[Foundation-l] Image filter

[Tobias Oelgarte]

Am 25.09.2011 01:10, schrieb Jussi-Ville Heiskanen:
> On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 1:39 AM, Phil Nash<phnash at blueyonder.co.uk>  wrote:
>> ???? wrote:
>>> On 24/09/2011 22:46, David Gerard wrote:
>>>> On 24 September 2011 22:40, ????<wiki-list at 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.