Slashdot Mirror
German Federal Court Rules That Internet Connection Is Crucial To Everyday Life
Qedward writes "Internet access is as crucial to everyday life as having a phone connection and the loss of connectivity is deserving of financial compensation, the German Federal Court of Justice has ruled. Because having an internet connection is so significant for a large part of the German population, a customer whose service provider failed to provide connectivity between December 2008 and February 2009 is entitled to compensation, the court ruled today. 'It is the first time the court ruled that an internet connection is as important a commodity as having a phone,' said court spokeswoman Dietlind Weinland. The court, however, denied the plaintiff's request of €50 a day for his fax machine not working."
If Internet is essential to everyday life, these so called "rehab clinics" where they "cure" people from the Internets are actually not "good for us" at all.
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
You don't get compensation if your phone is out of order, why should you for internet?
What if the internet is down because the phone is? It isn't the ISPs fault but the owner of the copper.
What if the internet is down because the phone is? It isn't the ISPs fault but the owner of the copper.
Then the owner of the copper owes a refund to the ISP with which it signed a service level agreement.
I'm one of the many people who have a "high-speed" broadband account advertised as what to buy for streaming online media, but the ISP gives a 200gb cap and drops you as a client if you go over it for more than 2 months. Watching Netflix HD video only a few hours a day hits that cap in no time, making the account not actually usable for what its advertised. I hope the effects of this ruling eventually trickles down to my country and this type of dropping a user is made illegal. At the very least switching a user to a more throttled connection would be a good compromise. Oh the ISP that does this is ptd.net, but alot of ISPs have similar practices.
http://interserver.net/
"Internet access is as crucial to everyday life as having a phone connection [...]"
The telcos *WISH* that having a phone connection were as crucial to everyday life as Internet access...
I hope the effects of this ruling eventually trickles down to my country and this type of dropping a user is made illegal.
The telcos and cabelcos have divided the country up into effective monopoly regions without the oversight that public utlities normally have. They also spend more on lobbying than any other trade group. So it ain't going to happen until something extreme happens, like a pretty blonde child dies in a way that can be directly attributed to a data-cap.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Actually I thought about it straight away. It's hyperbole; just the sort of thing somebody on CNN might say to start a good debate.
After all, these places take away the Internet completely. If the Internet is essential, where does that lead?
Also, Re: Food and even Water, yes too much can kill you but when was the last time a geek electrocuted her/himself in the basement through too much Internet usage? Or got too fat solely because of the Internet (not lifestyle - i.e. we all know what couch potatoes look like.
So actually, it was a spark, to find out what other thoughts that would lead to, for others.
Posting without Karma bonus, I've earned it above, and this is merely an explanatory post - and therefore is neither off-topic, nor redundant!
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
I'd have extreme difficulty even doing two days - I telecommute 80+% of the time, and I'm paid hourly, so if my internet was out for more than a few hours, I have to go live in a Starbucks or some place with a connection I can use, or accept losing several hundred dollars. If it were out two months like this guy, I'd be suing too.
Actually, it's the opposite: more internet is good for you. For example, The Wired turned Lain into a god. Personally, the internet has transformed me into a being of superhuman intelligence; induced by the heated intellectual arguments that only the internet can provide. Following health advice from wise sages on blogspot has brought me to the pinnacle of human fitness as well. Exposure to great amounts of East-Asian media has left me a cultured man of refined tastes and deeply philosophical places such as Tumblr have opened my eyes to the discrimination that fat people face and the hetero-normative agenda to keep the genderqueer down. My productivity at work is much higher than my peers, as I may freely sip from the great fountains of knowledge that are the various SEO'd sites that I may copy things from. I have entered over thirty thousand entries into my HOSTS file and my computer blazes past the tired machinery the commoners use. Before finding the Internet, I was barely a man, but a long abandoned 28.8 kpbs US Robotics Softmodem changed my life.
I hope the effects of this ruling eventually trickles down to my country and this type of dropping a user is made illegal.
AAAHAAAHHHAAAAAaaaaaaah. Good one! No, the court ruled this was basically a breach of contract because any reasonable person would expect their service provider to have repaired the outage in less than, uhh, two months. The contract you signed says "200GB cap, lulz" so no, the courts won't do anything about that. They're saying internet is a vital resource, not that you get an unlimited amount of it. It's like the roads (tada! I never disappoint slashdot! Car analogy time) -- you can drive your car on them and the government has to be reasonable about restrictions on you and your vehicle. It does not mean it has to build a road across the Atlantic for you.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Personally, the internet has transformed me into a being of superhuman intelligence;
Yes, being able to google the answer is an ego-booster, but I wouldn't call it "superhuman".
induced by the heated intellectual arguments that only the internet can provide.
