit of this discussion, I trust that you will not mention my clients' names in your article.'"
I don't care what their names are. What are they doing out of prison?
They did the crime, they served their time. What's so hard to understand about that?
No they haven't, since when is 19 years an acceptable sentence for ending someones life out of pure malice? And why does the German government protect a killer's identity? If they didn't want to be known as murderers, they should've tried y'know, not murdering someone.
They did the crime, they served their time. What's so hard to understand about that?
They committed a vicious, bloody murder. It's legitimate to ask whether 16 years in prison is enough time for that.
I smell a logical contradiction here.
Suck it, Germany!
It doesn't matter if they served enough time in prison. The truly important problem here is Germany's ridiculous attempt to limit the distribution of factual information with the law.
Germany has a long history of censorship. You can't disparage the president or state, sell pornographic writings, be a nazi, show a nazi symbol, insult someone if it steps over the magical line of insulting human dignity, etc. The very state of Germany's overreaching laws regarding speech insults human dignity.
Putting loopholes and narrowly-targeted restrictions in the constitution (find a translation of: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) from the start is a sure-fire way to end up with this completely ridiculous legal result.
>they are better people now and wouldn't do the crime again.
LOL...how can you ever know that? All you can know is that they murdered someone 19 years ago and haven't murdered anyone while they were locked away in prison. You have no idea whether or not they wouldn't do it again, but their past behavior points to them being capable of it.
>German law is trying to protect them from people like you."
Maybe German law should focus a bit more on protecting innocent people from getting murdered.
>Yes, I know they killed someone. But they also served their sentence and now they should be given a second chance, whether YOU want to give them one or not.
So when does that guy that they murdered get a second chance?
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
Isn't it illegal to have Nazi flags scattered around your front yard in Germany?
I find it rude to infringe on people's rights of expression.
Learn something new.
Oh well, then I guess no one in Germany gets murdered then. After all, you have to sit in jail for 19 years after killing someone, then you go back to the life you left behind like nothing happened; I can imagine that no one would want to risk having that happen to themselves, so no one would ever brutally murder someone else just because they're gay. Right?
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.