Comments on: Law and Censor http://impleri.net/2007/06/law_and_censor/ faith in progress Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:08:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7-RC1 hourly 1 By: Ton Zijlstra http://impleri.net/2007/06/law_and_censor/comment-page-1/#comment-8459 Ton Zijlstra Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:58:14 +0000 http://impleri.net/2007/06/law_and_censor/#comment-8459 Hi Christopher, The whole point of the protest is that there seems to be no legal reason whatsoever in German law that requires Flickr to do this. In general German law, and EU law as well as laws are being 'synchronized' more and more across the continent, is way more liberal and relaxed towards anything that might be considered 'moderate' or 'restricted' in the US or Flickrs TOS e.g. The reason Flickr, after long days of silence and hesitation and then more implicit than explicit, gives is age verification. The thing is, age verification isn't a new requirement and there are loads of ways that Yahoo Germany could use (as e.g. the whole on-line x-rated business in Germany do) other than locking everybody's filters in the Safe setting. On top of that, not a single word on rolling out this new 'feature' for German users that want to use the German version of Flickr was communicated by Flickr. People were just cut off. That in itself coincidentally IS illegal under German consumer law. Unilaterally changing services without announcement and the option of consumers to opt out with a refund is a breach of contract. Not even to mention the fact that Swiss and Austrian users that keep Yahoo.de ID's (as opposed to Yahoo.com ID's) because then they can use a German language interface find themselves also unable to change their filter settings. So the whole uproar is about 1 Flickr doing something nobody sees a reason for (no other webservices operating in Germany see the need to take this step, except Yahoo/Flickr) 2 Flickr not communicating at all about the reasons why, nor giving information about what they are currently trying to do about it. 3 Flickr not consulting the community they're so proud of to see whether German customers see other solutions that might escape Flickr staff trying to interpret German rules through an American culture filter. What I myself find most schocking is that apparantly Flickr/Yahoo management actually believe that it is really possible that European and German law are so draconian that the only feasible option is blocking all filters. They must have never seen the amount of nudity that passes for advertising on tv and public transport this side of the Atlantic. best, Ton Hi Christopher,
The whole point of the protest is that there seems to be no legal reason whatsoever in German law that requires Flickr to do this.

In general German law, and EU law as well as laws are being ’synchronized’ more and more across the continent, is way more liberal and relaxed towards anything that might be considered ‘moderate’ or ‘restricted’ in the US or Flickrs TOS e.g.

The reason Flickr, after long days of silence and hesitation and then more implicit than explicit, gives is age verification. The thing is, age verification isn’t a new requirement and there are loads of ways that Yahoo Germany could use (as e.g. the whole on-line x-rated business in Germany do) other than locking everybody’s filters in the Safe setting.

On top of that, not a single word on rolling out this new ‘feature’ for German users that want to use the German version of Flickr was communicated by Flickr. People were just cut off. That in itself coincidentally IS illegal under German consumer law. Unilaterally changing services without announcement and the option of consumers to opt out with a refund is a breach of contract.

Not even to mention the fact that Swiss and Austrian users that keep Yahoo.de ID’s (as opposed to Yahoo.com ID’s) because then they can use a German language interface find themselves also unable to change their filter settings.

So the whole uproar is about
1 Flickr doing something nobody sees a reason for (no other webservices operating in Germany see the need to take this step, except Yahoo/Flickr)
2 Flickr not communicating at all about the reasons why, nor giving information about what they are currently trying to do about it.
3 Flickr not consulting the community they’re so proud of to see whether German customers see other solutions that might escape Flickr staff trying to interpret German rules through an American culture filter.

What I myself find most schocking is that apparantly Flickr/Yahoo management actually believe that it is really possible that European and German law are so draconian that the only feasible option is blocking all filters. They must have never seen the amount of nudity that passes for advertising on tv and public transport this side of the Atlantic.

best,

Ton

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