RE: What Germany Just Did Will Make You Afraid, Very Afraid
Edit: I should have started with this - I'm very disappointed this became law, I can hardly believe it actually, I was sure it would get shot down in Parliament
Since Steemit can't be censored, and posts can't be deleted, this means that Steemit cannot comply with this law.
As far as I can tell, that makes Steemit a criminal conspiracy in Germany, and all Steemers criminals liable to jail time.
Not so. Steemit.com can refuse to serve certain posts, as for example they explicitly agree to follow intellectual property laws of the US in the Terms of Service:
Steemit respects the intellectual property of others by not reading infringed content from the Steem blockchain. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify Steemit’ s Designated Agent by contacting:
Please see 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3) for the requirements of a proper notification. You should note that if you knowingly misrepresent in your notification that the material or activity is infringing, you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by Steemit or the alleged infringer, as the result of Steemit’s relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing.
I imagine this would extend to situations like this. It would be a cost on the company though and they may just decide to not serve any German IPs, who knows.
However the Steem blockchain cannot be stopped. It's not clear how the law would or would not limit what is essentially peer-to-peer messaging, and if they are not blockchain "aware" they will have worded it for "sites", i.e. world wide websites serving via HTTP. If that's the case they may not be able to suppress Steem, under this law at least.
I am again schooled by @personz! I am sure I learn something valuable from you every time you make a post I am able to discover.
I was unaware of the ability of Steemit to selectively serve content from the blockchain, and will consider this more fully. While I immediately see the reason for Steemit to have this ability, I also am immediately struck that this is something that can be used to censor, and have to think about it before I can make informed comment.
At least posts do become part of the blockchain, where they can be discovered, rather than simply be deleted. That's something.
Thanks for always adding to my understanding!