Hello

I thought that this translation of an article (from German magazine CT)
regarding the online-censorship in Germany would be interesting...

Twister
(Bettina Jodda)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet or Germany.Net?

Explosive backgrounds regarding web filtering measures in
Northrine-Westphalia, Germany

Some documents of the district government Duesseldorf and audio
snippets of conversations in the authority fortify the thesis, that
the intent of the district government between Rhine and Ruhr goes
further than just fighting right wing extremism.

The platform for online demonstrations and events and for ensuring
human and basic rights in a democratic internet (ODEM
http://odem.org/) has now published an all-embracing collection of
materials [http://odem.org/informationsfreiheit/o-ton.html] on the
net. This collection scheds a new ligh upon the motives of the
district government Duesseldorf
[http://www.brd.nrw.de/BezRegDdorf/hierarchie/] in the scope of their
filtering decree for internet sites
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-08.02.02]. "The
authority says, they would do something against right-wing
extremism", ODEM front man Alvar Freude describes the results of the
recherche that lasted for several months to c't. "In reality their
intent is likely to be the creation of an all-embracing
infrastructure to give them the power to filter any unwanted content
from the net." This would include pornograhic content as well as
pirated copies or satire.

The censorship fighter has prepared audio and text documents of the
house of the Duesseldorf district governor Juergen Buessow
[http://odem.org/akteure/juergen-buessow.de.html]. They show that
nobody in this house believes in the efficiency of the so far
propagated 'filtering method'
[http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/11175/] utilizing the
domain name system (DNS). "Users with deeper IT knowledge or
dedicated right wing extremists will certainly find ways, to come to
the contents", Juergen Schuette, leader of the department for media
control in the district government admitted more than a year ago.

The intent is to make it hard for the "08/15" user to get to one of
the initially four incriminated web sites containing Nazi propaganda
or repelling pictures, Buessow explained the measures taken back
then. But how could it be a solution to a problem if web sites would
be 'blocked' only for those, who 'have no intent whatsoever to view
them', one of the representatives of an concerned ISP asked. The
answer of the district governor shows, according to Freude, an
antiquated and dangerous sense of policy: "ISPs shall be immunized
against accusations, they would leave space for illegal content in
the internet, by working together with us."

Freedom of press

The ODEM site also uncovers news about Buessows respect to the
freedom of press: Under a catch phrase "A censorship is taking place"
there is a detailed reconstruction of how Buessow's 'home
broadcaster', the West Deutscher Rundfunk (WDR), took offline a
critic's column about the 'do as one likes' behaviour of this SPD
(Socialist party of Germany) politician. Being in the role of the
most influencing media minder, the district governor allegedly used
his direct wire to the WDR director Fritz Pleitgen to get rid of that
unappreciated text. "The WDR assured me, that they will back me and
that they will not join on in the attacks that happened on the WDR
online section.", is what Buessow says in an audio document. However,
this attack could not be completely removed, because the 'stumbling
block' is still available through the California (US) based project
archive.org
[http://http:
e/computer/schiebwoche/index.phtml]

The primary material of the ODEM documentation consists of some
advisory law opinions and protocols, which were taken during a
'hearing' in november 2001 and during a colloquium of representants
of internet providers in the following month. The documents were put
out only after a long 'back and forth' by the dsitrict government in
late autumn and, according to Freude, 'largely blackened and
incomplete'. The computer expert had to file a petition based on the
northrine-westphalian 'freedom of information act'
[http://www.lfd.nrw.de/fachbereich/fach_10_1.htm] which was rejected
by the authority. After involving the countrie's data protection
officer in the case, which was one of the first cases for this fresh
citizen's rights law, the documents were finally put out. The 'O-Ton'
files (original tone) on the other hand, which put the grain of salt
in this collection of cites, originated from disputed 'clashes' in
the meetings between the internet providers and the district
government (disputed because they were held due to Buessow's
initiative). The documents leaked to Freude from Duesseldorf.

Contradictions

The documents reveal, according to Freude, several contradicitons in
the argumentation coming from the river Rhine, all basing on the
somehow established yet wrong point of view, that an internet site
would be comparable to an international broadcasting station, and
that being the reason for Buessow to demand internet service
providers to 'remove incriminated sites from their program'.
Furthermore the documents fortify that Buessow is betraying the
believers of some of his former statements -- he gave e.g. the
assurance, he would not insist on immediate processing of the
disputed enforcements of his filtering directives
[http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/11864/], which are
now engaging several administrative courts
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-10.01.0].

Menacing for the future of the internet in our country, says Freude,
is the attitude of the district government towards even more
filtering sactions. Buessow himself admitted, he had removed e.g. the
satire site rotten.com only for 'clearance' and in the sense of
'avoiding questions druing litigating a court case' from his list of
sites to be filtered away. He believes, as he admits, that he would
be legally entitled to also filter pictures from this site 'based on
local law'. According to Freude, Buessow sees his companions in his
filtering intentions amongst the lawyers
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-06.05.02] who wish to
use the 'protection of persons' aspect in this internet issue to
brush through the web, as well as amongst the 'protectors of the
youth' [http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/tol-26.01.0] -- and
most of all he sees accordance coming from the music and film
industries, who are looking for measures against the unwanted
replication of bits and bytes on the net and who already experimented
with filtering techniques on their own.

For Freude, the project of the Duesseldorf district government is
trying to achieve a final, big goal: 'Everything you want to get rid
of, but you cannot get hold of in Germany, shall be taken offline
with the help of the access providers.' For Freude, who is an active
assentor of freedom of information, this raises the question how the
future of a networked world will look line, which should be discussed
in the public now, before facts are made and fortified. 'Do we
actually want the internet or the germany.net?' Those who applaude to
the latter, should also stipulate clearly and precisely, that they
said their fairwell to all the promises of the information society,
the innovative potency of the net and the basic though of free
worldwide communcation.

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