Germany says nein to three strikes lockouts

Secretive EU blasted

Justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has stated that Germany will not impose a three strikes and you're out penalty on file sharers.

Referring to secret negotiations carried out by 39 countries, the minister told Der Speigel, "The federal government will not accept any international agreement that includes net barriers," continuing, "The rejection of network locking is the common conviction of the entire federal government. In the coalition agreement, we have determined that no initiatives are taken on internet legal barriers."

She also said that the way ACTA had behaved, preventing Euro MPs from getting access to pertinent documents whilst US companies could get as much information as they wanted by sign a non disclosure agreement, was "troubling" and called for more openness and transparency.

The UK government recently announced that it would not excommunicate persistent file sharers, but French president Nicholas Sarkozy has managed to pushed a similar bill through his parliament. The fact that he is married to pop star Carla Bruni had nothing to do with it.