Re: This requirement for paper bills/statements...
Actually, the difference is that on the Continent we have the so-called "Roman System" whereas in UK/USA you have the Anglo-Saxon System.
The Roman System includes lots of basic laws such as a Written Constitution, on which usually everything is based. Next, you have a Civil Code (which you may call the "Napoleonic Code"), which clarifies a lot of things between the people. So, in Germany, theoretically, if you want to setup a contract between two parties the contract can be as short as 1/2 page because everything else is clarified in the Civil Code to which you can refer.
Next come the Commercial Code, Criminal Code, and so on.
The Criminal Code defines what you are NOT allowed to do and what will happen if you do it anyway (e.g. go to jail).
There is no such thing as things to have to be "allowed" to be not forbidden. The difference between Anglo-Saxon and Roman Legal System is that in the Roman System you have existing Laws that we refer to (and to a lesser extent to precedent), in the Anglo-Saxon System you refer primarily to precedent.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
