Guess no one in Germany is allowed to have fun anymore, because Germany has banned selling e-books with "adult content" any time before 10 p.m.
According to Germany's Federal Department of Media Harmful to Young Persons, offenders could be hit with a fine up to €50,000 (or $56,000) for buying a copy of 50 Shades of Grey during regular business hours (then again, if we're talking about E.L. James, the law might be doing readers a huge service).
Prohibitions against selling adult erotica (or violent or extreme texts, for that matter) have been in place since 2002, under a legislative act called the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag. Originally, the law was meant to apply to the purview of the cinema, but only up until recently has the act pertained to e-books and other electronic disseminatory media, otherwise known as "telemedia."
Austerity: a total bummer.
The revival of the law and its application to the e-book industry was apparently spurred on by a lawsuit against the memoir Schlauchgelüste (which translates roughly in English to "Hose Cravings" or "Panty Hose Cravings") by author Johanna Kamermans, who wrote the book under the pen name Jacob Winter. Called an "autobiographical transgender history," the book itself is a recollection of Kamermans' time as an exotic dancer in Europe.
One has to wonder what Germany would make of Crazy Eyes' Time Hump Chronicles from Orange is the New Black.
Photo: Claude Schildkneckt | Flickr
