I mentioned the German ‘Impressum’ again very recently. Now the German American Law Journal has taken up the topic, under the heading ‘Silly German law with extraterritorial effect’.

They mention the problem that some German lawyers have made a point of suing people who don’t observe the (letter of the) law. It’s only websites with a commercial purpose that need to give this information, and some courts have defined as commercial any website that displays advertising banners. One court condoned the pursuit of a cease and desist order when the ‘Impressum’ needed more than two mouseclicks to reach. (Indeed, when I started this blog, I was recommended to give a direct link to the ‘Impressum’ on the blog, even though I had a link to the website and that had a link to the ‘Impressum’ on it).

Of course, if this is a ‘silly law’, it isn’t a silly German law, but silly EU law. I wonder how keenly it is enforced in England. The German American law blog mentions a case where a Welsh company that operated in Germany was required to display its foreign corporate data. (Well, it’s described as a Welsh company, but of course all English and Welsh companies are registered in Cardiff). Now strictly speaking, that data should be there already, albeit in English. OK, maybe when the proceedings were instituted the Directive had not yet been transposed into English law, but the Directive must have applied in England and Wales. Here’s the Heise report and here is the case report (both in German).

It does appear that this was a company run by Germans who chose to incorporate as an English limited company to save costs.

Incidentally, the German American Law Journal refers to the ‘Impressum’ as ‘compliant statement’, which is useful (but perhaps would not be understood by everyone).

An earlier entry in the German American Law Journal discusses German cease-and-desist-order practices.

The Ministry of Propaganda also links to the East Frisian Embassy,
English, East Frisian, German.

Ostfriesische Botschaft: Englisch, Ostfriesisch, Deutsch.

Think East Frisian sports consist of tidelands olympics and teabag throwing? Think again.
Over the centuries Frisians developed a few very special olympic games, and when they’re practising, boy there is not much to be felt of the proverbial Northern coolness. A short introduction to the most important East Frisian games.

I wrote about the Magic Roundabout in Swindon earlier. Now Armin Grewe, at the Ministry of Propaganda, has created a page on it, including a panorama (text here).

(LATER NOTE, added in June 2004: I would translate Impressum as ‘Legal notice’, or at a pinch as ‘Contact us’ or some such. A Google search on “legal notice” site:uk reveals many examples).

In an earlier entry I mentioned this problem: the German word Impressum, referring to the details web site owners are required to quote on their sites, is often mistranslated (e.g. as imprint or masthead).

A German translator asked on a mailing list what the English equivalent is, since the Impressum is required under EU law.

In England and Wales, the Electronic Commerce Directive (00/31/EC) was implemented by the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations. I quote those:

General information to be provided by a person providing an information society service
6. – (1) A person providing an information society service shall make available to the recipient of the service and any relevant enforcement authority, in a form and manner which is easily, directly and permanently accessible, the following information –

(a) the name of the service provider;

(b) the geographic address at which the service provider is established;

(c) the details of the service provider, including his electronic mail address, which make it possible to contact him rapidly and communicate with him in a direct and effective manner;

(d) where the service provider is registered in a trade or similar register available to the public, details of the register in which the service provider is entered and his registration number, or equivalent means of identification in that register;

(e) where the provision of the service is subject to an authorisation scheme, the particulars of the relevant supervisory authority;

(f) where the service provider exercises a regulated profession –

(i) the details of any professional body or similar institution with which the service provider is registered;

(ii) his professional title and the member State where that title has been granted;

(iii) a reference to the professional rules applicable to the service provider in the member State of establishment and the means to access them; and

(g) where the service provider undertakes an activity that is subject to value added tax, the identification number referred to in Article 22(1) of the sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the member States relating to turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment[13].

(2) Where a person providing an information society service refers to prices, these shall be indicated clearly and unambiguously and, in particular, shall indicate whether they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.

So the only word is ‘information’.

The word Information is also used in Austria. Here’s an example on an Austrian translators’ web site.

Every bit as detailed as the German, but no Impressum as far as the eye can see.

ADDED LATER: I did conclude after this that the word ‘information’ alone would not do in English and I would use ‘Contact information’. Klaus points out in the comments that the word ‘Impressum’ is widely used in Austria, if not in the law (I seem to have hit on an unusual website, which says ‘Informationen gemäß § 5 Abs. 1 E-Commerce Gesetz’, rather heavy for most purposes. Incidentally, it gives this information on the page labelled ‘Home’). – The word ‘Impressum’ probably isn’t in the German law either – I haven’t checked where it comes from.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has reduced George Carlin’s seven dirty words to six, according to LawMeme, which links to two interesting decisions (via Ernie the Attorney).