EAA
This fictional NGO was part of the 2009 April Fool's joke. Neither the "EAA" nor the legislation mentioned does actually exist, though some of the current legislation comes frighteningly close.
The Erster April Arbeitsgruppe is a german non-profit group aiding hobby website administrators to survive the latest kiddie-porn internet filtering craze.
Germany, together with the UK and other countries, is currently passing extremely overbroad legislation in a fake war on "child porn". The new laws will go into effect tomorrow and are so broad that they cover comics depicting sexual activity of drawn children or anything that looks like a kid, as well as a every description of sexual acts that might involve minors. It does not make exceptions for bulletin boards or games like this.
The EAA has provided a long list of practically every offensive word or word that could be judged as offensive according to the new laws. I've had no choice but to add filtering to the message system until the legal situation is resolved, as the punishment for violating these laws is up to 2,000,- € per case which some lawyers construct as meaning per page view. You can do the math yourself of how quickly this can ruin a hobbyist.
The filters are active in the message system now, the Wiki will follow tomorrow, as will the mailing lists. I only have days to "comply" to this total bullsh... darn, that's probably a forbidden word, too. The filters "might" be a little aggressive, but I have to play it safe. Sorry.
If you want to add your protest note to the 220,000 or so who already did, please do so on the EAA Website.
Tom
