Parents Not Liable For Their Son's Illegal Music Sharing, Says German Court

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 16, 2012 @01:48AM from the but-god-help-them-if-he-illegally-shares-bratwurst dept.

An anonymous reader sends this quote from an IDG News report: "A German couple are not liable for the filesharing activities of their 13-year old son because they told him unauthorized downloading and sharing of copyrighted material was illegal, and they were not aware the boy violated this prohibition, the German Federal Court of Justice ruled on Thursday. ... The ruling of the Federal Court of Justice reversed a ruling of the higher regional court of Cologne, which found the parents were liable for the illegal filesharing because they failed to fulfill their parental supervision. That court said the parents could have installed a firewall on their son's computer as well as a security program that would have made it possible to only allow the child to install software with the consent of his parents. Besides that, the parents could have checked their son's PC once a month, and then the parents would have spotted the Bearshare icon on the computers' desktop, according to the Cologne court. 'The Federal Court overturned the decision of the Appeal Court and dismissed it,' the court said."

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Re:Come on! by O('_')O_Bush · 2012-11-16 02:13 · Score: 5, Interesting

Exactly! That's why I keep my son locked in a cage, except when he has to go potty. God forbid he ever leaves my sight, as he might buy nuclear arms behind my back... or worse... download some old music illegally!

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Re:In that specific jurisdiction -German readers h by cpghost · 2012-11-16 03:20 · Score: 3, Interesting

How's downloading illegal music any different?
Well, downloading illegal music is a criminal offense. Illegally downloading (legal) music is a civil offense. Illegal music in Germany would e.g. be Nazi songs etc...

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