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Randler posted:No. I'm saying that it was Schröder's left-wing administration who made the initial decision to participate in Kosovo war. And without that administration's decision to deploy troops the matter would not have been entered the Bundestag at all. For what it's worth, I think that decision was less about what the USA wanted and more about cleaning up in our own European backyard. I was actually astonished a coalition of Greens and Socialists was capable of making an unpopular, but necessary decision.
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Jul 13, 2014 15:31
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Randler posted:No. I'm saying that it was Schröder's left-wing administration who made the initial decision to participate in Kosovo war. And without that administration's decision to deploy troops the matter would not have been entered the Bundestag at all. There is a pretty interesting article on the Greens transition from a self proclaimed pacifist party to being pretty vocal about the deployment of German troops around the world. Can't find it at the moment though. and yeah, the damage Schröder did to the SPD and their ideology lingers on till today and wpnt stop until the party actually tries to stop being the CDU light.
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Jul 13, 2014 15:33
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Schröder did not go into Iraq though, which is something to be gratefull for. On the other Hand, had the US listened to him that could have saved the USA 1 Trillion Dollars or so? Cleary Schröder is the bestest transatlanticist ever! Concerning the Greens, they went from pacifist to a more US style liberal interventionist. Very few parties get power and dont become less pacifist when they do so. Once you control an army, why not use it?
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Jul 14, 2014 12:13
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Mightypeon posted:Cleary Schröder is the bestest transatlanticist ever!? Gerhard Schröder's greatest contribution to German politics was to destroy any pretenses the SPD had at being structurally sound and consistent with regards to their stated political agenda. He still hosed up way more than he fixed in my opinion, though. His successors in the party are merely way more incompetent so it's not as noticeable.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:24
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Randler posted:Gerhard Schröder's greatest contribution to German politics was to destroy any pretenses the SPD had at being structurally sound and consistent with regards to their stated political agenda. Vote SPD! We're not the CDU!
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Jul 14, 2014 16:32
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I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
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Randler posted:Gerhard Schröder's greatest contribution to German politics was to destroy any pretenses the SPD had at being structurally sound and consistent with regards to their stated political agenda. Schröder single handedly stopped the flood in 2002 
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Jul 14, 2014 20:27
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Randler posted:Gerhard Schröder's greatest contribution to German politics was to destroy any pretenses the SPD had at being structurally sound and consistent with regards to their stated political agenda. That wasn't even his idea, he got it from Britain's New Labour. Which kinda had the same the same effect there.
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Jul 14, 2014 20:31
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Teron D Amun posted:Schröder single handedly stopped the flood in 2002 And apparently he loves it when a plan comes together.
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Jul 14, 2014 20:39
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Is Germany outside the reach of the MPAA/RIAA mafia? Or is that something that the TIPP treaty is supposed to do and that's one of the reasons why everyone is against it?
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Jul 22, 2014 18:03
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reading posted:Is Germany outside the reach of the MPAA/RIAA mafia? Or is that something that the TIPP treaty is supposed to do and that's one of the reasons why everyone is against it? We have the GEMA. No one fucks with the GEMA. Sometimes this is quite unfortunate. 
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Jul 22, 2014 18:28
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reading posted:Is Germany outside the reach of the MPAA/RIAA mafia? Or is that something that the TIPP treaty is supposed to do and that's one of the reasons why everyone is against it? Arguably copyright is even more strict in continental Europe, including Germany, than it is in the Anglo-American sphere. 
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Jul 22, 2014 18:39
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The RIAA is a joke compared to our GEMA, every single device capable of storing music sold in Germany has a GEMA tax contained in its price. Hard drives, blank DVDs, DVD writers, USB sticks, SD cards, MP3 players, and since 2011 also smartphones. The "best" part is that the tax for a phone with touchscreen is 36€ while a phone without is 12€. Apparently a phone with touchscreen is 3 times as capable of storing copyrighted material as one without. On top of that we can't watch something like 60% of popular videos on Youtube because they contain GEMA-protected music.
