NSFW

This week's song is an all time classic deep from the 80ies: Hans Lang, Keine Angst.

Not only because it's a great song but mostly because I was so much reminded of it this week by the blooming debate on Danger Dan's new interpretation of this truly important motto:

The debate of Danger Dan's song is interesting - in particular from a legal perspective as Danger Dan was first invited and then kicked out from prsenting the song in a satire show from German public broadcaster ZDF. ZDF explains the reasons, Danger Dan and Igor Levit criticised the decision harshly, and, of course, everynody has an opinion on this, such as Cicero, RBB, FAZ, Die Welt - and Florian Klenk. The artists' response was a concert with the song being played. ZDF aspekte has a 15 minutes video on it (with a very, very strange camera style and many men in front of bookshelves) - also on its legal implications with two legal experts (again, both elderly white males sitting in front of bookshelves with the usual "it depends" answer).

The record label's marketing department is most likely quite happy about the debate and some members of ZDF's Fernsehrat wrote an open letter criticising the decision.

I learned that there's also a third "Keine Angst" in German (language) pop, this one is from Georg Danzer (not one of his greatest songs, though).

Coming back to Hansi Lang, after having heard Keine Angst, one shouldn't close the day without a live version of Falco's Nachtflug from 2007 (or so) - this is culturally and socially so, so, so long ago.

Let me just say it (again) - the possibly best newer Nachtflug interpretation I know belongs to Der Nino aus Wien and Ernst Molden.

FM4 has, interestingly, an analysis of Danger Dan's version contextualtising it in comparison with Hansi Lang's interpretation - so, I am not the only one having this association.

Retrospect

#arsboni

Mag. Philipp Schwarz, LLM, was in the laundry to speak about a case he had won at the Constitutional Court for the NGO epicenter.works. It's about the fundamental question whether the public should have access to meetings of parliamentary investigatory committees (Parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschüsse) and whether these meetings should be streamed.

Regular viewers might notice that I changed the thumbnail layout - after, I don't know, perhaps 500 episodes with the old one. This one was suggested by YouTube's AI and I decided to give it a try. Feedback very welcome! The light in the interview is back to normal as I received rather clear feedback on the last change here :-).

Open Access and Export Control

I have the privilege to co-edit a book series together with Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren: Contributions to IT- and Information Law, published by Nomos.

A new volume of this series was published recently.

The book is based on Zeller's PHD-thesis she received a price for. It's a very relevant contribution to a topic of growing strategic interest.

Prospect

LLM

It's this time of the year when people make decisions on what to do next year - and with the rest of their career. Let me therefore kindly remind you that "my" LLM-program at UNIVIE on IT- and media law is currently accepting applications for the next academic year. This is, in my (biased) view the best academic program in the field - operative since 1999. Our claim is very simple: You get there what you need to know when working professionally on data and media and law in Europe. And yes, AI is an important part of the cake - but not the whole cake.

A full scholarship is funded by Die Presse.

and other funds are available as well.

#arsboni

On Friday, Juky 24th, at 10.00 am, I will discuss with Andrew J. Barnhart his article "Solidarity or Segregation? ChatGPT Health and US Health Care Disparities" that he coauthored with Giuseppe Comerci, Barbara Prainsack and  Matthias Braun.

Look and Feel

Den Haag

I spent the weekend in Den Haag (and Amsterdam) to see my son who is attending the summer academy in public international law there. Den Haag is nice, in particular the beach, the The Hague Academy of International Law is - as far as I can tell - a very inspiring place. I couldn't visit the peace palace though, due to security measures in place, but I managed to see Mauritshuis which is a beautiful museum.

I was, in particular, impressed by two more sites.

The first was Amsterdam's public library (OBA) ,

the second the museum dedicated to M.C. Escher in Den Haag.

The library is the paradigm of an open space with access to knowledge. You can simply go there and do whatever you want - reading, watching, listening, strolling through bookshelves - whatever, provided it doesn't bother other users. They also have several (well equipped) podcast studios, meeting rooms, cafes etc. and are very open to "new" media.

The Escher-museum is a very well organised introductory into his fascinating work and his life. It's interesting how much he was influenced by islamic art and science, in particular mathematics and geology. The museum's website has many of the exhibited masterpieces in high quality.

Kronstorf

Google's data center in Kronstorf mentioned here last week is subject to a story in the current edition of Datum. Whereas I warmly recommend subscribing Datum, you can also listen (for free) to the text in their podcast.

Jetzt has a follow up article and audiotack on the matter as well.

Have a wonderful week and take care of yourself!

Kind regards

Nikolaus (Forgó)