Impressum auf US-amerikanischer Homepage erforderlich?
Nach
deutschem Recht braucht praktisch jede Webseite ein
Impressum, nach US-amerikanischem Recht ist eine
derartige Verpflichtung allerdings verfassungswidrig.
Interessant hier ein paar Zeilen aus dem Urteil "Joseph
McIntyre, executor of estate of Margaret McIntyre,
deceased, Petitioner v. Ohio Elections Commission":
"Under
our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a
pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable
tradition of advocacy and of dissent. Anonymity is a
shield from the tyranny of the majority. See generally
J. S. Mill, On Liberty, in On Liberty and Considerations
on Representative Government 1, 3-4 (R. McCallum ed.
1947). It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill
of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to
protect unpopular individuals from retaliation--and
their ideas from suppression--at the hand of an
intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be
abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political
speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable
consequences, and, in general, our society accords
greater weight to the value of free speech than to the
dangers of its misuse. See Abrams v. United States, 250
U.S. 616, 630-31 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting). Ohio
has not shown that its interest in preventing the misuse
of anonymous election related speech justifies a
prohibition of all uses of that speech. The State may,
and does, punish fraud directly. But it cannot seek to
punish fraud indirectly by indiscriminately outlawing a
category of speech, based on its content, with no
necessary relationship to the danger sought to be
prevented. One would be hard pressed to think of a
better example of the pitfalls of Ohio's blunderbuss
approach than the facts of the case before us."
Diese
gegensätzlichen Regelungen haben im
German American Law Journal
dazu geführt, dass ein Blog-Modul zum Schutz von Lesern
aus Impressumsstaaten getestet wurde, das diesen
zunächst einen Warnhinweis anzeigte, dass er sich in
einen "impressumfreien Raum" begebe.
Siehe dazu
auch "Censored
by US law/Impressumspflicht verletzt US-Recht",
Transblawg
Mittlerweile
findet sich beim Journal der Menüpunkt "Erpressum" mit
einigen Erklärungen.
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