Germany practices some fascist laws in the name of keeping down fascism, unfortunately. Regardless of how wrong, ignorant or stupid denying the holocaust is... it shouldn't be illegal.

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@ Demotruk )

the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal constitutional Court - similar to the U.S. Supreme Court), judged that dennying the holocaust can only be used and is only used in "hate speeches" or better "Volksverhetzung"(U.S. law doesn't know a real equal to that actus reus), a serious crime in german law, therefore it's use obviously isn't covered by the german constitution's (Grundgesetz) freedom of speech

@Demotruck: Yes, like Antifa.

@Lafiel: Well yes, but the ban bases itself on law. The attempted NPD ban few years was hilarious (i guess people don't know the case, so i explain it short: german government to ban NPD party in the court due to it being extreme right wing. During the court sessions, it came out that the partys top guys were actually infiltrated government spies and therefore it left unproven that the party is bannable, since it could aswell be only government provocation).

As for the games ban, marketing the violent games and selling them on store shelves is banned, but you still can sell them under the desk?

Didn't they already ban Gears of War 2?

@ bdbdbd )

no you can't buy "banned" games, but only very few games are actually really "banned" in germany - those that are banned often involve pro-nazi propaganda - it's a crime to have a copy of these games

most extremely violent games are "indiziert" (indexed), which means it's illegal to report about them, to advertise them or to keep them openly in the shop, but you can sell them under the desk

only a minimal percentage of games "that involve killing people" are indexed or banned (I guess it's below 10%) - especially nowadays that the BPjM can only index or ban games that are refused an age rating by the USK

@ Aj_habfan )

that's wrong, Gears isn't "banned" in Germany, because it didn't release here

the USK refused the games an age rating, which means it could have been indexed or banned if it released over here, but MS decided to not release it

@Lafiel: Thanks. The index thing was what i was thinking about. Hmm, better to call it semi-ban. I think it used to be even tighter a decade or something ago.

u can buy alot of "killergames" in germany but atm games like madworld od GoW2 arent releasing in germany its not even sure if the conduit will release here!

@ bdbdbd )

Yea, the situation got much better by the BPjM not being able to ban/index games that received an age rating from the USK.