Finland: Open WiFi Access Point Owner Not Liable For Infringement

New submitter mjrauhal writes "In Finland, the operator of an open WiFi access point was found not guilty for copyright infringement allegedly committed over said access point. The operation of such access points would have become legally risky were this decided otherwise. Appeal by the Finnish Anti-Piracy Center is still possible for this district court ruling."

Comments

It's illegal in Germany.

[purpledinoz]

In Germany, you are legally obligated to secure your wifi. There's a reason why the Pirate Party is receiving many votes in the state elections. If you're in Germany, a lot of YouTube videos (most of them are legit) are blocked because of GEMA (the German RIAA). I've heard that some bands aren't even allowed to post their OWN music on YouTube because GEMA won't allow this. My guess is that the old East German Stasi was just renamed to GEMA.

Re:Authorship is the U.S.'s big export

[Bob9113]

copyrighted works are one of the few things that the United States still successfully exports.

Citation needed. Here's what I found on Wikipedia:

Exports: $1.511 trillion (2011 est.)

Export Goods: agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%, industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%

Here's another good source:

1. Civilian aircraft: $74 billion (5.7% of total exports)
2. Semiconductors: $50.6 billion (3.9%)
3. Passenger cars: $49.6 billion (3.9%)
4. Pharmaceutical preparations: $40.4 billion (3.1%)
5. Automotive accessories: $39.9 billion (3.1%)
6. Other industrial machines: $38.1 billion (3%)
7. Fuel oil: $34.9 billion (2.7%)
8. Organic chemicals: $33.4 billion (2.6%)
9. Telecommunications: $32.9 billion (2.6%)
10. Plastic materials: $31.6 billion (2.5%)

So, copyright is not in the top 10, and it's not more than 2.5%.

Re:Duh?

[mcgrew]

Offtopic: Can we please automatically delete all posts with links to my clean pc?

That's one of the things the little black flag is for -- flagging spam so the /. administrators can review and delete it. Just click the flag when you see spam.