Why can't I watch Hitler mashups? If you prick me, do I not bleed?

April 15, 2008 12:05 PM

How do I view the Hitler mashups that were just deleted from the front page -- from within Germany?

This post got deleted just before I could make this comment:

Wow, you want to hear something funny? I live in Germany and I can't see any of these videos. I get a message saying "This video is not available in your country." I'm computer-illiterate...does anyone know how I can get around this?

I'm genuinely curious now...can't I see these videos somehow? I logged out of youtube and I managed to find and erase a cookie file called something like "youtube[2]" -- but still, no dice. Also you get bonus points if you know the backstory as to why I can't see them. I know that Nazi literature is semi-forbidden here, but since when does this extend to youtube mashups?

posted by creasy boy to computers & internet (22 comments total)

That's very interesting. Can you see this youtube video? I've been downloading clips from "Extra3" to show to my German class, and someone asked me if the one's that poke fun at Hitler were legal in Germany (they are from German television).

Apparently youtube detects the location of your IP and won't display certain things for you in Germany. If it's any consolation, I can't see videos on German Comedy Central here in the United States.
posted by thomas144 at 12:16 PM on April 15

You could use hotspot shield.
posted by jouke at 12:16 PM on April 15

You might try a web proxy service.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:17 PM on April 15

You know, I thought for a few seconds about whether or not it would be offensive and decided no, but a mod could definitely erase this if it causes problems, or just erase it now anyways. It might've been a serious judgment error. My thought process was that the phrase "If you prick me, do I not bleed" popped into my head and I thought it was from an old movie from the 50s. I searched for it and found it came from Merchant of Venice, which I've never read. Anyway, it wasn't my intention to offend anyone and I'm sorry if it does offend anyone. My question still holds.
posted by creasy boy at 12:18 PM on April 15

Yeah I can watch the "Extra3"...that's pretty funny.
posted by creasy boy at 12:22 PM on April 15

Use of Nazi symbolism is banned in Germany. Like illegal. Here's details about how the ban is getting Wikipedia in trouble.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:25 PM on April 15

Try this youtube video downloader.
posted by bunnytricks at 12:28 PM on April 15

When I use this web proxy I can see the name of the video and get this message: "Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player." When I try to download the flash player I get an error message. I can definitely watch all other youtube videos. When I use the English version of this web proxy I get the old message: "This video is not available in your country".
posted by creasy boy at 12:29 PM on April 15

This might be a bit too chatty but yesterday I was looking at a list of the international versions of The Office, and a German parody got a mention on Wikipedia:

The German version, Stromberg, was spoofed in the TV series Switch Reloaded (aired November 2007 to January 2008) in a segment called "Obersalzberg" (the name of Hitler's mountain retreat), in which Adolf Hitler is the Regional Manager. The segment uses the same stylistic elements as The Office.

It seems that there is a satire exception in the German anti-nazi laws. Shouldn't these YT videos be covered as well?
posted by bunnytricks at 12:34 PM on April 15

Creasy boy: streaming doesn't really work through web proxies. If you want to do this it will take quite a long time. I'd say the videos aren't really worth it: they're just footage of Hitler synchronized to pop music.

If you want to use a web proxy, you can download the video file itself by going to a YouTube downloader like this in the proxy:
http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie

By pasting in the YouTube url, you should then be able to download the .flv file that is the actual YouTube video.

However, to view this file you may need to download a video player like VLC.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:38 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

Ironmouth: that article's interesting. I particularly like the politician's explanation: "This isn’t about restricting freedom of opinion, it’s about examining what the limits are". But the use of Nazi symbolism is only partly banned, as I understand it -- I've pretty sure I've seen pictures of swastikas here in historical footage and in parodies...were there no swastikas in the movie "Der Untergang"?

bunnytricks: I get a file I can't read when I use the video downloader. As I said, I'm computer-illiterate.
posted by creasy boy at 12:40 PM on April 15

TheophileEscargot: I'm not really that eager to see the clips, I'm more interested in what technical and legal mechanisms are keeping me from seeing them. Anyway I'm downloading that video player now.
posted by creasy boy at 12:43 PM on April 15

As TheophileEscargot mentioned, you'll need to install VLC to watch the .flc files, and it's a painless installation.
posted by bunnytricks at 12:44 PM on April 15

Nazi videos on YouTube spark legal challenge.
posted by ericb at 12:48 PM on April 15

[few comments removed - this is not really a metafilter question, it's fine here.]
posted by jessamyn at 12:50 PM on April 15

OK, I just managed to watch one of the videos with the video youtube downloader and the vlc-player. You're right, it's absolutely not worth watching. I'm still surprised that anyone bothered to censor that, and I'm still curious if anyone knows what legal mechanisms are at work here...also I still don't really understand how youtube knows that I'm in Germany.
posted by creasy boy at 12:56 PM on April 15

ericb: thank you! Interesting...so I suppose now youtube is responding by cracking down on Hitler-related questionable material...I wonder if they respond based on complaints? There's an interesting FPP in here somewhere.
posted by creasy boy at 1:01 PM on April 15

I still don't really understand how youtube knows that I'm in Germany.

They look at your IP address and find out with whom it is registered, and from that your service provider. Or they can "traceroute" and look at what service provider you use a hop or two above your IP address. By using a proxy service you bypass this filter, because the proxy service is managed somewhere else and doesn't trip YouTube's filter.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:04 PM on April 15

Google knows you're in Germany because the Internet isn't really anonymous.

Your internet service provider gives you a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address whenever you log on.

When you click on a link or type in a URL, your computer sends some data to the website saying "Hey, can you send me the page data, my address is such-and-such".

The website then sends the data back to that address.

From that address the website knows what country you're in.

See here, here.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:05 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

Try doing a search in russian for хитлер. Maybe using another alphabet like that will get past the censoring software.
posted by JJ86 at 2:38 PM on April 15

creasy boy,

Educational use of the symbols is OK, anything else is banned.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:54 PM on April 15

When I spent some time in Germany in the 90's, there were a lot of truckers who displayed US Confederate flags because they couldn't display swastika's. I spent a lot of time in Germany...and never actually met anyone who was anything other than disgusted with the ideology and completely confused about why America has a holocaust museum.

We were, however, out at about 1am on the streets of Vienna, and were a little intimidated to run into a group of ~10 wanna be neo's. I think more realistically they were trying to be punks and scare people, but they were shaved and wearing the right colors.
posted by TomMelee at 7:35 PM on April 15