Re: quake2 and german youth protection law

[Måns Rullgård <mru@inprovide.com>]

MJ Ray <mjr@phonecoop.coop> writes:

> Michael Below <mbelow@antithese.de> wrote:
>> today I filed bug #313159 against the quake2 package, because of a
>> possible violation of the german Jugendschutzgesetz (youth protection
>> law). The bug report is attached below.
>
> Does this only apply to German distributors or to anyone distributing
> to Germany? (My German is not really up to legal standard and the
> failure to set a background colour hurts on
> http://bundespruefstelle.de/bpjm/arbeitsgrundlagen/juschg.php )

I can't complain about the style or colors of that page, but the
content leaves me none the wiser.  Perhaps someone who actually knows
German can make more of it.

> It would be nice to know whether it is game engine or data that
> is actually the problem, too.

In my opinion, the game engine by itself can't be classified in those
terms.  It contains no inherent depiction of violence, glorification
of war, or whatever else is on that list.  I am fairly certain that
the quake2 engine could be used to create a totally non-violent game.

> This looks like a bug in Germany rather than a bug in quake2.

Does the German government have a bug tracking system?

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@inprovide.com