bye bye, censorship?

As you probably now, a bill was passed in Germany some weeks ago introducing internet censorship. Officially – the same argument as in China, by the way – to fight child pornography.

People who actually know things about law and know things about the internet agree though that this won’t help a bit, provides the state with undemocratic instruments of censorship (since the list can’t be looked into or controlled), and was just done because the big elections will be held in September; it’s easy to mobilize people who have no idea about the internet talking about child pornography, you know … especially when you’re conservative, and 80% of your voters are seniors.

Now, something very weird has happened – and the bill will probably not come into effect.

When a new bill is proposed by the German Bundestag, it has to be ratified by the Bundesrat. After that, the president has to sign it – and you have a new law, and we’re no better than China regarding censorship.
The first two things were done, and the law should have been introduced 4 days ago, on the 1st of August. However, it didn’t come into effect.

Why? Because the minister for economic affairs – zu Guttenberg – sent the bill to a European Commission, which is probably the right thing to do, but he sent it after it was ratified by the Bundesrat. That means the Commission has a deadline until the 8th of October to reply, and this will be after the German election (27th of September).

Eventually, there is a German law stating that bills that aren’t signed by the president until the end of the election period cease to exist.

Victory, at last? Shall we try to mass-bribe the Commission into delaying until the 8th of October? Did zu Guttenberg just screw up, or what is this all about?

(Source: SZ.de via Fefe