Lycos Germany to No Longer Store IP Data

quaker5567 writes "The Register is carrying the story that Lycos Germany says it will no longer store dynamic IP addresses of its customers. According to the German Tele Services Data Protection and Telecommunications Act, ISPs are only allowed to store communications data for accounting purposes. Apparently, there is no requirement for German ISPs to keep a record of IP addresses. A decision by German ISPs not to keep logs on IP addresses would be extremely controversial as the entertainment industry is increasingly demanding that ISPs disclose the names of suspected file sharers."

Comments

Options

[panxerox]

This has always been an option for ISPs. I can see keeping IP info for a week or so in case there was an incursion but after that the only thing that it could be used for is informing (whether it was coerced or otherwise) on your customers ! As customers we must demand that our ISPs no keep long term IP records. There are plenty of options to connect to the internet and we as consumers must tell our ISPs that we will make this an important part of our bandwidth purchasing decision.

Re:Options

[Gregg Alan]

So what's your opinion of Morgan Stanley being fined over 1 billion for not keeping email around? It seems like the same sort of case, yet the sentiment there was they were probably guilty, so it was ok. With copyright infringement, the sentiment is, the users are probably guilty, but they should be protected anyway.

That's a great point. IMO, the fine is wrong. Here's why: Assuming Morgan Stanley IS guilty of whatever the hell they are accused of doing, keeping records to prove your own guilt is nearly a violation of the 5th amendment. Or, at least, preventing such self-incriminating evidence to come to light could be considered exercising ones right to plead the fifth.

On the other hand, Morgan Stanley is not a person so these rights do not (should not) exist for them so fuck 'em.

In conclusion, my opinion is that ISPs should be required to destroy that data as soon as it's only purpose is to inform against their own customers. I think that because I constantly see advertisements for high speed internet access telling me that I can download music and movies faster that freaking ever. It's almost as if these ISPs are enticing me to download movies and music that I would otherwise not download because I would not have able to because my internet connection would not allow it to be possible. That's close enough to entrapment for me to *form my opinion*.

So, that is my opinion.

Just to play devil's advocate....

[Ninwa]

What happens when somebody does something more serious than steal music, are they just going to look the law enforcement trying to get information and shrug? I hope this does not mean that people will feel even more anonymous and get the gull to do things they wouldnt've otherwise.

Privacy and copyright in German law

[Peter Eckersley]

Unlike most other nations' legal systems, human dignity and therefore privacy is central to the German constitution (this was a result of its being drafted in the wake of second world war). It follows that German copyright law does not trump privacy concerns; this was one of the reasons why Germany invented the levy-funded private copying system.

This is complying with German law, FWIH

[WoodstockJeff]

There have been several German PHPBB users asking how to disable the storage of IPs with messages on their boards, because saving that information is a violation of German law. Personally, I think it is ridiculous, but they're very serious about it.

These actions would just be extending that to the ISPs themselves. If they have no need for the data, it must be disposed of, or not collected in the first place.

Of course, given that this means there is no accountability through the ISP for the actions of users, I know I won't be allowing random IPs from Germany to connect to my email servers!