// COMPLETE THREAD

Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)

15 expanded posts ยท every known parent and child

NODE 3c8d72bfRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
At 12:07 AM 1/28/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
>* the Germans recently arrested an American who landed in Germany
>somewhere, as part of a trip. It seems he had been involved with the
>production of Neo-Nazi material, somewhere out west. This was the last I
>heard about the story. Sorry, I'm going from carbon-based memory.
>


He was grabbed in Denmark and extradited to Germany so you'd have to avoid
most of the EU.  

DCF
NODE dd5a4e5eRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
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>>>>> "DCF" == Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com> writes:

DCF> At 12:07 AM 1/28/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
>> * the Germans recently arrested an American who landed in Germany
>> somewhere, as part of a trip. It seems he had been involved with
>> the production of Neo-Nazi material, somewhere out west. This was
>> the last I heard about the story. Sorry, I'm going from
>> carbon-based memory.
>> 

DCF> He was grabbed in Denmark and extradited to Germany so you'd have
DCF> to avoid most of the EU.

It's illegal in Germany to publish material denying the holocaust.  In
the same moment this guy sent his book (?) per snail-mail from Canada
to Germany he commited a crime here in Germany.

I don't think it's astonishing that Denmark imprissoned this guy and
transported him to Germany.  It's a normal thing that one country
imprisons a criminal another country is searching and the delivers
him/her to the country in question.


Have a nice day!

Olmur

- --
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NODE 4aa36f25Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
olmur@dwarf.bb.bawue.de writes:
 > It's illegal in Germany to publish material denying the holocaust.  In
 > the same moment this guy sent his book XXX per snail-mail from Canada
 > to Germany he commited a crime here in Germany.

Hi.  President M5 of Psychonia here.  I'm afraid we've recently
enacted legislation in the tiny nation of Psychonia that makes it
illegal to parenthesize question marks in electronic mail messages,
because such acts are a direct offense to some of the members of
primitive hill tribes who live in remote portions of our land.

I issue this warning not to set foot in Psychonia or any of the
countries with whom we share extradition treaties, or you will be
arrested and brought here for trial, conviction, and punishment.

______c_____________________________________________________________________
Mike M Nally * Tivoli Systems * Austin TX   * I want more, I want more,
       m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com          * I want more, I want more ...
      <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101>         *_______________________________
NODE dca79f9dRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
On Sun, 28 Jan 1996 21:41 +0100 (MET), Olmur wrote:

> It's illegal in Germany to publish material denying the holocaust.  In
> the same moment this guy sent his book (?) per snail-mail from Canada
> to Germany he commited a crime here in Germany.

How pray tell is a person in Canada supposed to know that?  I (in the
US) certainly had no idea Germany had such a law.

Are you saying that, if I ran a bookstore, and accepted international
mail orders, I would have to screen every order to ensure I did not
ship something offensive to the German government?  And if I did fill
such an order, and without ever having set foot in Germany, I could be
arrested on my next trip to Europe, extradited to Germany, and
imprisoned for doing something that is constitutionally protected in
the US?

Alternatively, what if I were to post to usenet a message denying the
Holocaust, and one person in Germany retrieved that message.  Would I
then be subject to arrest and extradition to Germany?


Mike Duvos wrote in another message:

> It is interesting to note that there is no specific law
> prohibiting free speech for Holocaust Agnostics in Germany. The
> actual laws under which such cases are prosecuted are libel laws,
> which have been liberally interpreted to mean that one may not
> "libel" deceased Jews as a class or their memory in the minds of
> their surviving relatives.

If in fact this is merely a judicial interpretation of an apparently
unrelated law, it just plain ridiculous to expect people in other
countries to be aware of it.


If this is really what Germany wants, then it sounds like time to
totally cut Germany off from the internet, simply in self
preservation.  No one can reasonably be expected to research even the
clearly-written laws worldwide that might conceivably apply in such
cases, much less far-fetched judicial interpretations of such laws.


Olmur continued:

> I don't think it's astonishing that Denmark imprissoned this guy and
> transported him to Germany.  It's a normal thing that one country
> imprisons a criminal another country is searching and the delivers
> him/her to the country in question.

I, on the other hand, find this QUITE astonishing.  His actions were
legal in both Canada and Denmark (probably everywhere in the world
except Germany), and he did nothing in Germany.

Of course, I find the US actions in kidnapping people in other
countries quite indefensible also, but at least in those cases the
persons involved clearly knew they were violating at least US law, and
in most cases were violating their local laws as well.
NODE 9f60da09Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
> Are you saying that, if I ran a bookstore, and accepted international
> mail orders, I would have to screen every order to ensure I did not
> ship something offensive to the German government?

urrr.  yes?  anyone doing international shipping has to comply with
customs regulations anyway.  this isn't really any different.  (except
when telecom or broadcast media become involved.)

