I'm born, raised and living in Austria. It's a great country and I like it here, but as with most (if not all) countries there are things I don't like.
One of those things is the so called "Impressumspflich" (Legal Imprint Law). A private website is only private if:
- Only private information is shared (like photographs, diary)
- No affiliation links are served
A website isn't "private" if:
- Money is earned (even if it's 1 cent)
- Stuff gets sold on the website
- The content speaks to a brighter mass (journalistic entries)
The last point (journalistic entries) is the reason why I don't own a website. This law is written in a way that basically every personal website could fall into it. If I would write about a certain piece of software or service, my website wouldn't be "private" anymore so I have to make an imprint available.
What's the problem with that?
Let me tell you. The imprint consists of my legal name, my living address, phone number, e-mail address and my VAT identification number (if I had one).
I might think about giving away my name, but my address and phone number? NO!
This law (that also applies to Germany and Switzerland) tries to prevent making websites about illegal stuff and whatever other reasons they have, but they don't get that this is not preventing people from making such websites.
It only prevents people like me to have a normal website where I want to write about stuff that interests me. This is also the reason why I'm using this great service instead of having my own website.
Comments
November 7, 2021 15:11
What do you think, should the law be instead?
Maybe the information should instead be stored as an encrypted DNS Record using a public key provided by the jurisdiction you reside in and accessible if a judge issues a warrant against a specific site.