Never gonna happen... (Score 1)

German politicians will drop this as soon as they realize that

• data retention can be too easily circumvented (think of public phones, internet cafes, ...) and even if it could not be circumvented, it would only help to solve about 0.006% of all crimes committed
• this directive does not need to be implemented because it already violates European human rights conventions and rulings by the European Court of Justice (Ireland already sues against it, BTW)
• the implementation of this directive would be a violation of at least six German laws and "basic laws" (ie. the German constitution)
• the government would have to pay for the costs or get sued by Telcos and ISPs otherwise (guess it'll be at least several billion Euros per year)

I guess, this directive will never become law, or only long enough for some constitional court to rule it unconstitutional. As some other poster points out, it's more likely that this is just some politicians flexing their muscles. david