An Impressum (from Latin impressum, 'the impressed, engraved, pressed in, impression') is a legally mandated statement of the ownership and authorship of a document, which must be included in books, newspapers, magazines, websites,[1] and business correspondence[2] published or otherwise made available to consumers in Germany and certain other German-speaking countries, such as Austria and Switzerland, and also in countries historically influenced by German culture, such as Hungary.
In printed media, an Impressum is identical to the "printer's imprint" as defined under UK law.
[7] German websites are defined as being published by individuals or organisations that are based in Germany, so an Impressum is required regardless of whether a site is in the .de domain.
This law has created privacy concerns for individuals who maintain blogs or personal homepages.
[citation needed] The law has also caused lawyers to scrutinise websites for this information and send Abmahnung (cease and desist) letters to their maintainers in the event it is missing.