(excuse me while I see if I can ship smallpox to germany.)
--
NODE 81527baeRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
> 
> Are you saying that, if I ran a bookstore, and accepted international
> mail orders, I would have to screen every order to ensure I did not
> ship something offensive to the German government?  And if I did fill
> such an order, and without ever having set foot in Germany, I could be
> arrested on my next trip to Europe, extradited to Germany, and
> imprisoned for doing something that is constitutionally protected in
> the US?

	When I worked for Walnut Creek CDROM they had to remove
"Castle Wolfenstein" from one of their CDs because they wouldn't have
been able to ship to Germany if they didn't.

-- 
Sameer Parekh					Voice:   510-601-9777x3
Community ConneXion, Inc.			FAX:     510-601-9734
The Internet Privacy Provider			Dialin:  510-658-6376
http://www.c2.org/ (or login as "guest")		sameer@c2.org
NODE 54300e92Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
Very little crypto relevance in the following...

lull@acm.org (John Lull) writes:

> On Sun, 28 Jan 1996 21:41 +0100 (MET), Olmur wrote:
>
> > It's illegal in Germany to publish material denying the holocaust.  In
> > the same moment this guy sent his book (?) per snail-mail from Canada
> > to Germany he commited a crime here in Germany.
>
> How pray tell is a person in Canada supposed to know that?  I (in the
> US) certainly had no idea Germany had such a law.

Ignorance of the law is not a defense. How is a reasonable person supposed
to know that it's illegal to take >$10K in cash out of the country without
some paperwork? Yet one can be jailed for that. :-)

> Are you saying that, if I ran a bookstore, and accepted international
> mail orders, I would have to screen every order to ensure I did not
> ship something offensive to the German government?  And if I did fill
> such an order, and without ever having set foot in Germany, I could be
> arrested on my next trip to Europe, extradited to Germany, and
> imprisoned for doing something that is constitutionally protected in
> the US?

I recall that the former Soviet Union had a similar "long arm" interpretation
of its laws against anti-Soviet libel: if you ran a bookstore in the U.S. that
solds anti-Soviet materials and then came to visit the U.S.S.R., you could in
principle be arrested, tried, and convicted.

> Alternatively, what if I were to post to usenet a message denying the
> Holocaust, and one person in Germany retrieved that message.  Would I
> then be subject to arrest and extradition to Germany?

Certainly, if you posted an anti-Soviet article to Usenet from the U.S., and it
reached the former Soviet Union, you would be guilty of anti-Soviet libel.

> If this is really what Germany wants, then it sounds like time to
> totally cut Germany off from the internet, simply in self
> preservation.

I'm sure this is what the German government and many German people really want.
But, would you also argue that the former Soviet Union should not have been
allowed on Internet because some of the information that would enter it via the
internet would have been illegal there? I read that Singapore is similarly
trying to restrict its citizens' access to the net. I think it would be more
honorable to provide Germans with tools to access the information they want,
even it violates their laws that we consider to be unjust.

---

Dr. Dimitri Vulis
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps
NODE d6b7d278Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
On Sun, 28 Jan 1996 22:18:28 -0500 (EST), Dr. Vulis wrote:

> Very little crypto relevance in the following...

Agreed.  I'll not be posting further on this topic here.  If you'd
care to pursue this E-mail, I have no objection.


> lull@acm.org (John Lull) writes:

> > If this is really what Germany wants, then it sounds like time to
> > totally cut Germany off from the internet, simply in self
> > preservation.

> I'm sure this is what the German government and many German people really want.

If so, then they have the power to make that decision, and to
(largely) enforce it.  By doing so, however, they would (and should)
lose all the benefits of the internet as well.


> But, would you also argue that the former Soviet Union should not have been
> allowed on Internet because some of the information that would enter it via the
> internet would have been illegal there? I read that Singapore is similarly
> trying to restrict its citizens' access to the net.

I would argue that ANY country which actively tries to restrict
information providers in other countries through these "long arm of
the law" tactics, ought to be banished from the internet. 

If France wants to outlaw postings in English, I have no legitimate
right to complain -- so long as they limit it to postings from France.
If they were to begin arresting those from England, or Canada, or the
US, however, for posting in English, they would have gone too far.

Attempting to limit what comes into your country via filtering,
restrictions on your own carriers, prosecution of your own citizens or
other residents of your country for violations of your own laws, etc.
is one thing.  Trying to apply your laws to those in other countries,
however, is quite another.


> I think it would be more
> honorable to provide Germans with tools to access the information they want,
> even it violates their laws that we consider to be unjust.

