German Court: ISP Must Not Block Access To Foreign Sites, Even If They Are Illegal
from the makes-a-change dept
Against a background where some European courts are telling ISPs that they must block access to certain sites (in Finland and the UK, for example), this news from Germany comes as a refreshing change (original German article in Der Spiegel):
Deutsche Telekom must allow access to online betting sites, even if they are illegal in Germany. So ruled the Cologne Administrative Court on Thursday.
This follows a decision in Düsseldorf at the end of last year, where a judge had ruled that Vodafone and Telekom were not responsible for the content of Web sites, because they played no role in selecting material, and therefore should not be forced to block access. Moreover, the latest judgment can be used as a precedent in similar cases, according to the Der Spiegel report.
Of course, this reasoning also applies in those jurisdictions where ISPs have been forced to censor sites. This emphasizes the contradictory rules that are being applied across the EU, and the fact that the law in this area is by no means settled.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: betting, gambling, germany, site blocking
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Nazi stuff?
They are pretty militant about not even allowing speech on that topic I'm remembering correctly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Nazi stuff?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Nazi stuff?
Tremendous amounts of detail about the Nazis in German Wikipedia in general.
They see it as a matter of context.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cologne has been rather innovation friendly outside of the one chamber that gives everyone and their dog the names to an IP adress on the base of alleged infringement, regardless if its substantiated or not
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Demonoid anyone ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nice
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
First of all this judgement only applies in North Rhine-Westphalia. Other Courts may follow, but it's not binding for other German States.
Secondly, the judgement is not effective and may still be subject to an appeal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]