A journalist for Wired, and the monitor of the Internet fight-censorship list, wrote the following a few days ago, commenting on the announced pull-out of CompuServe out of Germany in protest to that country's brutal censorship attempts: "At the risk of drawing more flack, I offer this as an example of how economic freedom and social freedom are inextricably intertwined." He then cites the following article:
"MUNICH, Germany (Nov 18, 1996 10:30 a.m. EST) - CompuServe GmbH said Monday it may transfer its administrative operations out of Germany because of government moves to force Internet companies to control pornography on their networks. The German unit of the world's second-largest on-line service would continue to offer services in Germany, but shift its headquarters to a country that does not hold on-line companies responsible for obscene material on the Internet, spokeswoman Doris Kretzen told Reuters. A law under consideration in Germany's lower house of parliament would require on-line companies to block access to child pornography, neo-Nazi materials or other extreme pictures or writing on the Internet. 'I don't know that we would move just because of the law, but we can be a provider from another country,' Kretzen said. CompuServe, which is also Germany's second-largest on-line system, has balked at such measures, saying they would require the company to 'censor' vast reaches of the Internet. One proposal in Germany's Bundestag would require on-line services to act only when barring access is 'technically possible and reasonable.' Felix Somm, CompuServe's general manager in Germany, told German television: 'It cannot be that a provider has to make massive investments to control an international network, if you can offer services with significantly less cost next door in Luxembourg.' Kretzen noted that CompuServe, which ranks second only to America On-line, serves several European countries from its London and Paris offices. . . CompuServe, a subsidiary of H&R Block, provides on-line information, electronic mail and Internet access to more than four million subscribers in 140 countries. It has 500,000 customers in Europe, including 335,000 in Germany and employs 250 workers in Germany."
(end of article) Please note that here, again, the pretense is that Germany is merely concerned about pornography and only as an afterthought about Revisionism palmed off as "Neo Nazi materials" - a common and transparent tactic. Since this article was posted, CompuServe has apparently backed off from this threat to move out of Germany and has assured the German government it will 'cooperate to work for a solution.' Meanwhile, we are told, a diskette has been "arrested", and Corel, a software company, is now in trouble because its clip art features swastikas. I mention this corporate scare in response to German censorship because I want to illustrate just how costly it is, or can be, to the economy as well as to a lot of individuals if special interests try to sabotage what people like us have to offer. We are talking broad-brush economic consequences attached to the maintenance of tribal dogma of benefit to just a few. My point pertains not just to Germany but also to what's happening in Switzerland with the latest - the supposed millions that have 'disappeared' from accounts claimed by some 'Holocaust" survivors'. I am giving you a rough translation from one of the 'Germania Rundbriefs' where Ernst makes the following point - that it is costly not to listen. Very costly. Writes Ernst:
"Anybody who has investigated the shenanigans of the Holocaust profiteers knows that we have long ceased talking about retribution for so-called genocidal crimes. . . I cannot help but say 'I told you so' when I read about the greedy profiteers of Europe's Trail of Tears - namely the Swiss bankers - now in the clutches of the parasites and in the crosshairs of the rifles. Here is the evidence that even highly intelligent people with university training can be checkmated by ghetto-gangsters and their emotional arguments. . . this is the newest game of economic terrorism. All the Swiss bankers would have had to do from the beginning would have been this: an investment in Revisionism of approximately $1,000 for the classic works of Dr. Faurisson, Dr. Staeglich, the Leuchter Report, the Rudolf-Gutachten and die Zundel-Trial transcripts. Thus equipped, they could have confronted the extortionists with the following argument, to wit: 1) We have received your wildly exaggerated and vastly inflated request 2) With typical Swiss thoroughness and love for detail we will now investigate what REALLY happened in the Third Reich 3) An expert gremium empaneled by Swiss banks, composed of Swiss experts on crime, crematoria experts, chemists and historians as well as archivists in charge of classified documents will now go to work 4) We will pay you to the penny what you deserve and can rightfully claim - no more, and no less! - according to Swiss banking tradition. That would have put a speedy end to the parade! REVISIONISM COULD HAVE SAVED SWITZERLAND BILLIONS!"
Ingrid
Thought for the Day: "When a fellow says, 'It ain't the money but the principle of the thing,' it's the money." (Frank McKinney Hubbard)