German Pirate Party to Win Several Seats in Germany!
The Swedish Pirate Party winning one seat in the European Parliament was a major milestone for the party on the world stage. It inspired several people in different countries to form their own Pirate Party in different countries around the world. So, one can only imagine what it means for the international movement [...]
German Green Party Defends P2P Legalization Tax
A “culture flatrate” would be used to compensate copyright holders in exchange for legalized file-sharing, the fee presumably based on a user’s connection speed with an exemption for those who can’t afford it.
The German Green Party has been discussing a “culture flatrate” for a while now. The idea is to present a third option to [...]
Masthead Editorials Critical of Canadian Surveillance Legislation
There’s a pair of editorials found in two major news outlets in Canada that are critical of the new surveillance legislation the Conservative government of Canada tables in parliament. Both seem to agree that the potential for abuse exists with the new “tools” that would be granted to police. We look at a [...]
German Parliament Passes Web Censorship Legislation
Controversial or not, the proposed web censorship legislation is now one step closer to becoming law in Germany. All this after one member decided to become a member of the Pirate Party because he opposed it. While the government argues that the legislation is suppose to stop child pornography, many international examples suggest [...]
German Pirate Party Now Has a Seat in German Reichstag
While the German Pirate Party failed to gain enough support to win a seat, fate, it seems, had other plans for the party. A German Social Democrat, Jörg Taussig, was reportedly so fed up with the way the German censorship debates were going, that he dropped his membership as a Social Democrat and became [...]
German Mandatory DNS Blacklist Blasted By Critics, Protests Emerge
France, Australia, Britain, Canada, Iran and China aren’t the only countries either deliberating on or actively using mandatory DNS blacklists. It seems that there is an all-out PR war in Germany over the governments plan to pass a law which mandates the use of web blacklists. That didn’t go over too well with [...]
German Report – Copyright Industry Retreats Lawsuit Against Filesharer
When a file-sharer was issued a cease and desist letter, a German court was asked to give a default judgement against the user. The file-sharer countered the claim, thus forcing the copyright industry lawyer via the German courts to substantiate their claims. The result? The lawyers withdrew their claim.
One of the akiles-heel’s [...]
German Lawyer Speaks About Risks of Using One-Click File Hosters
At the end of last month, we highlighted a very interesting case where Rapidshare sent personal information to rights holders of an uploader who leaked the latest Metallica album prior to the release date. Gulli has been covering the case for quite a while and has now asked a German lawyer what his thoughts [...]
Report – Rapidshare Gave Personal Information to Rights Holders to Assist Home Raid of Uploader
For a while, Rapidshare was becoming an alternative to BitTorrent. The speeds were great because you are connected to a server and there’s plenty of content to get through different search engines throughout the web. For one user, who evidently uploaded Metallica’s Death Magnetic album days before it’s official street date release, it [...]
German Book Publishers Want to Add Rapidshare to ISP Blacklist
Two days ago, we pointed to a story about the German government forcing ISPs to agree to a web filtering program in the country. There were fears that the filters would be used as a tool for censorship – it clearly didn’t take long for that to happen.
A report from German news site Heise.de [...]
