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Deutsch: Deutschlands Bundespräsident unterzeichnet Internetgesetz gegen seine...

Despite the fact that the German Government had decided not to apply the internet censorship law (Zugangserschwerungsgesetz) proposed by the former Government in April 2009, the new bill was signed on 17 February 2010 by German President Horst Köhler.

The president decided that the Access Impediment Law did not raise any significant concerns related to the compatibility with the German Constitution and that it was meant to fight online child pornography allowing the blocking of offensive web sites.

This is a delicate situation for the government which will need the opposition's support to repeal the legislation. Following the strong and massive opposition to the bill by Internet users and civil rights groups, the government coalition elected in September 2009 decided to put the law on hold, focusing rather on removing Internet offensive content, based on existing laws.

The government was hoping to have more time to draw up another anti-child pornography law that would repeal the Access Impediment Law. "New regulations will quickly be introduced that correspond to the principle of deleting rather than blocking access," said Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on 17 February, adding that the government was decided not to apply the law. Her statement was backed up by the Interior Ministry.

The Working Group on Internet blocking and censorship (Censorship AK) asked for the repeal of the bill in a press release and called for a spontaneous demonstration of the Internet activists for the same goal. The demonstration took place on 17 February in front of the Bellevue Palace.

The Bitkom association, which represents the German IT industry, called on the government to clarify the situation and to quickly repeal the new law. A spokesman from the German Pirate Party said it was "unbelievable" that President Köhler had signed the law into force.

The opposition parties will introduce a bill on 25 February before the Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament, repealing the new law.

New Internet Legislation Embarrasses German Government (18.02.2010)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,678782,00.html

The Working Group on Internet blocking and censorship calls for immediate lifting of Internet blocking law (only in German, 17.02.2010)
http://ak-zensur.de/2010/02/unterzeichnung.html

Spontaneous demonstration in front of Schloss Bellevue (only in German, 18.02.2010)
http://www.netzpolitik.org/2010/dokumentation-der-spontan-demo-vor-sch...

New law to censor internet child pornography (17.02.2010)
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5259255,00.html

No internet censorship in Germany for the next year (18.10.2009)
http://ak-zensur.de/2009/10/access-blocking-germany.html

ZugErschwG signed (only inGerman, 18.02.2010)
http://blog.windfluechter.net/archives/919-ZugErschwG-unterzeichnet.ht...

EDRi-gram: Web blocking gets a reality check (21.10.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number7.20/web-blocking-germany-uk