On 2014-12-26 16:50:20 +0000, RG said:

On 26/12/2014 16:31, Sacha wrote:
On 2014-12-25 16:44:07 +0000, RG said:

I'm very sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings at this time of year,
but it seems that News Individual Net will no longer be available to
users outside Germany. This is very sad, as it is by far the best
Usenet server and I know that many here rely on it.

It seems to be due to new VAT regulations, but is quite contrary to
the EU principles of common trade access.


"Due to changes in European tax law coming into force on 01.01.2015,
we can only offer our service to users which have their tax domicile
in Germany."

https://news.individual.net/register/step1.php

Entering that site via my log in, I get a different message
https://news.individual.net/register.php and no indication of the
service being withdrawn. Here it is:

Registration
Signing up at News.Individual.NET
Access to Usenet with News.Individual.NET requires a paid account. If
you already have an account for News.Individual.NET, please go straight
to "My Account", log in, and reactivate your account by paying 10 EUR
for one year of usage. If you don't have an account, you can create one
by completing our registration process below.
If you want to check the quality of our service without obligation
before deciding if you want to pay for it, you can choose during
registration that you would like a free two-week trial account.
During the registration process, the content of the contract will be
explained to you step by step, and you can enter your personal data
required for registration. If you have any questions, please check our
FAQ, and don't hesitate to contact us by e-mail at .
For your records, here are the essential parts of the contract bundled
in one file.

Technical note: For registration, you need to have cookies enabled in
your web browser. If you encounter problems with the registration
process, please contact us at:


Hi Sacha!
Yes I get that message by logging in. But then clicking on the 'Go sign
up' button gives me the fuller page with the:
"Due to changes in European tax law coming into force on 01.01.2015, we
can only offer our service to users which have their tax domicile in
Germany" message.

There doesn't seem to have been any warning sent to 'foreign' users
about the service terminating, but I suppose that's not surprising
since the facility is provided by a university at a nominal charge and
they don't have records of where all the users live.

Incidentally I noticed when logging in just now that although I renewed
yesterday for a year until April 2016, it is now offering me another
year until April 2017 if I pay a further 10 euros. I may do just that!

I emailed them today asking about this situation and got this reply:

"at news.individual.net, we don't collect information on a user's
residential address, tax domicile, social security number and so on. We
need an email address to get in touch and e.g. send a password to, and
we like to have a name so we know how to address or refer to people. And
we'd like to keep it that way.

The new European VAT regulations mean a lot more bureaucracy for
providers of digital services. We hope for a workable solution in the
medium term, and until then, try to keep providing our service as it
stands, as far as possible. If we should be forced to make more tangible
changes in the future, we would notify all affected users individually
via email."
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk