Am 25.09.2011 01:10, schrieb Jussi-Ville Heiskanen:
On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 1:39 AM, Phil
Nash<phnash(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
???? wrote:
On 24/09/2011 22:46, David Gerard wrote:
On 24 September 2011 22:40,
????<wiki-list(a)phizz.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> The last I heard the German people, as expressed through their
> lawmakers, DO NOT want their kids looking at porn or images that are
> excessively violent. They go so far as periodically getting Google
> to filter the search results for Germans.
Analogously, tell me about your personal endorsement of the Digital
Economy Act and justify each provision.
Last I heard in the real world Germans did not want their kids
looking a images of porn or excessive violence online. That sites
that were targeted at Germans required age filters, that Google was
frequently asked to remove pages from theor index, and that ISPs were
instructed to disallow access to such sites.
Under such circumstances the opinions of 300 self selecting Germans is
unlikely to be indicative of German opinion.
Unless I've missed something of
importance, the stance of parents in Germany
is little different from those in any other country. The USA and UK have
both tried, and failed, to impose such censorship, even through licensing or
grading schemes; but the bottom line is that the internet doesn't work that
way, and in my experience there is no common denominator jurisdiction that
has the will or the power to impose any restrictions on a global medium.
Local jurisdictions may attempt to do so, but experience over the last
thirty years tends to suggest that such restrictions are easily
circumvented. That's why TOR, to name only one, exists.
Optimistically, global censorship is just not going to happen.
Personally my understanding of the German position on censorship
is that it shouldn't happen, pretty much like in Finland, Sweden,
Norway, France and the Netherlands. Can't really speak for Austria,
Belgium, Switcherland or the staunchly mediterranean european
countries (suspect the mediterraneans are heavily beset by
cognitive dissonance -- "think of the children" but when one like
Berlusconi thinks of the children the wrong way and gets caught,
it is all just a political witch-hunt; and when it is Carnivale, anything
goes, it is just a little bit of fun, plenty of time to be offended when
Carnivale is over.<rolls eyes> )
Censorship, as it is, is forbidden by the
German constitution, with
extra rights to allow open (even violent) protest if the constitution is
in danger to be ignored or abolished. That goes for many other European
countries as well.
You will really have a hard time to offend European people with sexual
or violent images, especially when used in educational context. Just go
in a super market and you will unwillingly stop at the checkout counter
and look at bare breasts on the title page of the BILD newspaper.[1]
The same picture applies for the other countries as well. That Italy has
such an grudge against Berlusconi is not based on his
bunga-bunga-parties alone. It's basically against the money he and his
political party wastes, while the country itself has it's problems. Of
course it is a political witch-hunt.
If you speak about Canivale (a mostly German tradition) then it "just"
the combination of satire and a party. While the party stops, satire is
still a daily element. You will find it on the second page of newspapers
(mostly about politics), in the daily TV-shows or at the local theater.
If politicians, minorities or majorities would be easily to offend, then
it would really be big show.
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild - The article has a good example
on how it looks like.