This will severely impact social media. It will be censored like never before, and attacking opponents by “reporting” their posts will be more effective than ever. Trolls will have a EU-sanctioned field-day.
And what real users are going to bother staying on a platform like that?
Maybe this will revitalize hosting of personal websites where there’s no “platform” to censor your free speech?
You need to provide an impression if your website has a commercial or journalistic character. Yes, it's vague and up to the interpretation of a court.
Exactly. Depends on how much risk you're eager to take. And as a non-lawyer I'd prefer to take none. Most guides for laymen I've found stated that if it's not just about your kittens or vacation, it's not "purely private" any more.
For instance, aforementioned Lennart who writes about his open source projects preferred to provide this info.
I've also heard that the lawyers in this extortion business know some tricks to make the case land on a judge with "correct" interpretations of the related paragraphs. But that's not for sure, I've never been sued in Germany luckily.
Then you have basically unlimited liability, as far as I can tell; hardly seems like an upside.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland you are required to disclose your full name, address, telephone number and more if you publish a personal website. This makes it impossible to keep a personal and anonymous website.
That is why having platforms is important.
There is of course always an option to use anonymous hosting and make it hard to identify you from the website content. Then people whose business is to sue other people on the internet will probably leave you alone. But that also destroys the social value of your page.
Well, it matters in that if you don't live in the EU, it is unlikely that they will be able to target you for anything.
People in America don't spend much time worrying about the fact that in Saudi Arabia it is illegal to be gay, so I don't see why they would worry the much about copywrite laws in the EU.
I guess he means you can't escape the law simply by hosting the site outside of Germany, if you still want to live in Germany, because then they can sue you, even if the country where your site is hosted does not require you to display your home address, phone, etc.