Developing tools to access information is worthwhile.  But successfull
attacks on those providing information makes access tools worthless.
If the information simply isn't there, all the nice access tools in
the world can't create it.
NODE f0972d3cRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
lull@acm.org (John Lull) writes:
> On Sun, 28 Jan 1996 22:18:28 -0500 (EST), Dr. Vulis wrote:
>
> > Very little crypto relevance in the following...
>
> Agreed.  I'll not be posting further on this topic here.  If you'd
> care to pursue this E-mail, I have no objection.

This should be my last comment to the list in this thread...

> > lull@acm.org (John Lull) writes:
>
> > > If this is really what Germany wants, then it sounds like time to
> > > totally cut Germany off from the internet, simply in self
> > > preservation.
>
> > I'm sure this is what the German government and many German people really w
>
> If so, then they have the power to make that decision, and to
> (largely) enforce it.  By doing so, however, they would (and should)
> lose all the benefits of the internet as well.

Even if 99% of Germans don't wish to be on the net, and 1% do, it would be
an honorable thing to help that 1%; e.g. by providing the tools to
circumvent their laws that we consider to be unjust. IMO, It's not fair to
blame each and every inhabitant of a country for the actions of their
government, even if it's democratically elected.

> Developing tools to access information is worthwhile.  But successfull
> attacks on those providing information makes access tools worthless.
> If the information simply isn't there, all the nice access tools in
> the world can't create it.

So, develop the tools to make the (illegal) flow of information easier and
the prosecution more difficult. E.g., the former Soviet Union couldn't stop
its people from listening to Western propaganda on short-wave radio,
although it was illegal, and more repressive governments did confiscate all
short-wave radios in the past.

---

Dr. Dimitri Vulis
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps
NODE a9760a24Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
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>>>>> "John" Lull <lull@acm.org> writes:

John> On Sun, 28 Jan 1996 21:41 +0100 (MET), Olmur wrote:
>> It's illegal in Germany to publish material denying the holocaust.
>> In the same moment this guy sent his book (?) per snail-mail from
>> Canada to Germany he commited a crime here in Germany.

John> How pray tell is a person in Canada supposed to know that?  I
John> (in the US) certainly had no idea Germany had such a law.

Not knowing a law doesn't mean that I'm not liable for breaking it.


John> Are you saying that, if I ran a bookstore, and accepted
John> international mail orders, I would have to screen every order to
John> ensure I did not ship something offensive to the German
John> government?

Denying the holocaust is not 'something offensive to the German
government' but something that hurts the feeling of the people whose
relatives were murdered by the Nazis.

Free speech ends where other people can reasonable claim that their
feelings are badly hurt.


John> And if I did fill such an order, and without ever having set
John> foot in Germany, I could be arrested on my next trip to Europe,
John> extradited to Germany, and imprisoned for doing something that
John> is constitutionally protected in the US?

Is it constitutionally protected in US to knowingly hurt other
people's feelings and to trample on graves?????


John> Alternatively, what if I were to post to usenet a message
John> denying the Holocaust, and one person in Germany retrieved that
John> message.  Would I then be subject to arrest and extradition to
John> Germany?

Interesting question.  I assume from a formal standpointyou were, but
practically it might not be possible to proof that you sent the
message.


John> Mike Duvos wrote in another message:

>> It is interesting to note that there is no specific law prohibiting
>> free speech for Holocaust Agnostics in Germany. The actual laws
>> under which such cases are prosecuted are libel laws, which have
>> been liberally interpreted to mean that one may not "libel"
>> deceased Jews as a class or their memory in the minds of their
>> surviving relatives.

John> If in fact this is merely a judicial interpretation of an
John> apparently unrelated law, it just plain ridiculous to expect
John> people in other countries to be aware of it.

Mike's information is old.  Meanwhile it's explicitely forbidden to
deny the holocaust.


John> If this is really what Germany wants, then it sounds like time
John> to totally cut Germany off from the internet, simply in self
John> preservation.  No one can reasonably be expected to research
John> even the clearly-written laws worldwide that might conceivably
John> apply in such cases, much less far-fetched judicial
John> interpretations of such laws.

As said above: the law is explicite.  When I trade with another
country of course I have to obey this country's laws.  I mean if I
visit US I have to obey US-law.  If I know it or not.  If you visit
Germany, you have to obey German law.  If you know it or not.  The
same is with trade.


John> Olmur continued:

>> I don't think it's astonishing that Denmark imprissoned this guy
>> and transported him to Germany.  It's a normal thing that one
>> country imprisons a criminal another country is searching and the
>> delivers him/her to the country in question.

John> I, on the other hand, find this QUITE astonishing.  His actions
John> were legal in both Canada and Denmark (probably everywhere in
John> the world except Germany), and he did nothing in Germany.

