Germany banning books.. sounds awfully familiar

dang · 2026-01-09T19:21:06 1767986466

"Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

robinhood · 2026-01-09T18:16:33 1767982593

Not every comment about Germany requires a mention of a dark past.

sammy2255 · 2026-01-09T18:22:52 1767982972

Doesn't require it, but in this case it sure is relevant

robinhood · 2026-01-09T18:29:51 1767983391

It does not, since the context is absolutely not the same. Closing a major piracy actor VS actions that led to a world war.

sammy2255 · 2026-01-09T18:42:42 1767984162

Banning books is the same as banning books. Whether it's in the name of censorship or anti-piracy

oytis · 2026-01-09T19:13:31 1767986011

Not sure you can call it censorship if it's the author of the book who doesn't want you to access it for free. I know there are a few levels of indirection here, but with a few notable exceptions authors are normally against their books being pirated.

I personally sure want Anna's Archive staying up, but comparing it to nazis burning books is a bit too much IMO

hermanzegerman · 2026-01-09T19:19:18 1767986358

Because the US doesn't act against copyright infringement? They just suspended the Annas Archive .org domain

At least we don't ban books from Libraries, because they contain the true history or "wrong thought" and Republicans don't like that

squeaky-clean · 2026-01-09T19:45:23 1767987923

This isn't banning books, it's akin to banning a book store. If a book store chain isn't paying their taxes and gets shut down, the books have not been banned or censored.

carefulfungi · 2026-01-09T19:21:48 1767986508

Don't even need to rely to anti-piracy to find book banners. US public schools continue to accelerate their book banning tendencies.

* https://pen.org/banned-books-list-2025/ * https://www.ala.org/news/2025/04/american-library-associatio... * https://cdhe.colorado.gov/banned-book-list

Book bans at department of defense high schools are resulting directly from this administration's executive orders.

* https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/dodea-book-bans

We need to keep fighting for the right to read freely.

Meanwhile, waiting for Cloudflare to walk away from their US government contracts to protest these blatant free speech attacks.

tick_tock_tick · 2026-01-09T20:06:25 1767989185

I mean when Germany is jailing people for being "offensive" it's hard not too.

bflesch · 2026-01-09T21:53:50 1767995630

You are confidently incorrect, very impressive.

simianparrot · 2026-01-09T17:52:51 1767981171

Don't worry, this time it's the Social Democrats who ban books, it's _totally_ different.

undeveloper · 2026-01-09T18:04:50 1767981890

Most western countries who care about IP have banned piracy. I'm not anti piracy but it's silly to compare.

bflesch · 2026-01-09T18:15:02 1767982502

Back in the day it was US media companies which started the big war against piracy and for the use of DRM. It was pushed by US media companies and the US government upon Europe. Same as with software patents. It's weird that now US companies complain about local media rights holders doing their censorship thing when the whole thing was started by the US.

oytis · 2026-01-09T19:10:38 1767985838

I'm not sure, does US not block websites by DNS? Wrt Anna's Archive they've gone as far as revoking its main domain

bflesch · 2026-01-09T20:12:42 1767989562

US owns the registrars, they just deregister domains they don't like and show some sort of FBI logo instead.

linkregister · 2026-01-09T18:59:46 1767985186

I demand the RIGHT to get media for free without paying for it! And I equate this with a ban on literature!

bakies · 2026-01-09T18:14:11 1767982451

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_banning_in_the_United_Sta...

> Participants: Republican lawmakers in red states

oh weird, it's the opposite of what you said.

miningape · 2026-01-09T18:45:49 1767984349

Politics isn't the exclusive hobby of the united states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy

https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/the-spd-parties...

And by the way, in the same wikipedia link you posted, there's documentation of Democrats also banning books.

bakies · 2026-01-09T21:19:46 1767993586

What book banning are you referencing, then? it's all very vague

asgeesg · 2026-01-10T00:18:11 1768004291

I can buy all the books listed there in the USA.

bakies · 2026-01-10T16:19:40 1768061980

That's privilege. They're not available at the library at the learning centers.

asgeesg · 2026-01-10T19:56:14 1768074974

*learing centers

bakies · 2026-01-11T17:48:43 1768153723

Now I understand you live in a skewed world view