4 ms·

Well, this is idiotic. What's going on over here at the moment? First they want to regulate streamers and levie taxes on them, now this.

onli 10y ago
Well, that happens if you have a conservative government which does not understand technology. Positions in agencies like this get filled by people with no clue, advocates and bureaucrats who don't understand where the law ends try taking on the world, using their small little letters. Even sending them into the sovjet union (in 2017, they even have time machines!) - you can see how old the responsible people are, in which century their thinking was formed. But, to be fair, Germany was always crazy like this. There was always censorship of media (trying to have developers registered stems from that), that goes back to when Germany was a collection of small kingdoms. Add the conversative mentality of its people (when book printing was invented, they decried the harmful habit of reading too much) and you have to end up with that backwards, crazy and megalomaniac little country Germany is today. And I speak here as German.
- catdog 10y ago
  > Well, that happens if you have a conservative government which does not understand technology. Sometimes it's even scarier when they do and discover what great capabilities for surveillance and control it can offer.
  - onli 10y ago
    They do. The BND is using those capabilities to spy on all germans and the whole world, with a little help from our american friends. Those are not the same clueless people that end up in the regulation agencies.
- matt4077 10y ago
  I always try to find an explanation that makes sense and assumes good faith before going for incompetence and corruption: These cases arise because of legislation that has not been updated to account for new technology. If you're charged with regulating a newly-liberated telecom market in 1992, it makes sense to require "telecommunication providers" to register as a first step to monitor developments in the market. With the internet, you suddenly have thousands of people and companies that fit the letter of the law. You tell the politicians that maybe something should be done, but it doesn't really appear to be important so they'll wait to stick it into a general overhaul of the legislation that's on the horizon, and do more urgent stuff in the meantime. But, as the guy/gal tasked with this register, all that matters is the actual law, and you're pretty sure it applies. What now? You could just disregard the law. You probably won't even get in trouble, because it's unlikely they'd notice anyway, nor would it cause any harm. But sending out these letters defying common sense is actually the better course of action: First, it protect you in case something does happen. You never know the creativity of people – someone, somewhere might figure out how to die from an unregistered chat client. More importantly, it puts the issue on the agenda and parliament will have mercy with you and update the law soon(ish). And that's actually quite important, because while it may seem innocuous to ignore a stupid law in a case like this, you don't want that practice to spread. The rule of law is pretty important – and I'm not speaking of dictatorships here, but simply knowing, as a citizen, what to expect from your interactions with the bureaucracy. Example: Should I buy that open lot downtown and build a house? Well the law says it can't be build because it's too close to the river, but I've heard they usually disregard that law because with the new dam upstream the river no longer floods... -> Legal uncertainty is poisonous for any development.
  - onli 10y ago
    I didn't describe corruption. That positions in those agencies get filled based on political motives is normal. The bureaucrats on the lower levels do not change, but they also don't decide stuff like this. > More importantly, it puts the issue on the agenda and parliament will have mercy with you and update the law soon(ish) Complicated motivations like those don't hold up against Occam's razor. Also, the Telekommunikationsgesetz has been updated multiple times since the 90s. Suffice to say that no one should expect any improvements. Each change was a combination of very bad and very stupid ideas, with some minor improvements, which subsequently got removed before the changes were passed.
- paganel 10y ago
  Your comment reminded me of Heine's views on the Germans of his time. Seems not that much has changed in the last 150 years.
- skocznymroczny 10y ago
  I love how you put in conservative there. As if liberal government doesn't try to curb the internet. The only difference is that conservatives want to censor media "to protect children from hostile values", the liberals want to censor media "to combat hate speech" (to combat opposing political ideas).
  - onli 10y ago
    We don't have liberals in Germany. The FDP is dead, so are the pirates. Don't know what you are talking about.

onli 10y ago

Well, that happens if you have a conservative government which does not understand technology. Positions in agencies like this get filled by people with no clue, advocates and bureaucrats who don't understand where the law ends try taking on the world, using their small little letters. Even sending them into the sovjet union (in 2017, they even have time machines!) - you can see how old the responsible people are, in which century their thinking was formed. But, to be fair, Germany was always crazy like this. There was always censorship of media (trying to have developers registered stems from that), that goes back to when Germany was a collection of small kingdoms. Add the conversative mentality of its people (when book printing was invented, they decried the harmful habit of reading too much) and you have to end up with that backwards, crazy and megalomaniac little country Germany is today. And I speak here as German.

catdog 10y ago
> Well, that happens if you have a conservative government which does not understand technology. Sometimes it's even scarier when they do and discover what great capabilities for surveillance and control it can offer.
- onli 10y ago
  They do. The BND is using those capabilities to spy on all germans and the whole world, with a little help from our american friends. Those are not the same clueless people that end up in the regulation agencies.
matt4077 10y ago
I always try to find an explanation that makes sense and assumes good faith before going for incompetence and corruption: These cases arise because of legislation that has not been updated to account for new technology. If you're charged with regulating a newly-liberated telecom market in 1992, it makes sense to require "telecommunication providers" to register as a first step to monitor developments in the market. With the internet, you suddenly have thousands of people and companies that fit the letter of the law. You tell the politicians that maybe something should be done, but it doesn't really appear to be important so they'll wait to stick it into a general overhaul of the legislation that's on the horizon, and do more urgent stuff in the meantime. But, as the guy/gal tasked with this register, all that matters is the actual law, and you're pretty sure it applies. What now? You could just disregard the law. You probably won't even get in trouble, because it's unlikely they'd notice anyway, nor would it cause any harm. But sending out these letters defying common sense is actually the better course of action: First, it protect you in case something does happen. You never know the creativity of people – someone, somewhere might figure out how to die from an unregistered chat client. More importantly, it puts the issue on the agenda and parliament will have mercy with you and update the law soon(ish). And that's actually quite important, because while it may seem innocuous to ignore a stupid law in a case like this, you don't want that practice to spread. The rule of law is pretty important – and I'm not speaking of dictatorships here, but simply knowing, as a citizen, what to expect from your interactions with the bureaucracy. Example: Should I buy that open lot downtown and build a house? Well the law says it can't be build because it's too close to the river, but I've heard they usually disregard that law because with the new dam upstream the river no longer floods... -> Legal uncertainty is poisonous for any development.
- onli 10y ago
  I didn't describe corruption. That positions in those agencies get filled based on political motives is normal. The bureaucrats on the lower levels do not change, but they also don't decide stuff like this. > More importantly, it puts the issue on the agenda and parliament will have mercy with you and update the law soon(ish) Complicated motivations like those don't hold up against Occam's razor. Also, the Telekommunikationsgesetz has been updated multiple times since the 90s. Suffice to say that no one should expect any improvements. Each change was a combination of very bad and very stupid ideas, with some minor improvements, which subsequently got removed before the changes were passed.
paganel 10y ago
Your comment reminded me of Heine's views on the Germans of his time. Seems not that much has changed in the last 150 years.
skocznymroczny 10y ago
I love how you put in conservative there. As if liberal government doesn't try to curb the internet. The only difference is that conservatives want to censor media "to protect children from hostile values", the liberals want to censor media "to combat hate speech" (to combat opposing political ideas).
- onli 10y ago
  We don't have liberals in Germany. The FDP is dead, so are the pirates. Don't know what you are talking about.