<nettime> Internet Censorship in Germany

[Alvar Freude <alvar@a-blast.org>]

Hello,

here are some informations about internet censorhip in germany. If you
have questions, see contact addresses below!


Ciao
  Alvar C.H. Freude, Team ODEM.org



Internet censorship in germany
==============================

Real live demonstration and online petition against
internet censorship

  http://www.odem.org/informationsfreiheit/en/
  http://www.netzzensur.de/index_en.html


The district government of Düsseldorf county, Northrhine-Westfalia in
Germany, is forcing Internet Service Providers to block access to selected
foreign Internet sites.

The project was started with forbidding access to two right wing extremist
sites hosted in the United States. Fighting right wing extremist
ideologies reaches a broad consensus in Germany; however in this case it
is used to gain acceptance for the establishment of a nationwide
centralized filtering and blocking system.

Future plans contain blocking of content to protect minors, copyrights and
consumer rights, including search engines that fail accordance with
corresponding national guidelines and laws.

Together with corporate partners, Northrhine-Westfalia administration is
developing a high capacity filtering system that is currently tested at
the university of Dortmund. Intention is to create an architecture with
centrally controlled blocking mechanisms that should be installed on
gateway machines to the "foreign internet".

The Chaos Computer Club and ODEM.org regard this as a severe threat to the
citizens' right of informational freedom. Not to be able to get
information about political activity from publicly available sources must
be considered a societal backstep for democracy.

A demonstration against this blocking plans will take place on the 6th of
April on the streets of Düsseldorf. More information about this action can
be found at http://www.netzzensur.de/index_en.html

ODEM asks concerned users of the Internet to sign their declaration for
the freedom of information. First signers already include Richard
Stallman, Iac Clarke, journalist organizations like the "reporters without
borders", scientists and politicians.

  http://www.odem.org/informationsfreiheit/en/



Contact persons:

- Questions according internet censorship in germany in 
  general:
  Alvar Freude, alvar@a-blast.org, http://alvar.a-blast.org/, 
  Tel. ++49 (1 79) 13 46 47 1
  
- Questions according Chaos Computer Club (CCC):
  Andy Müller-Maguhn, andy@ccc.de, http://www.ccc.de/, 
  Tel. ++49 (30) 30 87 17 15

- Questions according to real live demonstration in
  Düsseldorf:
  Lars Weiler, pylon@duesseldorf.ccc.de, 
  Tel. ++49 (1 71) 1 96 32 58



-- 
// Unterschreiben!      http://www.odem.org/informationsfreiheit/
// Internet am Telefon: http://www.teletrust.info/
// Das freieste Medium? http://www.odem.org/insert_coin/
// Blaster:             http://www.assoziations-blaster.de/





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