On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 03:26:37PM +0200, Alexander Schmehl wrote: Hi,
> Well, there is this "backdoor" used by MS and others for their > Software. Windows contains Minesweeper, Solitair and other small games, > and has no USK rating. But their products are "allowed" to be sold to > children. > > "Allowed" is in this case a little difficult. I refer to c't 10, Page > 18ff (http://www.heise.de/ct/03/10/018/ last but one question) , the > interview with Mr. Karle from the rheinland-pfälzischem ministry for > education, woman and youth. > > He got asked, why MS may ship their products with games, and if Linux > Distributions may do the same. > He distinguishs beetween "Bildträger" und "Trägermedium". The first one > needs the USK rating, the later one, may go without, if the hole > character of the product has no influence, compareable to the influence > of movies oder games, to the evolution of children and youngster, and > if the product has a complete different purpose. > > "This applies for example on on lexical works with small motions > picture sequences, and - at the present general legal conception - on > the products named above [MS Produkts and Linux Distributions]." > > So I ask again: Anything we know for sure? Nope there is nothing for sure - it's a law ;) The problem is without a judgement it's hard to tell what might happen. > Honestly I don't know how many games are on the CD, I guess it isn't > that much and we don't ship ego shooters. So I think the disc might > fall through this "backdoor". Well shipping the engine for a shooters without the maps is useless anyway and free maps are very rare. > > In cases where a CD (or DVD etc.) is not rated and has no offical label > > it's for 18+ only. So if we don't pay and give away the CD to minors Grisu, > > myself and maybe Joey will have the risk to get sued. > > Okay, I think I see this point, but I realy dislike to tell a > seventeen year old teenager, that I'm not allowed to give him a CD (and > I'll keep on giving away Knoppix CDs, after a talk about Linux in a > school). Well if the teenager is fourteen or seventeen is uninteressting in this case it's a law. We can follow it or ignore it and hope for the best. > So what about this "solution": Everyone at the booth formaly gets his > own quantum of discs, for whome he and only he is responsible. So I can > give the seventeen year old teenager a disc, and if a "official" sees > this, he will sue me, since neither you, nor grisu or joey are > responsible for my act. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know how a court would judge in such a scenario. Sven -- Old stuff new Domain: http://sven.stormbind.net --------------------------------------------------- Selbstmord ist die ehrlichste Form von Selbstkritik.
