Since yesterday flickr censors images for visitors from Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea which are marked “moderate” or “restricted”. This makes it impossible for me to watch those photos. Many users from Germany even report that they cannot even access their own images.

So why is flickr/Yahoo doing this? They say to comply with the German laws for protecting the youth. Well, what the fuck? I'm old enough to see any movie or porn I want in Germany, but I'm still denied access to a big part of flickr images. Hell, Yahoo even has my birthday (at least they say so in my Yahoo Account prefs).

But even if that wouldn't be the case I don't see why Yahoo has to comply with Germany's stupid laws. But I neither understand why they have to comply to China's stupid censoring laws.

Of course there are ways to circumvent this censorship by registering a Yahoo account from a US-based proxy. But its annoying.

When I was in Montreal I talked with a Canadian guy about Germany's recent stupid internet related laws (there is censorhip and many, many legal threats to website owners). He asked me why I'm even bothered about this. He said I could host my sites in the US or Canada and use Proxies and stuff. But the point is: it would be a pain for me to do so and “normal” people don't have the knowledge to do so.

So what's this post about? It's just a rant. Fuck censorship!

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