Don't let your work be downloaded in Germany before 10 pm their time - or pay!

[oggbashan]

From here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/23/germany_ebook_regulation/

A regulator in Germany says websites must only offer downloads of sexually explicit ebooks between 10pm and 6am.

Essentially, the Youth Protection Authority in Bavaria says 2002-era rules that protect kids from blue movies on TV also cover digital books, publishing trade mag Boersenblatt reports. Telly stations in Germany can only broadcast X-rated stuff between 10pm and 6am; that applies to raunchy ebook downloads, too, weirdly enough.

It stems from a complaint that a risqué autobiography titled Schlauchgelüste ("Pantyhose Cravings") was apparently all too easy for children to obtain.

It means erotic thrillers can only be fetched from the web late at night, Berlin time, unless the website hosting the material can verify the reader is an adult: Amazon.de, self-publishing authors et al will have to knock together some code that, pre-watershed, checks the age of someone before they can download a steamy ebook – or face the watchdog's wrath in Germany.

 

[DesEsseintes]

I am delighted that children are reading in Germany. Perhaps they might show our own youth the way.

 

[lovecraft68]

So Germany has the same problem as America...parents too lazy to watch what their kids are doing as they surf the net, so of course the system has to change to accommodate irresponisble parents-who are too busy on facebook to know what their kids are doing.

Seems Germany suffers from the same problem as Amazon and other venues.

The sheer stupidity of not creating adult only sections on their sites that would require a password that the kids shouldn't have.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

From here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/23/germany_ebook_regulation/

A regulator in Germany says websites must only offer downloads of sexually explicit ebooks between 10pm and 6am.

Essentially, the Youth Protection Authority in Bavaria says 2002-era rules that protect kids from blue movies on TV also cover digital books, publishing trade mag Boersenblatt reports. Telly stations in Germany can only broadcast X-rated stuff between 10pm and 6am; that applies to raunchy ebook downloads, too, weirdly enough.

It stems from a complaint that a risqué autobiography titled Schlauchgelüste ("Pantyhose Cravings") was apparently all too easy for children to obtain.

It means erotic thrillers can only be fetched from the web late at night, Berlin time, unless the website hosting the material can verify the reader is an adult: Amazon.de, self-publishing authors et al will have to knock together some code that, pre-watershed, checks the age of someone before they can download a steamy ebook – or face the watchdog's wrath in Germany.

Tell them to send me a bill. Or Amazon.de will have to verify as I didn't publish my stories at that site. I published mine a Amazon.com, actually I published them at kdp.amazon.com, I have no control over where Amazon decides to publish them after that. It's their worry.

 

[Handley_Page]

I am delighted that children are reading in Germany. Perhaps they might show our own youth the way.

Well, in the UK the only thing Youth read is the gibberish on their mobile phones.
Not that it's in English, BTW.

 

[sr71plt]

My books are offered by Amazon/Germany, but I'm with Zeb. This is the distributor's problem, not mine.