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Germany Set To End Copyright Liability For Open Wi-Fi Operators
An anonymous reader writes: People who travel to Germany are often surprised at the lack of public, open Wi-Fi networks. That's because German law holds operators of public hotspots liable for everything their users do online, especially when these actions are against the law, and even if the operators weren't aware of them. The law doesn't apply to commercial operators, but does to private (think home WI-Fi's) and small operators (e.g. wireless networks set up by public establishments like coffee bars, shops, etc.). But, there's more than a good chance that this clause of the law will be repelled this year, and hopefully, open Wi-Fi networks in Germany will mushroom as a result.Copyright trolls, who make money by sending invoices to people claiming that their content has been infringed, will not be pleased.
They have pulled off this trick once already: they had said they end the liability, while in fact just making the regulations more strict and requiring stupid things like a captive portal where you have to agree to not commit crimes (WTF?!) and mandating encryption of the WiFi.
They had made a press release about "ending" liability for operators, and the whole press copy-pasted it without questioning. Then after a day or so the press started hearing about the smart people who have outlined this to them, and corrected their mistake.
They have played this game once already, and back then they even published a regulation draft. Now we only have the press release, without a draft. Show me the draft or GTFO. I won't believe them until I saw it.