This week the Federal Constitutional Court announced its decision on the Federal Trojan (Bundestrojaner), the plan of the German Minister of the Interior to secretly inspect computers nationwide. This related specifically to legislation of North-Rhine Westphalia, but made it clear that the same result would apply to federal legislation.

Press release of the court in German
Decision in German

It extends the general right of personality to create a new fundamental right: the ‘fundamental right to the guarantee of the confidentiality and integrity of information-technology systems’.

§ 5 Abs. 2 Nr. 11 Satz 1 Alt. 2 VSG, der den heimlichen Zugriff auf informationstechnische Systeme regelt (“Online-Durchsuchung”), verletzt das allgemeine Persönlichkeitsrecht in seiner besonderen Ausprägung als Grundrecht auf Gewährleistung der Vertraulichkeit und Integrität informationstechnischer Systeme und ist nichtig.

Section 5 (2) no. 11 sentence 1 alternative 2 of the Act on the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutzgesetz), which governs secret access to information-technology systems (known as the online search), infringes the general right of personality in the specific form of the fundamental right to the guarantee of confidentiality and integrity of information-technology systems and is void.

This doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so some German blawgs have been seeking a neater term for the new right. Telemedicus lists some:

Comments on DE:BUG:
Recht auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung
Datenfrieden
Netzpolitik:
Grundrecht auf digitale Intimsphäre / Privatsphäre (someone objects that Intimsphäre is reminiscent of sanitary towels)
Recht auf Vernetzung
Statut über abhörsichere Informationstechnologie (StasI)
Recht auf digitale Unversehrtheit
IT-Grundrecht
virtuelle Menschenwürde
Grundrecht auf informationelle Integrität
and more
Malte Welding:
Recht auf Privatheit der Online- und Rechnernutzung (PORN)
More details on Telemedicus here and here

Here’s the Electronic Frontier Foundation in English, Spiegel Online in English.

It always surprises me how many Scots there are in Bavaria (see earlier entry).

Here are a couple of shots of a ballot paper for the local elections in Fürth.

There is a pink one with six fields – sorry about the varying pinks, but it was dark in there – and a yellow one with six potential mayors. You can see a corner of the yellow one in the bottom picture, but it was not very exciting.

As for the pink one, there is no information available in writing on how to fill it in. I had forgotten, so I was sent to a helper, who informed me rather superficially.

I can simply choose one party, putting a cross at the top. That seems to include one vote for each of the 50 (I think) names under that party (Die Linke has fewer candidates). But if I put a the figure 3 by a particular name, my votes go to that name first, even if it’s in another party, and they’re deducted from the main party I chose. (Actually, 3 is not the minimum – presumably 1 is the minimum – but they didn’t tell me that). I asked where I could read about it and I was told in the paper – but I missed that date – or on the Internet, but where on the Internet? No answer forthcoming.

This is not an invitation for an explanation – I’ve had it again and again. Kumulieren means giving one candidate up to three votes, and panaschieren means favouring more than one party, which I can reveal I did.

Only after coming home did I discover this explanation (in German) and this test ballot paper.

There are certain advantages in living on the corner where the election stands are set up (no tents today because of gale force winds).

But who shall I vote for?

American English: -ize, -ization, -izing etc.
British English: either -ize or -ise

If you use -ise, write capsize
If you use -ize, write surprise, analyse and some other words (in AmE, one sometimes sees surprize, analyze, but this is not really accepted in BrE)

I always used to use the -ize, but some clients want -ise. Most clients believe that -ize is wrong in BrE – it isn’t – and I think the EU Interinstitutional style guide insists (for what it’s worth) on -ise.

As a general rule the first entry in the Concise Oxford dictionary should be followed. An exception to this rule is the spelling of words ending in -ise/-ize. Although both forms are correct, the preferred spelling is ‘-ise’ and this should be applied to ensure consistency.

This is silly, isn’t it?

Still, I find it worth keeping the Microsoft Word spellchecker free of -izes, so I can make sure I didn’t slip one in when the client wanted -ise.

The Oxford University Press is famous for using -ize, but it is not the only publisher to do so. Some translators not a million miles away from Oxford get very angry on this topic.

In this connection, the Plain Language Commission has a free newsletter, Pikestaff, with back copies available on its website, and in number 13 it has this to say:

Zee what we zed
Following our reminder in Pikestaff 12 about why we use ‘z’ rather than ‘s’ in words like ‘organization’, a reader emailed to ask whether its being the older English form is really a good reason to do this. Certainly, it’s natural that language evolves over time, and we don’t believe in sticking with tradition where there’s a more modern and clearer way.

In fact, the ‘z’ form is more widespread in British English than people may think, with data from the British National Corpus (BNC) showing a ratio of just 3:2 in favour of the ‘s’ spelling. It’s also the first form given in many British dictionaries for words deriving from the Greek and Latin suffixes, ‘-izein’ and ‘-izare’, and part of the house style of Oxford University Press. There are phonological and etymological arguments for using the ‘z’ form, ‘z’ representing better the sound of the suffix, and correlating better with the Greek and Latin forms of the suffix.

There are some words – like ‘surprise’ and ‘analyse’ – that can’t be spelt with a ‘z’; these derive from French rather than the classical languages. But in the US, some dictionaries now spell some such words with ‘z’ – so, ‘surprize’ and ‘analyze’. It’s rare in British English though, so if you want to follow our style, you need to remember the exceptions. ‘Capsize’ is the only word that can’t be spelt with an ‘s’.

If all this hasn’t made you feel like taking a zizz, you can read more about the topic in the corpus-based Cambridge Guide to English Usage (by Pam Peters), pages 298–9. There, the arguments in favour of the ‘z’ form lead Peters – like us – to conclude that ‘the systematic use of -ize spellings recommends itself on distributional and phonological grounds’. In our editing work, of course, we follow the customers’ house style.

(Thanks to Sue of the ITI)

1. Stuttgart Zoo – small friendly penguin probably stolen. Spiegel Online:

“She couldn’t have walked out with so many people around, but it would’t be so difficult to carry her away,” said Koch. “She’s just the size of a sack of flour.”

A sack of flour? Would that be ten pounds or twenty pounds?

2. Shiny Shiny introduces an ‘interesting toothbrush kit’.

Particularly interesting is its double function as, inter alia, a ‘G spot simulator’. Or maybe they will have changed the spelling by now.

3. The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the two small pandas in Nuremberg Zoo perhaps were killed by the muntjaks after all. That’s what I’ve believed all along. It was only recently that I heard that the pandas had killed a (baby?) muntjak on the same evening.

Die beiden Kleinen Pandabären im Nürnberger Tiergarten sind eventuell doch von anderen Tieren in ihrem Gehege getötet worden. Am Freitag verdichteten sich Hinweise darauf, dass die beiden Muntjak-Hirsche über ihre Mitbewohner hergefallen sein könnten.

4. Austrian police slow off the mark. Just because a mayor finds strichnine-laced Mon Chéris with a lipstick heart on his windscreen, doesn’t mean the would-be murderer was a woman. SZ again:

Die Liebesgrüße aus der Wachau waren vergiftet. Hannes Hirtzberger, Bürgermeister des malerischen Weinstädtchens Spitz an der Donau, fand am 8. Februar einen schmeichelhaften Gruß an der Windschutzscheibe seines Mercedes vor dem Gemeindeamt: Einen Umschlag mit einem Praliné der Marke “Mon Chérie”, dazu eine Grußkarte. “Du bist für mich etwas ganz besonderes”, stand da geschrieben.