After seeing Swedish voters send the Pirate Party to the European Parliament, the German branch of the group has now gotten a seat in the lower house of that nation's parliament, the Bundestag. But the seat didn't come about through an electoral triumph; instead a member of the Social Democrats, J�rg Trauss, changed allegiances, claiming his decision was driven by his former party's support for a mandatory Internet filtering scheme. But the situation is complicated by the fact that the filtering would target child porn, and Trauss is under investigation for possession of that material (he claims it was for investigative purposes).

The legislation in question would implement a scheme that's somewhat similar to the one under consideration in Australia. The system would rely on a blacklist of sites, maintained by the German Federal police force, the Bundeskriminalamt. Access to blacklisted sites would trigger the ISP to send the user to a warning page, indicating that the site contains illegal child porn. Users will, apparently, still have the option of clicking through.

According to Fritz Effenberger, who runs a German Tech site, the bill has the backing of both the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democrats, making its passage in the upper house (or Bundesrat) all but a certainty. The bill has been opposed by the Free Democrats, as well as the Greens and Socialists. In general, Effenberger suggests that these latter parties have a younger constituency that cares more about Internet and technology issues, and this makes for a compelling issue for them.

Tauss was apparently caught in a somewhat awkward position. As a member of the Social Democrats, his party was largely in favor of the filtering legislation; at the same time, Tauss was his party's primary resource for new media issues for the last several decades. That apparently led to his decision to at least partially switch parties. According to an English language news source, Tauss will continue to vote with the Social Democrats on most issues, but will follow the Pirate Party's goals on Internet and legal issues.

Despite the guarantee of a degree of continued support, the Social Democrats, known as the SPD, are not amused by the switch, and have called for Tauss to resign from Parliament. "He got it [his seat] through the SPD and therefore has to give it back," said a party spokesman. The Pirate Party, in contrast, was quite pleased, despite the fact that Tauss promised a degree of continued allegiance to the Social Democrats.

The whole situation, however, is complicated by the fact that Tauss has a rather unfortunate personal connection to child pornography. According to both Effenberger and the press account, Tauss' focus on Internet issues has led him to investigate child pornography, and he may have had valid reasons for possessing some (he's certainly not denied having it). Nevertheless, the investigation into this possession has dragged on for over a year without any formal charges being filed.

All of this suggests that Tauss' actions provide rich ground for political speculation. Has he opposed the filtering plan because of his personal experiences, and is he really fleeing the SDP as a matter of principle? Has the investigation remained open for so long simply because it provides a nice implement with which to bludgeon an opponent of this bit of Internet regulation? In any case, Tauss' decision is unlikely to derail the legislation and, without the SDP's support, he's unlikely to survive past the next elections, which occur in September. But in the meantime, his switch gives the Pirate Party another success to boast about.