Government mandated blocking of foreign Web content

: Blocking of foreign Web content by Internet access providers has been a hot topic for the last 18 months in Germany. Since fall 2001 the state of North-RhineWestphalia very actively tried to mandate such blocking. This paper will take a technical view on the problems imposed by the blocking orders and blocking content at access or network provider level in general. It will also give some empirical data on the effects of the blocking orders to help in the legal assessment of the orders. 1 The Problem The blocking order was decreed by the district government of D¨usseldorf and is trying to force access providers to block US-hosted Web pages, it stirred considerable discussion in the German legal and civil rights communities. The orders raise considerable legal and policy issues which are being discussed broadly in literature and in front of several courts. Being a “technopolicy” issue, the blocking orders involve a complex interplay between engineering, applied psychology, law and...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: DFN
• Authors: Maximillian Dornseif
• Keywords: Access Providers, DFN 2003, DFN 2008, Engineering Issues, Legal