halcy.de v4 » Version four-point-oh and counting.Two weeks!

Today, the german parliament decided in a 389 Yep to 128 Nay vote that germany should join the ranks of China, Iran and other repressive nations as a country that censors the internet. While this law is not quite “Law” yet, it is unlikely that it will not pass the rest of the required votes.

This all is being done under the guise of fighting child pornography online, with “DNS blocking” as the method of choice.

That this law is a very bad idea should be instantly obvious to most people.

• It goes against democratic principles and the constitution. There is no doubt that it does. The german constitution, §5.1, states that:

  Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.

  Now, of course this does not mean that people should be allowed to distribute illegal material on the internet - the same laws apply there as do to print media. But that is it! The same laws, not more, and more draconian laws.
• It goes against democratic principles even more. The list of censored web sites is secret and maintained by a police organization. Oversight by judges is not deemed neccesary (Only a “Quasi-Judical control committee” which was put in in the last minute to appease some members of Parliament). Effectively, the police are given judical powers here. Separation of powers, which is a basic principle in every democracy, is being violated in an abhorrent way. Effectively, with this law, germany cannot claim to be and entirely democratic nation anymore.
• It will be abused. Just as has been the case with such lists in other nations, illegally web sites will end up on the list that have nothing to do with child pornography. And already, some ministers and interest groups are asking for the legalization of blocking of online gambling sites and websites such as PirateBay.
• It does not work! “DNS blocking” does nothing to prevent users with minimal technical knowledge. The blocking basically works by lying to the user about where a website is to be found on the internet when he requests the location of a web page. Just asking someone else - “Using a different DNS server”, in technical terms - is easy and done withing a minute, tutorials for doing this are easily found online.
• It might actually prevent effective prosecution of child pornographers. The primary goal in any such law should be to prevent the production of child pornopgraphy. This can only be done by finding, arresting and prosecuting the people running servers distributing child porn and trying to go from them to the producers. Being put on a list like this makes it easy for people running servers to see if the police are on to their actions - and subsequently move their content elsewhere. This is not only my opinion, but the opinion of the “German criminal investigators union” (German) - of the people effectively responsible for fighting child porn!
• The list will leak. Make no mistake, this “secret” list can and will be leaked, as has happened before. Now, we’re providing people interested in child pornography a nice, big list with web sites they can find images at.

It is no wonder that over 130000 people have signed a petition to the Parliament to reconsider this law, and that people are out protesting against it. The social democratic party of germanys canidates for the election have sent a letter (German) to the members of parliament begging them to reconsider their position. This law once again shows the growing conflict between the members of the younger generation, who are able to use new media for creating knowledge and art and for recreation, and a majority of people who did not grow up with such things - and are afraid of them.

Censorship is not a solution to any problem. What we need is efficient measures for fighting child pornography. This includes:

• Allocating more ressources to the very understaffed police departments for fighting child porn - They need more people, and more money for equipment or training.
• Creating an effective international network for police cooperation. Online child pornography is not any single nations problem, and only if the police can effectively work across borders is there any chance of progess.

Prosecution and deltion is clearly the only way to achieve anything on this front and to prevent the sexual abuse of children - but instead, a law is being forced down our throats whose likely effect is nothing but a chilling effect on freedom of expression on the internet for german users.

As has been previously the case with such laws, the law will be challenged in court the instance it passes (As is usually the case with such laws, and is not likely to hold up - but meanwhile an infrastructure for censorship is being created. This is dangerous and unreasonable, and reflects badly on our ruling parties, and germany as a whole. Realistically it is yet another step into the direction of a police state which for some reason some policitians seem to be keen on creating.

This crap has to stop. Get active now. Rights are there to be used, and if one doesn’t they have the tendency to silently evaporate. Fight the erosion of personal freedom, or eventually there will be no way for you to fight it anymore.

More information:

• Website of the “AK Zensur”, an organization opossed to german internet censorship. (German)
• Website of “Victims of abuse against internet censorship”, advocating real measures against child poronography instead of the introduction of broad, ineffective censorship.
• Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany - official english translation
• Previously here (tags): privacy - germany

Today is a birthday as well, altough of a whole different sort. The “Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland”, the german constitution, turns 60 years old.

Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority. (GG §1.1)

60 years in which there has been no war in germany. 60 years of freedom and equality. 60 years of a free democratic society. 60 years in which this nation has stood for the principles laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a free - later unified - nation amongst others in Europe and the World.

Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral law. (GG §2.1)

It really is reason to celebrate - which is why there have been flashmobs of people reading the Grundgesetz out loud all over germany today, and which is why I spent half of the day today walking around Karlsruhe handing out copies of the Grundgesetz to people.

Amendments to this Basic Law affecting the division of the Federation into Länder, their participation on principle in the legislative process, or the principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20 shall be inadmissible. (GG §79.3)

But not all is well. As is always the case with laws guaranteeing freedom, the Grundgesetz, too, is always under attack - despite the ”eternity clause”, GG §79.3.

Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship. (GG §5.3)

Some politicians, hopefully in genuinely good faith (And not for the sole reason of wanting to boost their popularity with people before the elections soon taking place), want to exchange basic freedoms for percieved security.

• For one, there is the ”Vorratsdatenspeicherung”, mass data retention in the name of fighting terrorism, an initiative mostly backed by the german ministry if the interior.
• More recently, family minister Ursula von der Leyen is trying to introduce a law for censoring the internet, for preventing the spread of child pornography.

The privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications shall be inviolable. (GG §10.1)

We are lucky to be a nation where, for the express purpose of preventing the slow erosion of rights, a system of checks and balances is in place to prevent just that. The german constitutional court, located here in Karlsruhe, is a court where every german can file a complaint about a law to have it checked for constitutionality. And it has done so with great diligency and care, and is generally seen as a defender of democracy and freedom in germany.

The Federal Constitutional Court shall rule on constitutional complaints, which may be filed by any person alleging that one of his basic rights or one of his rights under paragraph (4) of Article 20 or under Article 33, 38, 101, 103 or 104 has been infringed by public authority. (GG §93.1.4a)

This system is deemed undemocratic by some, interestingly often the same persons who see the Grundgesetz as a hindrance of some kind. There is a grain of truth in this - after all, justices are not democratically elected - but in all those years, the constitutional court has proven time after time that it feels just as bound by the will of the people as the politicians in Bonn and Berlin, if not moreso - recently, when it declared the use of black box, paper-trail-less voting machines to be in violation of the constitution.

All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, if no other remedy is available. (GG §20.4)

Our relatively young constitution has had to adapt over time - who could have predicted the german reunification, or a europe this close together, with a common currency - but overally, it has stood the test of time well and is still “In bester Verfassung”, as we’d say in germany. Happy 60th Birthday, Grundgesetz. I hope and I will help to make sure that you’ll stay with us for a long, long time to come.

More info:

• History of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Wikipedia)
• Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany - official english translation
• Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Deutsch)
• Web site of the german constitutional court.
• Website of the “AK Vorrat”, an organization opossed to mass data retention
• Website of “Victims of abuse against internet censorship”, advocating real measures against child poronography instead of the introduction of broad, ineffective censorship.
• Previously here (tags): law - privacy - germany

Today, a package with THE LAW times 50 arrived - finally, my package from the BPB, with 50 issues of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, the german constitution. To be given away to people who have none, or at a political event eventually.

So, who wants one? ;)