Matthias Spielkamp is reporting about a recent German case. The IT news service Heise has been ordered to remove a link to the Slysoft website, which distributes software illegal in Germany since the last copyright legislation from Antigua.
Spielkamp says that there is no further way to appeal the Munich High court decision. However, Heise might still appeal to the German Constitutional Court. Obviously this case raises some concerns under Article 5 of the German Constitution.
As to the substance, I don't see much point in allowing people to say "Slysoft.com" but not "http://sly...." (slightly edited to avoid exposing my blog to similar charges).
While in the past I thought this kind of decision should be criticised because it makes running a search engine impossible, now I rather think there is no problem with shutting search engines down.
But, from an Article 5 point of view, making it impossible to report about any illegal page because you might be seen as abetting them is a rather large restriction.
Maybe the new "nofollow" tag might help somewhat to keep the enemies of freedom in check. People could link with that tag to make sure their link is not understood as endorsement.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at August 13, 2005 02:12 PM