Add on option to define a url for Legal Notice

[Kirby]

Currently XenForo has options to define URLs for the following legal documents:

• Terms and rules
• Privacy policy

It is however lacking the option to define a URL for Legal Notice.

According to EU directive 2000/31/EC Art. 5 (1) every EU member state is required to implement national law that requires information society service providers (eg. websites operators) to have a legal notice.

I don't know if every EU member state actually has implemented this directive - at least Germany has done this and so basically every website in Germany is required to have a legal notice as per TMG Art. 5.
Maybe users from other EU countries could provide some info on this? @duderuud @Nicolas FR @wolfgangm @markoroots @antonino

The "semi-official" German XenForo translation by @mph has therefore changed the footer link text "Help" to "Help and Legal Notice" (Hilfe und Impressum in German).

This somewhat works as many users use the help pages system to provide a Legal Notice page.
However I think that this is not ideal and it would be better if we could just define a URL in XenForo options which (if not left empty) creates a link Legal Notice in the footer.

 

[K a M a L]

it is called Impressum or imprint page AFAIK .. it includes contact details and info about site owner and it is required for any site using .de domain

 

[Kirby]

Yes, its' called Impressum in German and DeepL also suggests "Imprint" as a translation, but Legal Notice seem to be a more "correct" / widespread translation

 

[Mendalla]

That's what we would call it here in Canada. I don't think it s mandatory yet here but most companies have them at the insistence of their legal counsel (including where I work).

 

[Old Nick]

In France, the organization in charge of digital (CNIL) answers the following question Are legal notices mandatory on websites ?

Any website must make it possible to identify its manager and its host, in application of the law for the confidence in the digital economy of 21 June 2004.

 

[Marcus]

Either xenforos help page system or the pages are perfect for that.

 

[woody]

IMO, it's not Xenforo's responsibility to address every unique legal situation for every possible scenario.

This FREE plugin allows you to create your own footer/notices:

Unmaintained - Footer Pro

Footer Pro, add a professional footer to your forum: Footer Pro can be disabled globally in Style properties Option to choose the location of Footer Pro: above the XF copyright/links block below the XF copyright/links block Option to remove XF...

xenforo.com

 

[Mendalla]

I think what Kirby is looking for is for it to be a specific option in the help pages similar to Terms & Rules and Privacy Policy now. Which shouldn't be too hard to do and may even be doable as an add-on in the interim, similar to how OzzModz Rules add-on plugs into the Help section.

This FREE plugin allows you to create your own footer/notices:

Some styles have support for customizing the footer, too. Mine is based on a Pixel Exit style and there's some footer support in their framework. But not sure that's what Kirby is after here, though we have a legal notice of sorts in our footer so a short one could be done this way, I guess.

 

[Kirby]

Either xenforos help page system or the pages are perfect for that.

Yes, help pages are fine (page nodes are not), but they do not allow to add a link to the footer - that's all this suggestion is about (being able to add a link without having to manually modify the footer).

I've added a screenshot to the first post so it's easier to understand the suggestion.

It IMHO wouldn't be neccesary to provide a default URL via a help page (like for Terms and rules & Privacy policy), just a simple input (like for Home page) for a custom URL would be sufficient.

IMO, it's not Xenforo's responsibility to address every unique legal situation for every possible scenario.

Agreed

Though I think a simple option that would benefit everyone (?) in the EU and also doesn't seem to be uncommon in other countries doesn't hurt anyone.

 

[Marcus]

Actually you could also live very well with a "Footer Navigation Manager" so you can add links to the footer to whatever: forum posts, page node, help page.

I agree that xenforo of course could add a new function like "legal notice in footer" if it helps selling their product. Like as an additional "feauture".

 

[antonino]

In Greece, at least until now, we have no obligation to list a Legal Notice. There is only the need to declare a privacy and cookies setting from Google. Facebook on the other hand, if the site is linked to its page, only requires the declaration of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use to certify the site as safe.

 

[Marcus]

For me its pretty redundand as anyone could lookup the current administrator for the domain on the central registry of domains.

So if "every EU member state is required to implement national law that requires information society service providers (eg. websites operators) to have a legal notice" they all do that already as their central registry of domains includes all this information.

 

[Kirby]

Actually you could also live very well with a "Footer Navigation Manager" so you can add links to the footer to whatever: forum posts, page node, help page.

To some extend, yes.

