<nettime> Indymedia NL refuses to remove links

["Eveline Lubbers" <evel@xs4all.nl>]

====================================================
Press release

Indymedia NL refuses to remove links to Radikal site despite being
summoned to do so by Deutsche Bahn (German Rail)

On Tuesday the 23rd of April the newsmedium Indymedia NL has received a
letter from a lawfirm representing Deutsche Bahn AG that demands the
immediate removal of an Internet page. The page under attack contains some
links to mirrors of the -long defunct- German periodical Radikal. Two
articles embedded in those mirrors have been the subject of a lawsuit last
week.

DB objects to these articles because they contain instructions on how to
obstruct the heavily critized German nuclear transports. By way of a
judicial procedure, Internet provider XS4ALL has been ordered to remove
these pages from the homepage of one of its subscribers. After this
removal, many mirrors have sprung up all over the world. The letter from
DB states that if the Indymedia page containing links to these mirrors is
not removed immediately, they will sue.

Indymedia NL adamantly refuses to comply with DB's demand to remove the
links for the following three reasons:

Firstly the links in question do not directly lead to the disputed
articles, but to mirrors in which the articles are contained. The articles
therefore are at least three "clicks" away (from Indymedia to the mirror
and from the mirror to the content page of the Radikal editions and from
there to the articles). Complying with the request from DB would mean
jeopardizing the fundaments of the Internet, since linking is the very
essence of this medium.

Secondly, Indymedia NL is part of a worldwide independent news network,
entirely produced by volunteers. Using the open publishing system,
everyone can freely publish his or her news in the form of text, audio,
video or photos. Principally Indymedia NL does not want to censor or
prevent people from placing links to news sources. We believe that
everybody has the right to place links, notwithstanding the content
available through these links.

Thirdly, Indymedia NL thinks that conforming to the demand would
jeopardize the national and international freedom of the press, which is
the basis of every democratic system. The possibility for censorship of
hyperlinks in this way would have severe negative consequences for
relevant provision of information in all layers of society (media,
education, etc). Indymedia NL therefore calls for support in this very
fundamental issue. Indymedia stresses that the issue is about references
to freely available pages which are outside of Indymedia's responsibility.

Updates on this case will be available on 
http://www.indymedia.nl
The disputed webpage is at
http://www.indymedia.nl/2002/04/3281.shtml

Donations should be made payable to the Dutch bank account 56.03.59.349 on
behalf of Stichting SBIP, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Any form of legal
expertise is also very welcome.

More information:
info@indymedia.nl
=======================================

______________________________________________
Project Manager Multimedia
Women's Studies, Institute of Media and Re/presentation
Utrecht University, the Netherlands
http://www.indymedia.nl
http://www.let.uu.nl/~ingrid.hoofd/personal/
http://nextgenderation.let.uu.nl


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Imc-juridisch@indymedia.nl
http://mail.indymedia.nl/mailman/listinfo/imc-juridisch

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