alt Hacker News>And if you fail to seek permission nothing happens. You can ignore it without consequence
The consequence is you violated the law, and they can have you at any time, even retroactively, for that.
That they don't is merely a detail. If it really has "no consequence" they should remove it.
Replies
Yea, you violated a law that is not enforced. Like how you are violating the law if you give some money to the neighbors kid to mow your lawn or if you cook some pie and you give it away to a friend without having proper certifications (at least in Sweden on paper you need to have certification to do that. Of course it is not enforced)
And no, Germany does not allow retroactive criminal punishments. That’s more something that happens in Russia, China and probably soon America
Civilized countries don’t allow retroactively increasing the penalty for breaking a law. Does Germany allow that?
I think it's like they want to have it on the books now so they can use it later. If they try to emergency legislate during wartime people will protest and/or flee the country the day before it starts applying.
A lot of laws head this way. Sweeping chances but not enforced so people ignore it, then later there's nothing stopping the government going back 7 years after select individuals. Just because it wasn't ever enforced doesn't mean it isn't illegal. An example is disguised employment laws for contractors in the UK (IR35)