on 22.may we have a law change in germany. All business e-mails must now contain a signature and in the signature you have to enter your real name, your address and must containn your finacial number or trading register number.

If you miss this its against the law and open the door for expensive reminders from lawyer.

I write this to remind you that ubbt send out system e-mails while registering in the forum or posting subscriptions. Check all language strings that are used for e-mail and be sure to enter the propper information!

Next reminder: if this are business e-mails you have to archive them for ten years in a reproduceable format without changes.

Now I post a german text with more informations about this:

hiermit möchten wir Sie gerne auf eine wichtige Gesetzesänderung
aufmerksam machen, welche für alle Unternehmen Auswirkungen auf den geschäftlichen E-Mail-Verkehr zur Folge hat.

ACHTUNG: Nutzen Sie die E-Mail-Kommunikation ausschließlich für
private Zwecke, so ist keine Beachtung der nachfolgenden Informationen erforderlich.

Bereits zum 01.01.2007 ist seitens des Gesetzgebers eine Neudefinition für die gesetzlichen Vorschriften an Geschäftsbriefe erfolgt. Nach dieser neuen Regelung ist neben der Geschäftskorrespondenz in Papierform (Briefe, Rechnungen, Bestellungen, etc.) auch über Telekommunikationssysteme erstellte bzw. übermittelte Korrespondenz als Geschäftsbrief anzusehen und erfordert somit die Angabe der jeweiligen Pflichtinformationen.

Für den geschäftlichen E-Mail-Verkehr ergibt sich somit die
Notwendigkeit, in E-Mails die entsprechenden Informationen wie
beispielsweise die Handelsregisternummer, den Sitz sowie je nach
Rechtsform die Geschäftsführer oder Vorstände eines Unternehmens
mit an den Empfänger zu übermitteln.

Während diese Regelungen bisher ausschließlich von eingetragenen
Unternehmen beachtet werden mussten, wurde die Gültigkeit mit dem
Inkrafttreten der reformierten Gewerbeordnung nun jedoch auch auf
nicht im Handelsregister eingetragene Unternehmen ausgeweitet.
So besteht seit dem 22.05.2007 u.a. auch für Einzel- und
Kleinunternehmer die Pflicht, in der geschäftlichen E-Mail-
Korrespondenz beispielsweise neben dem ausgeschriebenen Namen
auch eine ladungsfähige Anschrift anzugeben.

Bei Nichteinhaltung der gesetzlichen Vorgaben an einen Geschäftsbrief droht neben Zwangsgeldern von bis zu 5.000,00 € auch die gezielte Abmahnung aufgrund fehlender Pflichtangaben - die Folge ist die Berechnung von Abmahngebühren oder "Aufwandsentschädigungen", wie man sie bisher beispielsweise bei fehlenden Angaben zur Mehrwertsteuer bei Preisauszeichnungen kennt!

Zur Einhaltung der gesetzlichen Vorschriften sowie zur Vermeidung von unnötigen Kosten empfehlen wir daher, für den E-Mail-Verkehr Ihres Unternehmens möglichst umgehend eine Ergänzung der jeweiligen Angaben, z.B. in Form einer angepassten Mailsignatur, vorzunehmen!

+-----------------------+
Weitere Informationen
+-----------------------+

Detailinformationen zur neuen Regelung sowie zu den auf
Geschäftsbriefen und in E-Mails zu machenden Pflichtangaben erhalten Sie über die nachfolgend genannten Links. Über den ersten Link können Sie in Erfahrung bringen, welche Informationen genau für die Rechtsform Ihres Unternehmens vorgeschrieben sind.

http://www.hk24.de/produktmarken/recht_u...aben_briefe.jsp
http://www.hk24.de/produktmarken/recht_u...aben_emails.jsp
http://www.dr-bahr.com/news/news_det_20070608002042.html
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gewo/index.html

Sofern Sie nicht sicher sind, ob und wie die neue Regelung auf Ihre Geschäftskorrespondenz zutrifft, so empfehlen wir, Ihren Rechtsbeistand um Rat zu fragen, um unnötige Kosten für Abmahnungen oder Zwangsgelder vermeiden zu können.

sounds anal ;)... Sig Heil! :x

If it turns out to be correct[1] - it's going to cost them a lot of money in policies, procedures and storage.

