I never said that GoG is evil and I also never said that blocking of games on Steam is okay.
So, how did you get on this train, Mr. Baggins? Maybe you should take off that ring?

Offering a German language option, forum, etc. is NOT the same as having a store in Germany. The latter would mean they had an actual German store branch registered in Germany.

Just to illustrate:
There is an online retailer based in Austria selling banned/indexed films (and hardcore porn) who is targetting almost exclusively German customers. Their warehouse is located in Germany so when they're shipping their stuff, it's impossible for customs to intercept the shipments and you're guaranteed to receive the goods completely hassle-free.

Now in Germany it is flat-out illegal for online retailers to sell this stuff, you would need to have an age restricted brick-and-mortar store for the index and porn stuff and you'd be shit out of luck trying to sell banned media. But since the business is registered and based OUTSIDE of Germany, there is no way for Germany to do anything about it, even though theyre shipping from within German borders. It's the selling (or acquiring with the intent to sell) that's prohibited, not the actual shipping itself.

It's the same for digital distributors without branches in Germany. Technically they're not allowed to sell certain items to German customers, but they can't be brought to court because they're not based in Germany.

...

Hmm... tough audience.

I never meant you in particular, Maxvorstardt. I wasn't singling you out. But that's the overall feeling I get from this thread.

Yes, I got the joke too late - sorry :(
And from which postings exactly did you get the feeling that this thread is pointing out that blocking games on steam is o.k.? There is not a single post to be found saying or even implicating this.

Somewhere there's an additional joke hidden in there about the German population having 2.5 legs on average...

No, they really don't. They have to follow the rules of the countries they are incorporated in. As I said earlier, Amazon.co.uk and amazon.com sell and ship those things to Germany. Cyperpirates ships those things FROM WITHIN GERMANY. Last time I looked, all of them are still in business. Why? Because Germany has no jurisdiction in their countries.

The absolute worst Germany can do is request a delisting from the search results of google.de, which they have done for cyber-pirates.org. But that doesn't affect search hits MENTIONING cyber-pirates.org and it doesn't affect google.com or any other local Google page. And to be honest, "GOG" is not something you google randomly. Either you've heard of it and go there directly, or you don't. On the off chance that you're really googling "GOG" for whatever reason, there would still be tons of search results mentioning and linking to gog.com, just not the direct link to the main page as first search result. The impact is pretty much zero.

So all of that comes down to preemptive obedience that has no legal foundation. They just don't give a flying fuck to actually research that shit. As I said, preemptive obedience and a distinct disinterest to actually have their overpayed lawyers take a thorough look at the legal situation. Steam started that idiocy and everyone just blindly follows suit because "the alpha shop is doing it".

Yeah. Reddit and /r/watchpeopledie are another good example. They got scared when they received the letter from the BPjM informing them of the indexation of the subreddit and interpreted it as a threat to the very existing of reddit.com for Germany. Then they proceeded to self-censor and display a HTTP 451 error, which indicates censorship/legal reasons...

Anyway, I can understand the sites acting as if they are Germany-based for reputation/PR reason (although it can backfire as shown here), or to be in good standing with the German authorities, if the holders of the companies are close to Germany in anyway, that even makes sense as in theory they could get arrested when entering German territory (what are the chances though in these cases) or get extradited for a trial in Germany (even more unlikely).

Sadly, GOG won't state what motivated them. Maybe it was a competitor who send a cease and desist. Might carry more weight than German federal law.

One problem with Germany is that you have 2 different rated 18 ratings. One is the normal 18 rating which you can compare to the UK 18 rating and the other one the "Index" is like the UK Restricted 18 rating with the sad difference that the Index not only counts for porn like the UK Restricted 18 rating.

Germany and the ratings is a never ending story for movies and series as example 8 different 18 ratings exist if you also count the old ones (which are still in use) which alone is a sad fact.

And the other problem are the old restrictive laws and the old politicians who design them.

I think the main problem is, that games don't count as "art" in Germany, movies and books do - so they may have violence, blood, gore, sex, swastika and such things. They can be watched in TV by everyone and no one bothers (mostly). It Is "art"...

I still do not know why people think games are not art and considered as toys in Germany. The court which confiscated Wolfenstein 3D back in the day never said that they only brought one example with toys and that swastikas are not allowed on them. Recently courts in Germany already considered videogames as art but it needs a court decision to ensure that swastikas are allowed in videogames because the legal situation is unclear nothing else. For movies and books the question if they are art was never raised.

I the latest issue of the games magazine "Gamestar" is an article about that. The discussion - if games are art or not - is on, so things will improve - unfortunately versy slowly.

I have read that article but I'am certain that nothing will change in the future because as you could read and what was also known before it definitively needs a court decision either for lifting a confiscation or to get a rating and no Publisher would go in front because of that.

A new month, a new push