what's the point in them doing this though?
Looks like you confuse different topics that are kinda similar but the actions have very different reasons and origins.
The reason why some (read: a lot of) music videos are not available on Youtube is because Google/Youtube refuse to pay for the plays. So the "GEMA" (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesell...ungs-_und_mechanische_Vervielfältigungsrechte) locks the videos. The GEMA is not a state organization but somehow working after being appointed by the state.. essentially they collect the money for their members when the artists' songs get played on radio, TV, concerts, discos,... and the internet. Basically a good thing. Thing is, they wanted a lot more money than they got from Youtube and so Youtube blocked them off and now we have this shitty situation where most videos get locked. It's pretty easy to circumvent the lock with a proxy, there are even plugins for Mozilla for this exact purpose.
and moreover, what's the point of germans censoring everything else as well like videogame violence and the whole fucking english language from all their media?
Well, first off it's not like "everything" gets censored in Germany. In fact the US censor and ban A LOT more stuff than gets banned over here.. It's just.. different. You will notice that a lot of movies are 10 minutes shorter in the US version when compared to the European (and German) market because they tend to cut out a lot of sex scenes. Similar to the US organizations hating nudity and sex, the guys over here hate excessive violence.. which is basically no bad thing because you can just rate the movie 16+ or 18+ and everything would be OK. Sometimes though, they are retarded and decide to place movies/games/songs "on the index", which basically means it gets banned from being openly sold and advertised in stores and media. -> You can still buy the stuff, if you're 18 and older.
Some games however, like i.e. "Postal" contain too much violence for the BPjM (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Department_for_Media_Harmful_to_Young_Persons) and they don't even get a lower age rating even after for example making the blood green or cut out "unnecessary" and excessive violence.. then the criminal justice "police" can confiscate the game/movie/whatever and then it can't be sold at all.. but private ownage of the confiscated media still isn't punished etc. Even if this is the case you can still order the media from other countries, for example Austria which is like 5€ more for shipping and thats it
Note that the newspapers, TV news, radio have no "censorship" at all.. luckily.
More on censorship in Germany:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany
seriously, when i was a kid my dad brought me a bunch of games from his business trips in germany, like the first three command & conquer games with my favorite of the bunch red alert.... no i mean ALARMSTUFE ROT where all the infantry soldiers were shittily transformed into a bunch of robots which leaked oil while dying, and sounded like a bunch of tin cans when they were run over by a tank.
the translations were terrible as well, and that's pretty much the case in most translated-to-german media i've seen. i will never forget how Cartman sounded when i was visiting germany and saw an episode of south park. it was so terrible, it makes me shake my head in disbelief everytime i think about it.
what's the real reasoning behind all this? doesn't it bother the german people at all? i don't think these laws "shield" any child from flipping out if they have it in them.
also on what i said about translating everything, i'm not saying "WHY U NO LIKE MURRICA", i'm just saying that english media is a substantial aid to learning english, which is useful in many ways. however, if most germans don't feel like they'll ever need the english language, then they probably don't. it's just the compulsive translation of everything that gets to me
Yeah that's annoying and stupid.. Germany is not the only country that dubs movies and games, though: In Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia and Ukraine it is the same. You're right, people would be able to speak english a lot better etc and personally I never ever watch movies in german or play the games in german language (even worse!). Luckily on DVDs and games there's always the original english language version, too (if you want with subtitles). Germany has a very big dubbing and movie market so unfortunately we can "afford" to dub all movies, smaller and not as wealthy contries just can't afford the money to dub them.. which is better for them ironically
See this for a list of countries that dub movies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubbin...of_dubbing_foreign_films_throughout_the_world
PS: I hope it doesn't sound like I like the censorship that's happening here, but it's not like "censorship" in a lot of countries where the newsmedia are censored and you can't state your opinion (well.. if you say that you want another 3rd Reich then it luckily gets censored and you get punished). Also the censorshop is "transparent" meaning you can access the list of stuff that gets cut etc and you can take legal actions if your film or whatever got banned and sometimes it gets "unbanned" after that.. like Rammsteins latest album
(Still, note that it wasn't illegal to own it or not available, just not for kids).
Other countries just censor opinions etc without the people noticing it, I don't think I have to tell you which ones
By the way a lot of games and movies get "self-censored" by the companies because they want to sell them to a wider audience in Germany, where a brutal game will most likely recieve a 18+ rating. That's annoying and sad because the adults will get the same cut version as the 16 yr olds.
Also, the state or its organizations *never* cut any content from movies, games etc, the publishers and companies do it themselves.
Media that is assumed to be very harmful to youth is indexed by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons). These publications are restricted in marketing but not de jure censored in general. Indexing can grant publicity but is often tried to prevent. The reduced violence in some German versions of movies and games that carry a USK rating have in fact not been censored, but the companies releasing them have decided themselves to remove certain content in order to make the media available to a wider audience.
