zlacker

>>Philip+(OP)
I'm a big fan of Germany -- my most enjoyable vacation was riding around DE on DB, I've done some German language classes and read extensively about it's history. (I think people hyperfocus on WWII out of morbid curiosity and skip over the atrocities of the Stasi.)

The last time I was there, I had the poor luck to schedule my train out of Berlin as a protest was being held. People were super polite, parting ways for me then going back to their thing. One of the leaders must have heard through the grapevine I was a travelling academic and tried to put me on the spot if I "supported" the protest. (They were unhappy about the Trans Pacific Partnership).

I told him I study privacy, not law nor economics so I don't feel qualified to comment on a trade agreement, but I certainly support their right to express their opinion.

And with that, what very little hostility I'd encountered that day vanished, and I went off to eat my currywurst, drink my beer, and watch some videos on my laptop while waiting for my train.

I'm going to pause and say maybe this is the kind of policy question we should leave to the citizens of said country... it seems to center around extremely technical terms in a legal system a lot of us on (overwhelmingly American) HN have very little understanding.

Germany has a history of being extremely supportive of open source -- when I was exploring the clubs, the only black shirt I had was one with a giant Firefox logo, and I got a lot of postive feedback and even let past the line at one place, so I'd be curious what German citizens have to say on the matter before forming my own opinion.

>>firefa+RH
Germany is a wonderful place — and aside from a few racist remarks when I grew my beard — I'm forever grateful for what that country did to my mental health, career, and future.

Indeed it should be up to Germans to decide how to handle this, but given their general respect for The Common Good, I'm positive about such a law. Godspeed!

>>port11+PV
Someone from DE pointed out elsewhere in the thread this could be used to avoid paying ppl properly -- classify someone as "volunteering" to be paid a paltry sum with no pension contributions etc to work on tools that benefit for profit corps.

So definitely want to be mindful you don't open the door to tax avoidance and exploitation under the guise of charity.

I know very little about the EU, but I've worked with nonprofits a lot in the USA and there's a lot that are basically corporate cut outs used to lobbying that's a stretch to say is in the public interest.