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German User Fined For Having an Open Wi-Fi

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the half-of-you-are-guilty dept.

Kilrah_il writes "A German citizen was sued for copyright infringement because copyrighted material was downloaded through his network while he was on vacation. Although the court did not find him guilty of copyright infringement, he was fined for not having password-protected his network: 'Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation,' the court said."

3 of 563 comments (clear)

  1. So if I understand this correctly... by toooskies · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He was fined 100 euro because a single user downloaded a single song illegally. One song. A hundred twenty-five times its retail value. And he didn't even download it. Copyright is out of control.

  2. Re:I see. by mysidia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, WiFi is not designed to be used for copyright infringement, even if open, and such things are commonplace/readily available.

    It's more like someone walked in through an unlocked door in your house, stole a fork from your silverware drawer, and stabbed someone to death with it.

    And now you the homeowner are being charged with the murder, because you leaving your door unlocked allowed the fork to be used.

  3. Manufacturers to blame? Lack of full regulation? by strayant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, if this is how things are to be, I think that this guy should pass the buck to the manufacturer for not complying with local law. Such devices should be regulated in such a way that they cannot be sold to customers without ALREADY being secure out-of-the-box. Otherwise, I think that this should have no merit.