German User Fined For Having an Open Wi-Fi 563
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."
Qdequately secured or just secured? (Score:2, Interesting)
Bad Passwords? (Score:1, Interesting)
From Article:
"...if a third party takes advantage of their unprotected WLAN connection..."
So, what would happen if you just had a lousy password? (say the same as your ssid, or something like that).
Could you say it is "protected" in the sense that the person had to do something to use it, and not just use it?
I know they also say that it needs to be "adequately secured," but who defines "adequately?"
Re:Ludicrous (Score:1, Interesting)
Yes, this actually happens. Same for not locking your car, which carries a fine of 90 euro's.
So if I understand this correctly... (Score:5, Interesting)
Botnets (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope not (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope there is slightly more to this story than the summary suggests. It seems absurd unless they have a law against sharing your internet connection. I personally have an open guest network with no protection, but then so do every major company, all libraries, schools, the trains and even the busses here in copenhagen.
Re:I see. (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.
Manufacturers to blame? Lack of full regulation? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I see. (Score:3, Interesting)
As a matter of fact, in most countries (and US states, I believe) you are required to adequately secure your guns. So if it's just lying around on the table in your unlocked home, you may well be liable. If the thieves have to break open your gun locker, you're not.
And that's pretty much what the court said. Turn on encryption and change the default password and you're fine.
Not a bad idea... (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe if this was extended to enforce a more responsible attitude for people leaving their PCs infected and sending out spam for months, I'd be all for it. Stupidity is no defence, so if you're irresponsible behaviour is causing misery for others, and potentially allowing a criminal offence to take place then you deserve to face charges.
Driving a car with no license, or instruction is an offence and whilst spamming thousands of people isn't actually dangerous, it affects more individuals.
Saying this, maybe wireless routers/modems shouldn't even have an option to operate in an open mode. Likewise, maybe ISPs shouldn't allow customers to send mail out on port 25 to random machines - just route it all through their own mail server. If a machine is sending a huge amount of mail, it's simple to block it until the user fixes their system. Surely it's not that fucking hard!
Re:So now we all work for the benefit of the RIAA? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now there's an idea.
The people in Germany (and elsewhere?) are expected to secure their facilities to protect the RIAA's clients. So the RIAA should pay them for their efforts.
Re:Ludicrous (Score:3, Interesting)
A cousin of mine served in the US Army and was stationed in Germany. He once received a citation because his car was unlocked. Yes, in Germany, there is a law stating you must lock your car, though I don't know if it applies while the care is secured in a garage.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Welcome to my world. My passport was stolen. I was "lucky this time", according to the officer, because they could have charged me with false identity terrorism aiding or somthing. I live in a democratic, western country and not in America and this almost happened to me. 'luckily the police officer was being nice'... jeez...
Interesting take. What should I do? (Score:1, Interesting)
In 20 years, I have never locked my house. I grew up in a town where locks were rare (we never locked our house), and I moved out to an even smaller town as an adult. I personally think the time I have *not* spent looking for my keys must been in the hundreds of hours by now, so if I go home tonight and everything is cleaned out, I still come out ahead.
I keep no guns in my house (and never would). I'm not opposed to gun ownership--it's just not for me. However, I recently acquired 2 traditional recurve bows for myself and my wife and have over a dozen aluminum arrows. These require some skill to use because they are very light "bare" bows with no sights, arrow rests, or triggers--definitely not a hunting setup. The bows are stored unstrung (but with strings attached). I think a random untrained kid would be limited in the damage he could do. Of course, any weapon is a dangerous item.
Do I have to begin locking my house because of this? Or do I have to secure the bows in a locked case? What is my responsibility here?
Re:Bad Precedent (Score:3, Interesting)
Germany is a civil law system, not a common law. Precedent doesn't work the same way over there.
What law? (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as I know, you cannot be fined unless you do something illegal. In other words, there _must_ be at least one law you have broken with your actions or lack of actions. The obvious question then: _is_ there a law in Germany demanding that you secure your WiFi? Or is some law being extended to cover this situation?