I'll give you the heated, but I think you've been off the internet since, uhh, 1998. That fall was pretty much the last time there was an intellectual argument to be had.
Following health advice from wise sages on blogspot has brought me to the pinnacle of human fitness as wellt
You've got less than two years to live before drinking unpasterized milk, raw eggs, and eating undercooked meat kills you. Also, you're single now, since your girlfriend left you for trying to milk her at night, saying you needed at least a liter to make this new souflet recipe...
Exposure to great amounts of East-Asian media has left me a cultured man of refined tastes
Perv.
deeply philosophical places such as Tumblr have opened my eyes to the discrimination that fat people face and the hetero-normative agenda to keep the genderqueer down.,/quote>
Tumblr only shows you how to wear flannel and skinny jeans ironically while riding your vintage bike. And the fat people and genderqueer would like a word with you when you're done back behind that dumpster in the unlit alley.
My productivity at work is much higher than my peers, as I may freely sip from the great fountains of knowledge that are the various SEO'd sites that I may copy things from.
Sooo, your boss doesn't know yet you waste hours on Slashdot late on thursday nights. Well, he doesn't know I do either, so I'll let you keep that one. But SEO'd sites will rot your brain dude, just sayin'.
I have entered over thirty thousand entries into my HOSTS file and my computer blazes past the tired machinery the commoners use.
So you clicked 'immunize' in Spybot. Got it.
Before finding the Internet, I was barely a man, but a long abandoned 28.8 kpbs US Robotics Softmodem changed my life.
+++ATH0
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I'll give you the heated, but I think you've been off the internet since, uhh, 1998. That fall was pretty much the last time there was an intellectual argument to be had.
I thought it was September 1993. I was around for that one.
Learn to love Alaska
Ah... there's the catch. You see, in the gool 'ol US of A, this amounts to regulation. And everyone in the good 'ol US of A knows that regulation = bad. /sarcasm off
As an American who emigrated to another country, this difference is really visible after you have been out of the USA for some time. I live in the EU, and the consumer protections are so much stronger. Much of what goes on as "normal business" in the USA is illegal here, with regard to consumer protection. Apple learned this the hard way, when they got slapped hard in several EU countries for attempting to induce customers to buy AppleCare protection when under EU law, consumers are entitled to 2 years of warranty protection, not just a single year as in the USA. Yes, I know AppleCare is more than just normal warranty coverage, but they tried to imply that without it you get only 1 year warranty which is absolutely not according to EU law and misleading to the consumer.
As another example from the mobile phone industry, it is illegal here to tie the device to the service. You are free to buy your phone from anyone, and select the operator you want. You can change operators at any time, to any other operator. Your number is portable. All it takes is a new SIM card. Of course, this is only for un-subsidized phones, but subsidized phones are quite rare here. They certainly exist and major operators offer them, but the vast majority own un-subsidized since you are crazy to buy a subsidized phone (do the math, in every case, you are paying MUCH more to the operator over the life of the phone). Thanks to this freedom of unlocked phones and the ease of switching operators, there are literally dozens of operators to choose from, in this small country with only 5.2 million people. Compare that to the US where you have at most a handful of operators to select from and all of them are universally bad compared to the operators here. I would add that the prices for service here are much lower than in the US. It's quite easy to get a basic mobile service from about $10/month, and even service with data for not much more. Oh, and what are these things called data caps again?`We don't have those. Same for our internet service.
Now, someone will chime in about educating yourself as a consumer, but we all know that most companies do not want an educated consumer, because educated consumers won't fall for their marketing tricks. Companies have proven time and again that without some amount of regulation they will act only in their best interests, which is to make as much money for their stakeholders as possible. The absence of regulation, as in the USA, lets companies get away with a lot more at the expense and detriment of the consumer.
I'm also happy to live in a country (Finland) that has granted its citizens internet access as a right. Practically everything is done electronically here, from general banking to paying bills to shopping. Nearly all government services are handled electronically as well, so not having an internet connection severely limits you.
Don't overlook the fact that Germans speak German, the word "crucial" was not used by them. TFA links to a German text which uses the formulations "zentraler Wichtigkeit" and "zentraler Bedeutung". It seems that "central importance" was translated as "crucial", which to me sounds quite a bit stronger. If they had meant it to be that strong I think they would have used words like "entscheidend" or "essenziell" instead of "zentral" in the original.
It's good when businesses are held responsible for failing to provide the service their customers are paying for.
However, it sucks that the court thinks you only deserve compensation when it is for something "essential" and if you were dumb enough not to get an alternative yourself ahead of time.