Well, looks like DLsite was forced to remove access for Germany. Trying to visit the site nowadays leads to a "cloudfont blocked access" website. This also hits already existing consumers who complain that they lost access to all their purchased content, unless they use a VPN.
While there is no official statement as to why, it has most likely to do with the fact that DLsite recently made endeavours to be more interesting for non Japan people like adding many new languages such as German. Generally they showed growing interest into making business with as many countries as possible and that backfired at them in the case of Germany.
Germany has very strict youth protection laws and to be able to buy from and use such websites, you need to provide a proper age verification that justifies law. And in the case of Germany this is extremely difficult to do, especially for companies without a seat inside the country. Basically you need to provide your ID card AND also they need to verify that its you via videochat, etc. Alternatively within the country there is post ident but thats not possible for non German companies.
Countless businesses have blocked the access from German IPs in the past or they heavily censored their website such as removing adults only products. Steam would be a good example in this case.
This probably happened because they wanted to do business with Germans and the government took notice of it. "Either add a youth protection verification system that justifies law or face the consequences". Which usually means massive fines for the companies. And seeing that the age verification system would be too bothersome to implement they just decided to block access for the entire country. Thats how it often goes.
Thats the gyst of the topic but there are more discussions about it here and here.
I personally find it annoying as German. I do find the youth protection idea good on a technical level but the way its executed is way too bothersome for any non German company to deal with. If at least the law would find a id card scan alone enough...
Another website or service I cannot use. I am still annoyed about having no proper way to buy adults only products as a ADULT. Usually it ends up with me having to use VPN or buying Steam keys, or getting things in other non legal ways. Also the whole youth protection thing is mostly pointless. If any underage person wants these products, they can get them in the web anyway so this law is awfully outdated and does not cover the modern digital world and just punishes full age legal consumers.
Aber wie sagt man so schön, ist ja alles Neuland. Maybe in some decades the laws will have caught up.
While there is no official statement as to why, it has most likely to do with the fact that DLsite recently made endeavours to be more interesting for non Japan people like adding many new languages such as German. Generally they showed growing interest into making business with as many countries as possible and that backfired at them in the case of Germany.
Germany has very strict youth protection laws and to be able to buy from and use such websites, you need to provide a proper age verification that justifies law. And in the case of Germany this is extremely difficult to do, especially for companies without a seat inside the country. Basically you need to provide your ID card AND also they need to verify that its you via videochat, etc. Alternatively within the country there is post ident but thats not possible for non German companies.
Countless businesses have blocked the access from German IPs in the past or they heavily censored their website such as removing adults only products. Steam would be a good example in this case.
This probably happened because they wanted to do business with Germans and the government took notice of it. "Either add a youth protection verification system that justifies law or face the consequences". Which usually means massive fines for the companies. And seeing that the age verification system would be too bothersome to implement they just decided to block access for the entire country. Thats how it often goes.
Thats the gyst of the topic but there are more discussions about it here and here.
I personally find it annoying as German. I do find the youth protection idea good on a technical level but the way its executed is way too bothersome for any non German company to deal with. If at least the law would find a id card scan alone enough...
Another website or service I cannot use. I am still annoyed about having no proper way to buy adults only products as a ADULT. Usually it ends up with me having to use VPN or buying Steam keys, or getting things in other non legal ways. Also the whole youth protection thing is mostly pointless. If any underage person wants these products, they can get them in the web anyway so this law is awfully outdated and does not cover the modern digital world and just punishes full age legal consumers.
Aber wie sagt man so schön, ist ja alles Neuland. Maybe in some decades the laws will have caught up.