I like the idea of the name & addy in the sig - it gives a degree of accountability.

Yes, I know that addresses will be faked, but then it gives the authorities a reason to prosecute the offenders (spammers).

[1] Remember a few years ago when the european commision was going to 'ban' cookies? Bloody idiots!

what a lot of rubbish! I am not saying that Zarzal is wrong, but the German government is wrong!

Agreed x2

Wouldn't be the first time :x

Gizmo, I cant write all in english because its to complex. But whats going on here in germany frighten me. We have an minister of the interior (Innenminister) who try to make his own law and dont take care of the Constitution. Total control of the citizen linke in Orwells 1984.

But the main problem in theses laws: The first part of peaople who know this are lawyer. They are quick as possible to write reminders to you and you have to pay ... it begins from 1500euro up to no limit just for writing a serial letter. Most time you have to answer such a letter in 1-2 days (they send ist on friday).

Traps every where and the normal user have to pay, pay, pay, pay. It sucks.

<snicker> we have the same beurocratic bullcrap here in the states too my friend ;)... Read up about "Net Neutrality" to see what we're dealing with... they want to charge us to access specific sectors of the internet... I know you all probably have the same thing, but they're really pushing it here lol...

those prices are crappy, all they want is money... It's really quite sad

Ian, you are right. But it's only a handfull of people: Mr.Schäuble (minister of the interior, Innenminister) and Ms.Zypris (Attorney General, Justizministerin) and her state helper such as Mr. Beckstein.

I hope Germany doesn't get pushed back twenty odd years in these sort of policies...

Mind you here in the UK, we are also rapidly going down the drain

I reckon in 12-24 months I will have moved abroad, maybe Spain, maybe USA or even down under....

Net Neutrality my friend, go to canada lol... Thats where I plan to flee sooner or later :x..

Too cold LOL

Nah, Victoria BC, Canada; all the benefits of home, decent weather, and free healthcare!

Anyone doing any sort of UK e-commerce is going to have a shock when they try to comply with the new Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

I have to get my act together by next month, or expect a considerable fine "(in excess of £100,000)".

I can either do it myself (the forms are extremely complex and you have to download other forms to understand them ), use an "extremely expensive" independant assessor or (guess what...) use the banks 'business partner'......

Talk about being caught by the short & curlies!

Base your business in the USA with a CTO of your choosing, then you can just due with our lack of caring lol...

Its getting so expensive to go it alone with on line transaction.
Most people i know are now happy to settle with pay pal.

There not volume customers

How many sheds do you have in your back garden gizmo,
we can used them as our business addresses lol

Actually, the Post Office up the street allow for a physical address vs a po box number...

very hard though for us to set up a US bank account - apart from in Delaware I think

Trust me I have tried.

I have a USA phone number (Washington), but would prefer a business address etc.

just use someone like WorldPay - no issues then

There is an EMAIL_SIG variable in the generic.php language file. For those that will need to comply, they can add their information into here and it will be attached to all emails.

Really? So worldpay clear and bank the transactions?
I'm just concerned about exchange rates.

We buy all our products in the UK and only sell in the UK.
I couldn't afford to take chances on a duff rate.
(Average transaction >= £1000)

Very nice to know.

It was added wayyyyyyyyyy back

Worldpay will do everything in UKP - they are part of NatWest - they act as the merchant bank.

I have had an account with them for a few years.

You can also use multiple other currencies if you wish

Wow .. while I like the accountability, I hate the concept. VERY socialist.

I think it applies equally to both extremes.

George Orwell's literary masterpiece "1984" appears to have only been off by about 30 years, but mind you IT'S COMING and no one is going to be able to stop it. ROFL Well maybe I'll be of age to check out by the time it's in full swing, or have Alzheimer's and not care

Living in the UK, we notice that we are closer to his vision than most countries. By this, I mean that I believe we have more cctv cameras here than in any other country. (I think!)

Having said that, as a fine law-abiding citizen (these days ), I have nothing to fear by them


Did anyone every see the outstanding Peter Cook satirical movie The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer ?

The synopsis does not do it justice - but you get my drift?

(In retrospect, I like the idea of voting by remote control - this was 1970!)