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Jul 22, 2014 18:57
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GEMA are also well-known for fairly distributing money to artists.
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Jul 22, 2014 19:01
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Vodos posted:The RIAA is a joke compared to our GEMA, every single device capable of storing music sold in Germany has a GEMA tax contained in its price. Hard drives, blank DVDs, DVD writers, USB sticks, SD cards, MP3 players, and since 2011 also smartphones. The "best" part is that the tax for a phone with touchscreen is 36€ while a phone without is 12€. Apparently a phone with touchscreen is 3 times as capable of storing copyrighted material as one without. On top of that we can't watch something like 60% of popular videos on Youtube because they contain GEMA-protected music. http://www.der-postillon.com/2013/11/youtube-music-awards-gema-hinweis.html The GEMA YouTube block is generally useless anyway, since it's pretty trivial for just about anyone to circumvent it with about thirty seconds of Googling.
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Jul 22, 2014 19:03
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Vodos posted:On top of that we can't watch something like 60% of popular videos on Youtube because Google does not want to pay any money to the artists and blocks almost every video in the hope that the consumers will confuse that with the GEMA requiring all those videos to be restricted. 
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Jul 22, 2014 19:27
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They were willing, however Google's offered to pay fixed sum and the GEMA wanted pay per view. And it is pretty dumb demand nevertheless, as Google gets no direct value out of the videos, not speak of having them pay for an artists official video channel. The blocking might be Google's choice, but the GEMA is still a dumb organization and youtube thing is really only th most prominent. edit: Same as with Google's over zealous copyright bots. e X fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 19:33
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Oh. I was wondering about the epidemic of Abmahnung letters. I read that recently there were a ton of spam emails with a trojan'd .zip attachment that had been sent out, pretending to be an Abmahnung, which apparently are pretty common anyway as regular legal threat letters.
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Jul 22, 2014 21:08
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reading posted:Is Germany outside the reach of the MPAA/RIAA mafia? Or is that something that the TIPP treaty is supposed to do and that's one of the reasons why everyone is against it? 1. Chlorinated chicken Aka unified industry standards between europe and america. Standards are a good thing, even if you can get riled up about the implementation of certain ones ("chlorinated chicken!!1!"). This is the reason that supporters of TTIP enjoy to talk about. 2. The enclosed "investor protection" that specifies ways to sue countries in an arbitral tribunal to get compensation for loss of earnings that are caused by that countries actions. The reason for clauses like that is to provide a way to protect against despotism that may be found in countries without a working legal system (like germany). This construct is a way for foreign companies to circumvent burdens that are caused by democratic national decisions. Basically the dynamic changes from "german law says a thing that employers have to follow (and pay for it) if they want to do business in germany" to "german law says a thing that employers have to follow, and the state pays foreign companies to do that thing (with our taxes of course) because they are gracious enough to do business in germany". Note that only foreign companies have that right, which means that every single law that would increase the burden of of employers (you know, employee protection/benefits, social contributions, etc.) would reduce the competitiveness of national companies compared to their international competition. And I guess we can all see where that will go. Here is a writeup with examples how clauses like that are used in other countries: Read me Nektu fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 21:10
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Nektu posted:The reasons many people are against it (not everybody, sadly) are The first point is dumb and not worth getting worked up over. The second point is bad enough to be against it.
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Jul 22, 2014 21:26
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It's main purpose is to gently caress Germany and everyone else economically as hard as possible.
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Jul 22, 2014 21:34
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^^^^ Enjoy worldwide oligarchy. Our new neoliberal overlords only want whats best for us.blowfish posted:The second point is bad enough to be against it. Nektu fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 21:35
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You can understand Germany a lot better (why the government does what it does, GEMA, large companies, etc.) by realizing that after WWII the Americans got rid of not just the NSDAP, but also removed many of the things that benefited the German rich/elites, especially the breaking up of the industrial cartels. Much of the government/regulatory activity since then has been to empower the elites/large companies at the expense of consumers and minor economic actors. If you're Sony or Universal Music then GEMA is loving great for you; if you're a minor artist then good luck with anything to do with GEMA. Consumers have the VZBZ, but it's pretty ineffective compared to the courts which usually benefit businesses. A good example of this is subscription contracts; in DE the requirement to cancel can legally be "in writing, received by post min. 6 weeks before contract renewal date" where as in the USA or the UK you can usually get away with a phonecall even after the fact. I'd really wonder what would happen in Germany if credit cards were more popular, because in the USA a chargeback is a fairly regularly used mechanism to get out of predatory/unfair deals.
