(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Just five days after the German President Horst Köhler approved the German data retention law that entered into force on 1 January 2008, the German Working group on data retention (Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung) challenged the law in the Federal German Constitutional Court.

The complaint was filed with the Court on 31 December 2007 and, for the first time in the German history, it was backed by 30 000 complainants. The 150-page notice of appeal requested an immediate suspension of the law on the grounds of "apparent unconstitutionality".

The Working Group explains that the appeal is substantiated by the fear that general data retention might severely disrupt free communication in Germany by treating each and every citizen as a potential delinquent.

"According to the complaint, the pervasive logging of communication patterns without reasonable suspicion resembled a serious encroachment upon the basic values of constitutional legality. On the other hand, it would compromise the working basis of professionals such as journalists and criminal prosecutors as well as that of charitable services like crisis lines - all of which relied greatly on the anonymity of both whistle-blowers and people in need. In the future, sensitive contacts and communication would either have to be conducted in person and face-to-face or would have to be abandoned altogether."

The Group is also publishing guidelines and recommendations for safeguarding individuals against the obligatory logging of all telecommunications effective as of 2008.

The constitutional action was backed by protests in several cities in Germany on 31 December 2007 against the new data retention legislation. In Hamburg the critics held a mock funeral for "the death of privacy."

Some of the German ISPs that need to comply with the law by 2009, are also relying of the constitutional challenge to succeed. Frank Simon, managing director of Oldburg-based Ecce Terram explained to Heise: "I reckon the Federal Constitutional Court will overturn the law this year or ask the criminal prosecution authority to suspend it because the music and film industries will overload them with so many complaints that the hunt for terrorists and child pornographers will be seriously hampered."

Constitutional complaint filed against German Telecomms Data Retention Act (31.12.2007)
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/184/79/lang,en/

In German
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/blogcategory/27/79/lang,...

Germans File Mass Lawsuit Against Sweeping Data Retention Law (31.12.2007)
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3025009,00.html

Data retention: ISPs rely on constitutional appeals and exception rules (10.01.2008)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/101624/

EDRi-gram: German Parliament adopted the data retention law (21.11.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.22/german-retention-law

EDRi-gram: Largest anti-surveillance street protest in Germany for 20 years (26.09.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.18/liberty-instead-of-fear