He imported illegal stuff into Germany.  If I import weapons to US
without a licence I might be imprisoned on my next visit there, too.


Due to our history publishing NAZI-propaganda is forbidden in Germany.
The big majority in Germany agrees with this view, that
NAZI-propaganda doesn't fall under 'free speech'. Some neo-NAZIs
publish their books in other countries and then illegally transfer
them to Germany.

BTW, many European countries forbid publishing NAZI-propaganda.  And
as far as I know Denmark plans to change their law, too.


John> Of course, I find the US actions in kidnapping people in other
John> countries quite indefensible also, but at least in those cases
John> the persons involved clearly knew they were violating at least
John> US law, and in most cases were violating their local laws as
John> well.

How do you know that they know?  How do you know that the guy in
question didn't know?


Olmur
- --
"If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy" --- P. Zimmermann
      Please encipher your mail!  Contact me, if you need assistance.

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NODE 60058b43Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
olmur@dwarf.bb.bawue.de (Olmur) writes:

 > Free speech ends where other people can reasonable claim
 > that their feelings are badly hurt.

Excuse me?  That line is definitely .sig file fodder.

 > Is it constitutionally protected in US to knowingly hurt
 > other people's feelings and to trample on graves?????

Of course it is.  What a silly question.  My feelings get hurt on
Usenet almost every day and you don't see me whining about it.

 > Mike's information is old.  Meanwhile it's explicitely
 > forbidden to deny the holocaust.

I'm so pleased to hear you have updated your laws with this new
progressive "hurt feelings" doctrine.  Obviously "PC" translates
quite well into the German language.

 > Due to our history publishing NAZI-propaganda is forbidden
 > in Germany. The big majority in Germany agrees with this
 > view, that NAZI-propaganda doesn't fall under 'free speech'.

Much as the Third Reich took the view that anti-Nazi speech
wasn't protected.  Your country hasn't changed its authoritarian
perspective on freedom of personal expression.  All it has done
is put a different set of publicly supported items on the
official censorship list.

Didn't the Germans learn anything from World War II?

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $
NODE 98838656Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos) writes:

> olmur@dwarf.bb.bawue.de (Olmur) writes:
>
>  > Free speech ends where other people can reasonable claim
>  > that their feelings are badly hurt.
>
> Excuse me?  That line is definitely .sig file fodder.

Olmur, you've hurt my feeleings. Go away. :-)

>  > Is it constitutionally protected in US to knowingly hurt
>  > other people's feelings and to trample on graves?????
>
> Of course it is.  What a silly question.  My feelings get hurt on
> Usenet almost every day and you don't see me whining about it.

Physically trampling on graves may be against some sort of laws.
Inciting others to trample on graves is speech.

>  > Due to our history publishing NAZI-propaganda is forbidden
>  > in Germany. The big majority in Germany agrees with this
>  > view, that NAZI-propaganda doesn't fall under 'free speech'.
>
> Much as the Third Reich took the view that anti-Nazi speech
> wasn't protected.  Your country hasn't changed its authoritarian
> perspective on freedom of personal expression.  All it has done
> is put a different set of publicly supported items on the
> official censorship list.
>
> Didn't the Germans learn anything from World War II?

Evidently not. It would be an honorable thing to help Germans (who may
well be a minotiry) break the laws that we consider to be unjust.

---

Dr. Dimitri Vulis
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps
NODE e0a8948eRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
>Is it constitutionally protected in US to knowingly hurt other
>people's feelings and to trample on graves?????

Yes.  Free speech for the nonoffensive is not free speech at all.

BTW, I am Jewish.
--
Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, karromde@nyx.cs.du.edu;
    http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~arromdee)

"Snow?" "It's sort of like white, lumpy, rain." --Gilligan's Island
NODE 76bba1aaRe: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee) writes:

> >Is it constitutionally protected in US to knowingly hurt other
> >people's feelings and to trample on graves?????
>
> Yes.  Free speech for the nonoffensive is not free speech at all.

A couple of years ago I'd probably howl about the hypocricy of one of
Serdar's chief censors daring to utter the words "free speech" in public,
but this time I simply laughed for a few minutes. Thanks, Ken.

ObCP: I've been encouraging the descandants of Serdar to make use
of cpunk remailers.

---

Dr. Dimitri Vulis
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps
NODE fec00604Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
olmur@dwarf.bb.bawue.de writes:
 > Free speech ends where other people can reasonable claim that their
 > feelings are badly hurt.

Ai yai yai.

No, in fact free speech ends when people roll over and give up.


______c_____________________________________________________________________
Mike M Nally * Tivoli Systems * Austin TX   * I want more, I want more,
       m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com          * I want more, I want more ...
      <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101>         *_______________________________