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Deutsch: Deutsches Netzsperrengesetz außer Kraft gesetzt

After more than two years of discussions and opposition, on 1 December 2011, the German Parliament has finally taken the decision to drop the Access Impediment Act, the law that proposed blocking access to websites deemed to have child pornographic content.

The decision was already considered by the German Government in April 2011 after the law had proven inefficient for its initial purpose of fighting child pornography and after being largely opposed by freedom activists. An online petition to have the law overturned was signed by 130 000 people. The decision to have such sites blocked was "ineffective, counterproductive and represented the beginning of internet censorship," said EDRi-member Chaos Computer Club.

The law was asking ISPs to ban a list of websites compiled and considered as "dubious" by the Federal Criminal Police Office. As in other cases, the blocking measures proved to be easy to circumvent and therefore inefficient. "Internet blockings are pointless. I need around five minutes to reconfigure my browser if I want to view that material," said programmer and Pirate Party member Stephan Urbach.

According to many experts, the only efficient method is deleting content. "For years, the Internet industry has been working on the continued improvement of successful deletion. This includes securing any evidence to the end of criminal prosecution as well as international cooperation. Now, it only takes us a few days to take illegal content off the net," stated Oliver Süme, Vice-President of German Internet Industry Association.

According to Justice Minister Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the German decision to abolish the Access Impediment Act will influence the decisions taken at the European level.

The next steps are now with the Federal Council that needs to accept the law, the President to sign it and then to be published in the German Federal Law Gazette.

Bundestag looks to delete child pornography websites (2.12.2011)
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15575254,00.html

Access Impediment Act repealed (only in German, 1.12.2011)
http://mogis-verein.de/2011/12/01/zugangserschwerungsgesetz-aufgehoben...

Access Impediment Act repealed (only in German, 1.12.2011)
http://www.internet-law.de/2011/12/zugangserschwerungsgesetz-aufgehobe...

EDRi-gram: German Internet blocking law to be withdrawn (6.04.2011)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number9.7/germany-internet-blocking-law