German Court Says That Open WiFi Owners Not Responsible For File Sharing Done By Others
from the good-ruling dept
There's been plenty of back and forth over the years concerning the question of whether or not an open WiFi network makes the owner of that network liable for or protected from charges of file sharing by others on that network. Since the entertainment industry can only trace back to the access point, but has no idea who's using that access point, some have always contested that an open WiFi network is a defense against charges of file sharing, since it could be anyone doing the sharing. Others contend that the owners of the open network should be liable for any crimes committed on that network.A German court has now ruled that open WiFi network owners are not responsible for actions committed by other users on their network. This overrules a lower court decision, which the entertainment industry had been using to threaten people whose IP addresses turned up in file sharing sweeps. This doesn't mean that the owner of the network won't still be hauled off to court, or that they won't eventually be found guilty of infringement -- but if the person can present evidence that others used the network, then they have a defense against charges of file sharing. This seems like a reasonable ruling that hopefully other courts will follow as well.
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Filed Under: file sharing, germany, liability, open wifi
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This is all well and good BUT:
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Re: This is all well and good BUT:
Anybody in range of my wifi router may have free wireless access. It may be locked down to 1Mb/sec, but it's present and free to all who have nothing better available.
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Re: Re: This is all well and good BUT:
If you have unlimited bandwidth, why not give a trickle to neighbors and passersby? Lord knows that I've been saved a time or two by some kind stranger leaving their network open, and I am happy whenever I parse my logs and see that somebody has benefited from my open network.
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Re: This is all well and good BUT:
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Re: Re: This is all well and good BUT:
If you are saying that Vista will not associate with an access point that has the SSID Broadcast disabled, you need to put down the crack pipe and pick up the manual.
Straight retarded.
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Re: This is all well and good BUT:
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Re: Re: This is all well and good BUT:
You can crack wep in minutes brother. Especially if you are using two wireless clients.
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Re: This is all well and good BUT:
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Re: Re: This is all well and good BUT:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9829759-38.html?hhTest=1
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Re: Re: Re: This is all well and good BUT:
The misses the whole point, though. What's so wrong with me offering access to the Internet access I'm paying for?
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Wow... a common sense ruling?
And yes, #1 I agree you can lock down your router but not everyone who buys one has that knowledge.
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Re: Wow... a common sense ruling?
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Re: Wow... a common sense ruling?
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Re: Wow... a common sense ruling?
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What Benefits?
What Benefits? Securing one's own WAP poses almost no benefits to the WAP owner -- in the case at hand, the benefit would be for copyright owners (Making sure that Bono has a bigger pile of money to play in). The problem with the "secure your WAP or else" movement is that most of the horrors of open WAPs are speculative or are not harms / benefits to the WAP owner. So in the words of commentor #1, yip, "The benefits would not out weigh the costs."
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Re: What Benefits?
There are a lot of stupid, uninformed comments on TechDirt, but this one might be the stupidest ever. There are no benefits to securing one's wireless network?
A-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You're exactly the kind of dumbass I'm looking for.
You obviously don't know a fucking thing about wireless networks, encryption or security. Go read a book about networks, security and wireless encryption, before making uninformed, stupid comments.
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Re: Re: What Benefits?
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Re: Re: Re: What Benefits?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: What Benefits?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: What Benefits?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: What Benefits?
Also:
You said there's benefit to locking down an access point. We dispute that. Saying there isn't benefit for doing X isn't the same as saying there IS benefit in doing the opposite of X.
Also:
You have a lot of venom and no substance. What's the point in wasting your time here if you've nothing to contribute?
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Yeah, but...
About the only place you can get free, open wifi is burger king. Even students in university housing don't (as a rule) leave their networks open.
BUT this is a good ruling. You shouldn't be surprised, though. What did you expect from a legal system like Germany's, anyway?
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it's tough
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These comments
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open and free
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great info
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