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February 4, 2012
Web pirates won't have internet cut off
Published: 3 Mar 10 09:05 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20100303-25619.html
Internet pirates who repeatedly download illegally copied music, movies and other content will not have their internet service cut off in Germany, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said Wednesday.
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“I consider blocking the internet to be fundamentally the wrong way to go, even for copyright infringements,” she said.
Some 39 countries are negotiating an arrangement to work together to battle internet piracy, called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The details of how they will work, and what instruments or penalties they would use against internet pirates, are unclear because the discussions are still at an early stage, sources said.
But leaks indicated many voices in the negotiations wanted a widespread agreement that internet service providers should take greater responsibility.
The providers would effectively be deputised by law enforcement authorities to watch out for copyright infringements by their customers and cut off their internet service when they were caught.
But Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the government was united against such an approach.
“The government will not accept any agreement under international law that includes capping the internet,'' Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. ''The refusal to block the internet is the common position of all the government. We determined in the coalition agreement that no initiative would resort to the legal blocking of the internet.''
Such a legislation – under which the internet service provider would cut off the customer after three infringements – has already been passed by several European Union countries. France has passed a law and Britain is discussing a similar one.
The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
1. Make it easy to get English-speaking TV. German TV sucks and I am bloody tired of having to pay GEZ for it, when all I use my TV is to play XBox and watch BBC News and CNN. I know there is a British Astra floating around, but its offering seems not good enough to bother and getting a grey market Sky setup is a pain in the ass. Why aren't there any satellite/cable companies covering this abyssal market gap? I have seen 3rd world countries with better TV offerings.
2. If I want to watch a TV show, well I do not want to watch it in German because the translations are effin horrible. I understand I am not in an English speaking country. What pisses me off is the wait between a show being shown in the US/Canada/UK and it getting here on DVD so I can watch it in its original language. All shows take 6 months to 2 years (or more) to show up on German TV, and then another 6 months to a year for a DVD release. If my calculations are correct, Germany should be getting Season 4 of the Simpsons on DVD around 2013.
3. For a country that claims that 94% of its population speaks English, I am absolutely stricken dumb by the cinemas in Germany. Watching a movie in its original language, with or without subtitles, is close to impossible (and I live in Hamburg, a supposedly "international" big ass city). I have traveled a lot, and even in places where not 5% of the population speaks English, they show the movies in original language with subtitles (and believe it or not, a lot of people learn English this way!). The excuse has always been "subtitles are distracting". Learn to live with them. It is a small price to pay for waiting another 6 months for the movie to be badly dubbed. Besides, maybe, just maybe, Germans might learn how to pronounce stuff and stop sounding like blabbering idiots (i.e. Westerwave).
1. All standard british channels are free to air on satelite for standard set up cost (over 50 channels)
2. Can't blame germany - DVDs are made and sold by the publisher NBC or whoever - buy them from amazon if your local saturn doesn't stock them
3. Watching the latest movies in original language as soon as they are released is easy in Munich. I heard Hamburg is even friendlier - are you sure you have looked in the right place?
As far as the average german's pronounciation of english - I wish my german was that good :-(