PHPBB3 not really usable due to german rights

[MMM3]

Hi,

PHPBB3 lacks of an imprint - so we here in germany are IN NO CASE allowed to use it.

I tried many things to add an imprint but i failed... i`m a bit familar with PHP but i think
i made something wrong while trying this. Would be glad, if someone could help me a bit

I wonder why PHPBB3 lacks of an imprint?
Is germany really the only country in tha world with that restrictive law restrictions?

Cheers,
Matze

[Noxwizard]

You might be able to just modify the agreement page for registration, but your best bet would be to ask at http://www.phpbb.de.

[Pony99CA]

For those not familiar with German law, here's a better description of the German imprint requirement.

And here's an example imprint (just chosen randomly; it's not my site). It looks basically like a standard Contact page (although I don't know whether the legalese for privacy is required).

If you want this as a separate page instead of on the Terms or Privacy pages, check out the Add a New Custom Page to phpBB Knowledge Base article and add a link to the Imprint page as described in the Adding a new link and icon to your header Knowledge Base article.

Steve

[Techie-Micheal]

Hi,

PHPBB3 lacks of an imprint - so we here in germany are IN NO CASE allowed to use it.

I tried many things to add an imprint but i failed... i`m a bit familar with PHP but i think
i made something wrong while trying this. Would be glad, if someone could help me a bit

I wonder why PHPBB3 lacks of an imprint?
Is germany really the only country in tha world with that restrictive law restrictions?

Cheers,
Matze

I'm not a lawyer*, but to the best of my knowledge, Germany is the only country that requires something like this. Either way, it's easy to add something like this to phpBB3, as per the above links.

* = But I like to pretend sometimes.

[Popp Singh]

Thanks for the info and links pony .

I wonder what the european court would / does say about it ?

That means dont have a site registered and / or hosted in germany .

EDIT - If you look at https://www.phpbb.de/ at the bottom right hand side of the screen you will see the link "mpressum " wich is very small and leads to their version of the needed page . Personaly i would never comply with that law and would take the risk of going to court about it . My personal details are private and will never be displayed publicly . I dont know if there have ever been any cases about this law but in my opinion it clashes with german laws about privacy . I would be gratefull if anyone had anymore information about this and posted it here .

[Sajaki]

according to this article it is not applicable for "private" pages. it's meant for commercial pages. So your guild forum, etc, would be exempt.

http://www.e-recht24.de/artikel/tmg/183.html

Insbesondere der Begriff „geschäftsmäßige Telemedien“ kann zu Unklarheiten bei der Auslegung führen. Nach Angaben des Gesetzgebers sollen rein private Internet-Seiten von der Impressumspflicht ausgenommen werden. Dies wird jedoch nicht näher erläutert. Folgt man dem Wortlaut der Vorschrift, bezieht sich diese allein auf „gegen Entgelt angebotene Telemedien“. Nicht umfasst wären alle Fälle, in denen zwar ein unternehmerischer Hintergrund einer Website klar erkennbar ist, über diese Website direkt aber keine entgeltlichen Leistungen oder Waren angeboten werden. Man kann annehmen, dass eine derartige Einschränkung nicht der Intention des Gesetzgebers entspricht.

However, there are lawyer firms specialising in tracking down and suing german sites that don't comply with this law. so to stay on the safe side, you should add the impressum if you're running a .de site.

[nw-b39]

i think it would be enough to have the imprint posted on a pinned topic. this should be enough for a private site.

regards
Markus

[AmigoJack]

have the imprint posted on a pinned topic

No, it must be accessible directly (i.e. opening the main site, then there must be a link to it). But you probably meant a forum link which then would directly go to that topic. However, things go bad once the DBMS is out of order and no site (text) is shown - a static page would be more robust.

[Poppsy]

Personaly i would never comply with that law and would take the risk of going to court about it . My personal details are private and will never be displayed publicly . I dont know if there have ever been any cases about this law but in my opinion it clashes with german laws about privacy . I would be gratefull if anyone had anymore information about this and posted it here .

Is this law still in effect in Germany? I have German business forums that use phpbb and I don't want to get in trouble but this law just seems to silly to me.

[AmigoJack]

still in effect

Yes it is.

this law just seems to silly

Yes it is.

[Talk19Zehn]

Hi, take a look please and customize the conditions please consistently by own responsibility at all and also always ask the lawyer of confidence for information for your own details :

Now an extension for phpBB 3.1 Ascraeus(!) phpBB-3.1.7pl1
https://www.phpbb.de/community/viewtopi ... 1#p1321631

Or / And ... - BTW: read for
phpBB-3.0 Olympus (!): at last phpBB-3.0.14
https://www.phpbb.de/community/viewtopi ... 8#p1299548

Regards

[Holger]

I love this law.
I want to be able to see who is responsible and whom to contact in case of questions.
Sweden does not have this law and it is a REAL PITA to contact an admin/webmaster for a site sometimes.
For me, used to the German imprint, I always get a bad feeling if all contact info is hidden or not provided. Most of the time I mark those sites as shady and untrustworthy.

[Arty]

This law actually makes sense. Unlike cookies law that resulted in many websites displaying annoying overlays.

EU should combine them into one law, requiring website owners to create about/impressum page with contact and cookie information and get rid of current stupid cookie law.

[Ger]

This law actually makes sense. Unlike cookies law that resulted in many websites displaying annoying overlays.

EU should combine them into one law, requiring website owners to create about/impressum page with contact and cookie information and get rid of current stupid cookie law.

Sometimes I wish phpBB had a like/thanks option.

Anyhow: you are absolutely right. Thumbs up.

[Popp Singh]

My opinion ---- >

Some people have missed the point . Its not about a contact adress its about control . Its about MY personal contact adress and details being made public . My adress and my life are private .

Contact is not a problem we have a site contact adress so anyone can contact us any time they want .

An example . Several years ago a hacker found our site email adress . They then used it to spam loads of people and we got blamed , had acusations made against us and since then we are not allowed to use our site email adress to send mails .. We now get flooded every day with masses of criminal emails .

Next . Its a german law for german sites . Germany has NOTHING to say about sites that are not based in germany .