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The situation is actually quite a bit different from what was presented in the siliconfilter article. I looked into a couple of more established local media out
by philp 15y ago
The situation is actually quite a bit different from what was presented in the siliconfilter article. I looked into a couple of more established local media outlets and it turns out that this fine does not apply to all of Germany. Mr. Weichert strictly targets sites from Schleswig-Holstein ( Population: 2,8M ). This is the only state where he has 'some' legislative power and it remains to be seen how we would be able to target sites from his specific district. I'm sure you can appreciate the technical difficulty. This is also not a new law but a highly controversial interpretation of existing privacy law. There is a tremendous backlash and open opposition coming from high-ranking German politicians regarding this fine. All in all the whole thing looks more like a PR-stunt, it's highly unlikely that website-owners will ever be fined in the near future for Facebook buttons.
- philp 15y agoI'm German btw. Don't want anybody to think I learned that gruesome language for the fun of it...
- tluyben2 15y agoI'm not German, I learned that great language for the fun of it. I wanted to be able to read "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." after I read Gödel, Escher, Bach when I was in college. And read Böll untranslated. Much better than the English versions imho.
- philp 15y agoWow impressive, glad you like the German language :) How do you read Bach though? Is there a notable German Bach other than the composer? What am I missing?
- shabble 15y agoPossibly this: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_E... (That is, the book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter)
- mitchty 15y agoI'm American, whats so bad about it? Was easier to learn than French coming from an English speaking background. Not that I think I'm fluent in either.
- philp 15y agoI wasn't super serious when I said that but comparing German to English ( not that I am fluent ) I have to say that I think English has a simplistic beauty to it that German can't live up to. Whenever someone asks me to translate even the simplest sentence / idiom into German I end up answering, 'you can't really say it that way in German'. German happens to be very particular about the correct choice of words and won't let just mix a bunch of words together like English does. I'll admit that there is some world-class literature / poetry that benefits tremendously from the depths of the German language but I'm neither a poet nor an author, I'm just in it for the practicality. Horribly off-topic btw.
- tluyben2 15y agoThat is true for some cases, but also not for a lot of others. The German language is a great language as is English; there are a lot of sentences and words which pop in my head in German and I cannot translate them adequately in Dutch (my mother tongue) or English and I have the same with Dutch and English. I think you need to read more literature and analyze the beauty of your language; you are missing out if you only go for 'mixing up words' in a practical manner.
- dkersten 15y agoHorribly off-topic btw. Yes, it is. But, while we're off topic, I have to say I really like how in German, words are generally spelled like they are spoken. (I was once fluent, but I don't use it enough, so have forgotten most of it. I can understand it very well still and it does, at least partially, come back to me when I visit Germany, thankfully)
- philp 15y agoI wouldn't really know since I grew up speaking German, but I think this only works one way ( written to spoken). The other way ( hearing a word and being able to spell it ) has to be next to impossible for a non-native speaker. How did you learn to speak German?
- cageface 15y agoMark Twain wrote a satirical but very funny critique of German: http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html
- philp 15y agoI must've emailed that to a 100 people by now. Thank you so much for this gem!
- philp 15y agoI must've emailed that to a 100 people by now. Thank you so much for this gem!
- gnosis 15y agoWhile we're on the subject... An American woman visiting Berlin - intent on hearing Bismarck speak - obtained two tickets for the Reichstag visitors' gallery and enlisted an interpreter to accompany her. Soon after their arrival, Bismarck rose and began to speak. The interpreter, however, simply sat listening with intense concentration. The woman, anxious for him to begin translating, nudged and budged him, to no avail. Finally, unable to control herself any longer, the woman burst out: "What is he saying!?" "Patience, madam," the interpreter replied. "I am waiting for the verb."