Re: quake2 and german youth protection law
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On 13.06.2005, at 11:37, Måns Rullgård wrote:
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 )
As far as I've seen, the act does not say anything about this.
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.
§ 12 Bildträger mit Filmen oder Spielen
(1) Bespielte Videokassetten und andere zur Weitergabe geeignete, für
die Wiedergabe auf oder das Spiel an Bildschirmgeräten mit Filmen oder
Spielen programmierte Datenträger (Bildträger) dürfen einem Kind oder
einer jugendlichen Person in der Öffentlichkeit nur zugänglich gemacht
werden, wenn die Programme von der obersten Landesbehörde oder einer
Organisation der freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle im Rahmen des Verfahrens
nach § 14 Abs. 6 für ihre Altersstufe freigegeben und gekennzeichnet
worden sind oder wenn es sich um Informations-, Instruktions- und
Lehrprogramme handelt, die vom Anbieter mit „Infoprogramm” oder
„Lehrprogramm” gekennzeichnet sind.
A quick (but quite imperfect) translation:
§ 12 image-containing media with films or games
(1) Video tapes with content or other media that are usable for
distribution and are programmed for use with video terminals as films
or games (image-containing media) may only be made accessible to
children or teenagers if the highest state administration or a
organization of the FSK (organizations of producers and distributors
that classify films and games as dangerous for youth, I'm not sure
whether they have to be approved by the gouvernment) has declared them
to be suitable for that age and marked them for that age in the
procedure defined by § 14, paragraph 6, or if they are informational,
instructional or learning software which have been declared as
"informational program" or "learning program" by the provider.
(sorry for the sentence constructions - they seem impossible in German,
too.)
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.
I'm quite sure it's the data after having read the above.
This looks like a bug in Germany rather than a bug in quake2.
Does the German government have a bug tracking system?
Don't think so ;-)
Baltasar
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