In my country laws are usually interpreted very strictly: if they mention (just for example) print media, the law is not usually assumed to include digital media as well. This is normally a good thing: actions/things that are not explicitly illegal are automatically legal.
Off topib, but (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll add that the homeowner's liability for injuries to criminals who are trespassing and/or breaking in are quite different from one state to another. We don't all live in La-La-Land - errrr - I meant California. I read one story where a burglar hurt himself after falling through a roof, or a skylight, or some such. He successfully sued the homeowner, in California. In a more reasonable state, like Texas, the homeowner could have SHOT the SOB, and claimed that he was startled, and feared for his life. In fact, in Texas, you don't even have to fear for your life - you can shoot a burglar dead, even before he gets into the house. One woman in Houston used a shotgun to kill some guy OUTSIDE her house who was breaking into her car, and some old guy shot through the door and killed one of two burglars who were trying to break in. Now, THAT is reasonable!!
Locked doors? Bah. (Score:1, Interesting)
This is one reason I really hate cities. Yes, there are definitely sickos and robbers and murderers outside of the cities, but there is a whole different attitude about security in a small town. You know everybody and, even if you hate someone, you probably watch out for them.
Other than when going away for extended periods of time, I have not locked my door in thirty years.
I'm not a fool. I'm not telling you where I live. But I really enjoy living in a place where someone can leave their car running with the door open while they run into the post office, start chatting with old friends, and come out 20 minutes later with their car still there.
When I lived in a million+ resident city for college, I hated feeling so god damned paranoid all the time about locking everything up. It's no way to live.
Re:Botnets (Score:3, Interesting)
Now there's an interesting idea. Someone should code a botnet that only downloads and shares copyrighted content, nothing else malicious.
Manufacturer liability (Score:1, Interesting)
So if I secure my router, and the security is circumvented, is the router manufacturer held liable? It certainly sounds like they should be.
Re:actual judgement (Score:3, Interesting)
Pretty much, yeah. Besides which, why would you open yourself up to potential legal trouble from someone downloading kiddie porn or something through your link?
So by your logic, telecom companies should be liable if someone uses a payphone to harass someone?
Interesting.
Re:I see. (Score:5, Interesting)
During our firearm safety course the instructor talked of a friend with a collection rivaling his (huge) that had the equivalent of a bank safe full of guns in his basement. He went on vacation, and while he was gone thieves broke into his house and apparently spent *days* breaking into the vault with a jackhammer and other tools. They finally cleaned him out.
When he returned home and reported the theft he was charged with improper storage of firearms. Their reasoning? Because he left the collection without someone to check on it while he was gone he wasn't taking adequate responsibility to ensure the guns didn't fall into the wrong hands.
Heavy fines and a firearms ownership ban were applied. This took place in Canada.
Open WIFI == ISP (Score:3, Interesting)
If you have an open WIFI, a prosecutor may be able to prove to a jury
that you are an ISP. If ACTA goes through, and ISP's held accountable,
then *you*, Mr Open WIFI, are liable.
Re:I hope not (Score:1, Interesting)
I hope there is slightly more to this story than the summary suggests. It seems absurd unless they have a law against sharing your internet connection.
There is no German law against sharing your internet connection.
But there are German laws against copyright infringement.
This user's internet connection was used for copyright infringement.
Ordinarily, he would have been liable. So he claimed that his wireless
is open. That gets him off the hook for the copyright infringement,
but he now must prevent future copyright infringement via his internet
connection. How he does that is his problem.
Re:I see. (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always had a complete disregard for security. Admittedly, most of the stuff I've ever owned hasn't been worth all that much... I've had expensive bikes, a few decent cars, expensive computers, moniters & TV's etc. I've never owned my own home. I leave just about everything unlocked, all the time. Currently I live in a "good" area, but I lived in Leytonstone [wikipedia.org] and worked in Hackney [wikipedia.org] for a few years when I was younger, and kept the same principle throughout. My complete disregard for security has served me _very_ well. I could very easily replace everything I own (and more) on the savings I have made by not buying insurance throughout. Two high quality £50 locks would cost me £100... if I had ever bought them, I'd be £100 down.