Freedom for Links

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Freedom for Links was an active netizens initiative founded in May 1998 over the excitement of a hyperlink liability lawsuit . At that time, the initiative reached a large audience thanks to its commitment and a large collection of specialist articles on the subject of Internet law and was able to win many prominent supporters and partners. After internal problems, the initiative was terminated in summer 2003 .

program

Freedom for Links campaigned for a network culture that helps to promote human knowledge and understanding and to bring each other closer. The initiative saw itself as a champion to defend the rights of everyone, against abuse of them, censorship and thus ultimately against the restriction of freedom of expression.

history

In 1998 the Steinhöfel vs. Best to the question of link liability to a controversial judgment, which caused a sensation and excitement.

This excitement led Uschi Hering to found the initiative and later the association together with Niels Gerhardt. Hartmut Semken , who later became chairman of the Pirate Party in Berlin, was one of the founding members . Freedom for Links organized itself into an association on January 15, 2000 . The aim was to raise awareness, to fight against legal abuse and to prevent the restriction of freedom of expression through the overly strict interpretation of commercial property rights. In the opinion of two controversial lawyers, data protection rights and general personal rights were not observed, so that corresponding injunctions were made against the association. With the help of donations and membership fees, necessary model trials should be carried out, but were then (also) required for own lost court proceedings.

Between 1999 and 2000 the initiative took a strong stand against the wave of warnings that the Munich lawyer Günter Freiherr von Gravenreuth triggered for the "Explorer" brand. She also supported Stefan Münz in the legal dispute with the lawyer. The “Explorer” trademark was canceled by the German Patent and Trademark Office with the decision of the Federal Patent Court (AZ 30 W (pat) 199/02) .

In the years 2000 and 2001, the lawyers Günter Freiherr von Gravenreuth and Joachim Steinhöfel each obtained an injunction against this association because it used names as meta tags on its homepage in an unauthorized manner.

In 1999, Freedom For Links was in charge of the Stop Enfopol campaign, a campaign against EU surveillance plans. During this time, in addition to Uschi Hering, the lawyers Patrick Mayer, Thomas Stadler, Hans-Jochen Krieger and Sierk Harmann as well as Hartmut Semken and Uli Werner were particularly active in the initiative.

In April 2001 Uschi Hering and Niels Gerhardt left the association after internal differences of opinion. The remaining members of the association did not manage to come to a productive form of cooperation later on. Especially after the death of lawyer Dr. Patrick Mayer in June 2001, many projects were no longer pursued. The association was deleted from the register of associations on August 13, 2003.

The funds donated for the case of Stefan Münz were (co) administered by him beforehand. In consultation with the donors, it is intended to partially support other suitable legal disputes.

After the association was dissolved, the website was again assigned to Uschi Hering, who then replaced the content with a short information page. Only in October 2004 was new information posted again in connection with the judgment against the online satire FreedomFone .

Many of the original texts originally posted on the Freedom For Links website have been archived on artikel5.de and are still available.

See also

swell

  1. ↑ http://www.jurpc.de/rechtspr/20000247.htm Gravenreuth ./. Freedom for Links eV
  2. ↑ Media Markt lawyer wins Metatag process. In: zdnet.de. June 7, 2001, accessed December 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti: Stop ENFOPOL! . Telepolis. March 3, 1999. Retrieved April 11, 2019.

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