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Jul 23, 2014 04:55
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Nektu posted:The reasons many people are against it (not everybody, sadly) are Well, while the "Investor protector" stuff is certainly the big thing, there would also likely be spillover effects from horribly stupid American laws (patent trolling for example) into Germany. I really dont want Prenda in Germany.
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Jul 23, 2014 09:25
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Landsknecht posted:You can understand Germany a lot better (why the government does what it does, GEMA, large companies, etc.) by realizing that after WWII the Americans got rid of not just the NSDAP, but also removed many of the things that benefited the German rich/elites, especially the breaking up of the industrial cartels. Much of the government/regulatory activity since then has been to empower the elites/large companies at the expense of consumers and minor economic actors. If you're Sony or Universal Music then GEMA is loving great for you; if you're a minor artist then good luck with anything to do with GEMA. Consumers have the VZBZ, but it's pretty ineffective compared to the courts which usually benefit businesses. A good example of this is subscription contracts; in DE the requirement to cancel can legally be "in writing, received by post min. 6 weeks before contract renewal date" where as in the USA or the UK you can usually get away with a phonecall even after the fact. I'd really wonder what would happen in Germany if credit cards were more popular, because in the USA a chargeback is a fairly regularly used mechanism to get out of predatory/unfair deals. My favourite story is how the allies after the war just straight up plundered our entire capability for producing magnetic tape. Germany before World War 2 was leading world producer in magnetic tape. After war the production fell to zero thanks to entire factories disapearing into the east and west. Another story, unrelated to those shenannigans, is the disaster of the Telefunken-corporation just going "We don't need no stinking personal computers" and riding the train of huge-gently caress off mega computers right into ruin. But hell, in an alternative history the German-produced Orion might have become the premium personal computer, instead of that heap of poo poo produced by IBM at the time.
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Jul 23, 2014 11:35
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Landsknecht posted:You can understand Germany a lot better (why the government does what it does, GEMA, large companies, etc.) by realizing that after WWII the Americans got rid of not just the NSDAP, but also removed many of the things that benefited the German rich/elites, especially the breaking up of the industrial cartels. Much of the government/regulatory activity since then has been to empower the elites/large companies at the expense of consumers and minor economic actors. If you're Sony or Universal Music then GEMA is loving great for you; if you're a minor artist then good luck with anything to do with GEMA. Consumers have the VZBZ, but it's pretty ineffective compared to the courts which usually benefit businesses. A good example of this is subscription contracts; in DE the requirement to cancel can legally be "in writing, received by post min. 6 weeks before contract renewal date" where as in the USA or the UK you can usually get away with a phonecall even after the fact. I'd really wonder what would happen in Germany if credit cards were more popular, because in the USA a chargeback is a fairly regularly used mechanism to get out of predatory/unfair deals. The foundation of GEMA and the underlying idea of collective rights agencies predates world war two and the American occupation of Germany, though. I'm also not sure in which reality you're living when you consider German courts to be favoring industry of consumers. (For starters, in Germany the average consumer can actually afford to go to court for small things.)
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Jul 23, 2014 13:50
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You are all terrible people who are (maybe) going to be fined for running budget surpluses and breaking the rules of the EMU: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10980824/Juncker-faces-political-test-as-fines-loom-on-illegal-German-trade-surplus.html Has this had much/any play in the German press?
