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.
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Filed Under: betting, gambling, germany, site blocking
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Nazi stuff?
They are pretty militant about not even allowing speech on that topic I'm remembering correctly.
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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
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Demonoid anyone ?
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Nice
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Re: Nazi stuff?
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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.
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Re: Nazi stuff?
Tremendous amounts of detail about the Nazis in German Wikipedia in general.
They see it as a matter of context.
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