The problem with a freeform footer navigation manager would be that it most likely wouldn't be possible for 3rd party Add-ons to reliably detect the link for Legal Notice (if one exists) in order to use it in other places (Consent Layer, E-Mails, etc.)

But if it was an option, getting the URL would be easy - if the option is set it is the correct URL; if is empty there is no such URL.

It would also work if there were navigation IDs (like for public navigation) and a predefined, disabled entry with no URL.

For me its pretty redundand as anyone could lookup the current administrator for the domain on the central registry of domains.

Nope. A lot of data that was previously available via WHOIS must be redacted for public access.

Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data - ICANN

www.icann.org

Therefore at least German registry DeNIC doesn't provide much public WHOIS data about domains - only the nameservers

 

[Marcus]

Nope. A lot of data that was previously available via WHOIS must be redacted for public access.

Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data - ICANN

www.icann.org

Therefore at least German registry DeNIC doesn't provide much public WHOIS data about domains - only the nameservers

As you are talking about german law you are in for a surprise: now you get access to every "public" document on commercial registers for free: bank statements with bank numbers, phone numbers, date of birth, where the directors live (private addresses): it is all open to the public since a half year.

DeNIC provides the data if you have a special interest, maybe you are visitor of a webpage and feel obligated as you are now in some kind of "business" because you visit a page. But you are right, DENIC does not want everything to be public, I have forgotten about that.

 

[Kirby]

As you are talking about german law you are in for a surprise: now you get access to every "public" document on commercial registers for free: bank statements with bank numbers, phone numbers, date of birth, where the directors live (private addresses): it is all open to the public since a half year.

Errata:
It's not since "half a year" (only 4 1/2 months by now) and a commercial register is quite a bit different from a domain registry.

Also being able to get all kinds of company data from commercial registries doesn't help much if you don't know the company (because there is no Legal Notice on the website)

DeNIC provides the data if you have a special interest

Yes, that's why I said publically available.
The cases in which you can get information are somewhat limited - did you ever try to get data from them?

 

[sbj]

at least Germany has done this and so basically every website in Germany is required to have a legal notice as per TMG Art. 5.

Not true.

This applies only for commercial websites.

But of course I still upvoted the suggestion, makes sense.

 

[Kirby]

Not true.

This applies only for commercial websites.

IMHO not true

Although TMG Art. 5 does talk about "geschäftsmäßig", this term doesn't mean commercial.

In fact the term "geschäftsmäßig" isn't defined in TMG so it is somewhat up for interpretation.

A common conception was to interpret the term "geschäftsmäßig" as "auf Dauer angelegte Tätigkeit" (eg. eg. routinely done activities) which very well might cover non-commercial websites.

A private society website ("Website eines eingetragenen Verein") for example clearly isn't commercial but is operated "geschäftsmäßig".

Most (if not all) forums could very well be classified as opinon forming ("Meinungsbildend") which also means they could be "geschäftsmäßig".

More information on that topic:

Foren und Recht | zuRecht.de

Bereits in der römischen Antike war das Forum ein zentraler Treffpunkt für die Menschen. Er gab ihnen unter anderem die Möglichkeit, sich auszutauschen. Die Zeiten des Römischen Reiches sind zwar längst vergangen, das Konzept des Forums hat aber nach wie vor Bestand und es sogar ...

www.zurecht.de

https://ids-pub.bsz-bw.de/files/10156/Vogel_Baeumer_Deus_Ruediger_Tripps_Adjektiv_geschaeftsmaessig_2019.pdf

Aktuelle Urteile zur Impressumspflicht > IT-Recht & Technologierecht | Rechtsanwalt Ferner

Im Folgenden einige ausgewählte aktuellere Urteile zum Thema Impressumspflicht auf der eigenen Homepage. Insgesamt sollte sich inzwischen - nach fast 10

www.ferner-alsdorf.de

Impressum

Sozietät in München, die sich auf das IT-Vertragsrecht, das Vergaberecht, sowie das Markenrecht konzentriert.

www.it-recht-kanzlei.de

 

[AnjaC]

Well... I have to put much more in the footer than just the imprint. So I live quite well and satisfied with this plugin and some texts in the help system:
[cXF] Advanced Footer from @BassMan

 

[TPerry]

This applies only for commercial websites.

Which technically would be any site that has "paid" promotions, ads (even if self-hosted) or possibly even links to other sites that sell a product.