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Jul 23, 2014 14:07
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LemonDrizzle posted:You are all terrible people who are (maybe) going to be fined for running budget surpluses and breaking the rules of the EMU: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10980824/Juncker-faces-political-test-as-fines-loom-on-illegal-German-trade-surplus.html We'll pay it by raising regressive taxes, no worries.
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Jul 23, 2014 14:36
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LemonDrizzle posted:You are all terrible people who are (maybe) going to be fined for running budget surpluses and breaking the rules of the EMU: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10980824/Juncker-faces-political-test-as-fines-loom-on-illegal-German-trade-surplus.html Germany having a huge export surplus has been considered an issue by the European Commission and the United States for a long time. As it is a constant developement it keeps popping up in the German press but it's not something that gets the "This is the current hot topic!" treatment.
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Jul 23, 2014 14:59
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In response to my own earlier post it looks like the RIAA/MPAA mafias don't have too much pull, since Germany last year capped piracy fines to a smallish amount: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/germany-caps-piracy-fines-577989 quote:COLOGNE, Germany – Germany has passed a controversial law that limits the fines copyright holders can demand from individuals using illegal file-sharing sites to download music, films or TV series. It still makes it sound like people get hit with letters from these wildcat lawyers all the time looking for copyright infringement. Is there just an absolute storm of that poo poo going on over there?
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Jul 23, 2014 20:41
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reading posted:In response to my own earlier post it looks like the RIAA/MPAA mafias don't have too much pull, since Germany last year capped piracy fines to a smallish amount: Yes and yes
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Jul 23, 2014 21:22
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I have an odd request, could ya'll tell me how good this guy's german is? Like does he sound native or does he have an accent? (he's most probably the future president of Romania) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rklXnZsMH-4
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Jul 26, 2014 15:09
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3peat posted:I have an odd request, could ya'll tell me how good this guy's german is? Like does he sound native or does he have an accent? (he's most probably the future president of Romania) He is understandable. His accent sounds like Saxon to me. Would be funny to see a Saxon becoming prime minister (not president) of Romania. 
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Jul 26, 2014 15:18
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3peat posted:I have an odd request, could ya'll tell me how good this guy's german is? Like does he sound native or does he have an accent? (he's most probably the future president of Romania) The German Language Thread might be able to give more details, but for what it's worth he sounds pretty much like people who came from Eastern Europe to Germany at a very young age (for example Spätaussiedler). I.e. he basically sounds "native" but on some words you can hear that he has grown up exposed to an Eastern European language. I find the pauses he makes odd, though, but I blame that on the public speaking situation.
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Jul 26, 2014 15:18
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He has a bit of an accent and his pronunciation is a little labored. That said, I know Romanians in Germany who went to the "German" schools in Romania who speak with stronger accents.
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Jul 26, 2014 15:27
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Thanks y'all, I was curios how good he would be at  Libluini posted:He is understandable. His accent sounds like Saxon to me. That's funny because he's a Transylvanian Saxon, except these "saxons" are actually from what are today the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and they were called like that because hungarians used to call all germanic people "saxons"
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Jul 26, 2014 15:41
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He doesn't sound Saxon to me at all for what it's worth. Should be able to fleece us pretty good, I remember seeing that guy on German TV a couple of times so there's probably a bunch of grandmas already smitten with him.
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Jul 26, 2014 15:46
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Sounds like a typical Romanian German. Their dialect is quite unique and unfortunately endangered. His German is almost perfect, but his pronunciation is something you rarely hear in Germany.
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Jul 26, 2014 15:52
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He doesn't sound Saxon at all
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Jul 26, 2014 17:18
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Yeah he doesn't sound native. More like a Slavic person who is really good at speaking German. Like he teaches German or something. It's not just pronunciation but also melody and emphasis
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Jul 26, 2014 19:51
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niethan posted:Yeah he doesn't sound native. More like a Slavic person who is really good at speaking German. Like he teaches German or something. Yep it seems that way, but in fact it's how they speak German natively in Romania. I know a few people who grew up in the Banat, spoke German with their parents and in the school, and they still sound like this guy.
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Jul 26, 2014 20:04
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