(2018)
German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#12This is about just a few publications from just three authors. The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. I think it's getting harder and harder for organizations like Project Gutenberg to do this kind of work - it's just too easy to get into trouble.
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#13Maybe somebody can explain why this US-based project has to respond to German court rulings in any way. Is there any reason not to just toss any scare letters in the trash can or say "Jump off a bridge, we're not in Germany"?
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#14This is about just a few publications from just three authors. The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. I think it's getting harder and harder for organizations like Project Gutenberg to do this kind of work - it's just too easy to get into trouble.
> The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content.
Can you elaborate? Because as far as I'm aware, thanks to the 1st amendment, not a single book is banned in the US. At most they're removed from public or school libraries.
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#15This is about just a few publications from just three authors. The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. I think it's getting harder and harder for organizations like Project Gutenberg to do this kind of work - it's just too easy to get into trouble.
> The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. Can you elaborate? Because as far as I'm aware, thanks to the 1st amendment, not a single book is banned in the US. At most they're removed from public or school libraries.
Correct, it looks like censorship, rather than out-right banning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_...
...but it's not like the United States has never tried to ban books in the recent past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchist_Cookbook#Legalit...
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#16Wow, this is weird. I'm from Switzerland and I'm getting blocked since "I'm from Germany". They say to check Maxmind's DB and it clearly says Switzerland too.
This reminds me of services blocking Switzerland because of EU regulations, even though it's not part of the EU. But country-specific blocking and misreading Switzerland for Germany, that's a new level.
* it says they update the DB every month, so that could be an issue. It just seems a bit too wrong for me.
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#17More details are available on their operation website: https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html It's a bit of a pity, especially when the law firm, Waldorf Frommer, doesn't seem to respect GDPR on their staff listing page: https://www.waldorf-frommer.de/team/
In what sense aren’t they respecting GDPR? Most likely the staff authorized publication of photos and names on the website.
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#18Wow, this is weird. I'm from Switzerland and I'm getting blocked since "I'm from Germany". They say to check Maxmind's DB and it clearly says Switzerland too. This reminds me of services blocking Switzerland because of EU regulations, even though it's not part of the EU. But country-specific blocking and misreading Switzerland for Germany, that's a new level. * it says they update the DB every month, so that could be…
Edit: sent a feedback email, didn't see the address before.
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#19This is about just a few publications from just three authors. The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. I think it's getting harder and harder for organizations like Project Gutenberg to do this kind of work - it's just too easy to get into trouble.
> The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. Can you elaborate? Because as far as I'm aware, thanks to the 1st amendment, not a single book is banned in the US. At most they're removed from public or school libraries.
I meant blocked by search engines, social media and parental control services whose algorithms and employees wouldn't necessarily consider the cultural context. If we leave out the context some of the works could be considered text book examples for content that is blocked.
Re: German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org
#20Maybe somebody can explain why this US-based project has to respond to German court rulings in any way. Is there any reason not to just toss any scare letters in the trash can or say "Jump off a bridge, we're not in Germany"?
https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html
Q: So the court thinks that the presence of content in German means that courts in Germany have jurisdiction, regardless of the fact that PGLAF is entirely in the US?
A: Yes, that was the original basis of the claim for jurisdiction, which the Court accepted in their judgement. Since then, there some more recent decisions in the European Court of Justice, and other German courts, that support this theory based on a Web site being accessible from a country. I.e., if a Web site is accessible from Germany, there are some cases where German courts claimed jurisdiction over that site, even though it was operated, and based, outside of Germany. These cases involve companies that actually operate (for-profit) in Europe, and the cases were between two European countries (i.e. part of the EU). They are not consistent with prior laws and cases, even in Europe, and also not consistent with provisions of the Berne Convention and other international law.
In addition, PGLAF has pointed out that German is widely spoken in the US (the third-most common second language), and also is widely taught in schools and colleges. PGLAF has no actual presence or activity in Germany, and never did.
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Essentially, this is similar to taxation, once you have certain business related activities in a country / region you become liable for taxes. In this case German copyright for these books is relevant 70 years after the death of the author, one may not like it, but it's the local law