Germany: Wireless owner responsible for others download

[Kari]

Wireless owner responsible for someone else's download

Wireless internet subscribers who don’t properly secure their connection with a password can be held partly responsible if third parties use their account to illegally download music, a German court ruled late Wednesday.

The Federal Court in Karlsruhe ordered a wireless subscriber to pay legal costs after someone else used his connection to download the Sebastian Hämer song Sommer unseres Lebens (“The Summer of our Love) while he was on holiday.

However, the court rejected the record label's claim for compensation, meaning the verdict was only a partial victory for the music industry and other copyright holders, whose revenues are being hammered by illegal downloading over the internet.

Full story: Wireless owner responsible for someone else's download - The Local

 

[seekermeister]

Is RIAA in Germany also? To me, this falls under the category of frivolous lawsuits.

 

[Kari]

This court order sucks, but it's now official here in Germany.

Music industry celebrates:

The Music Industry Association also welcomed the verdict, with head Stefan Michalk saying: “No one can dodge responsibility with the commonly used defence that a third person abused their WLAN connection.”

 

[Win7User512]

Wow. Only a matter of time before that nonsense hits the USA.

 

[CarlTR6]

What a freaking stupid decision!

 

[seekermeister]

This is equivalent to having your car stolen, and the thief kills someone in a hit and run, then being held responsible for the death, because you didn't change the key and ignition switch from what it had new.

 

[fseal]

Yeah, that is a /terrible/ precident.

 

[noobvious]

Is there no common sense at all in the legal system?
(and is that ^^ a dumb question?)

 

[fseal]

There is sense in the legal system, however there is a tremendous amount of technical ignorance. The judge and jury are generally all pretty "Stupid" when it comes to things that get technical. Well most of us are in any technical area we are not already experts...

So unfortuantely technical or high concept cases like this very frequenly go very bad.

 

[Win7User512]

There is sense in the legal system, however there is a tremendous amount of technical ignorance. The judge and jury are generally all pretty "Stupid" when it comes to things that get technical. Well most of us are in any technical area we are not already experts...

So unfortuantely technical or high concept cases like this very frequenly go very bad.

I don't think "stupidity" is an excuse here for this ruling. Take another member's analogy of a car.

Or what if someone uses Bill Gates's telephone to commit a crime. Should Bill Gates be liable and be fined or sent to prison for another person's crime?

If Bill Gates leaves his house doors unlocked and an intruder falls down the steps, should Bill be held responsible? No.

 

[macgyver2]

The movie company behind "Green Zone" is trying to sue 50,000 people in the US for downloading their movie. They have ISP's helping with names etc, they are only basing the download from the IP addy which could be faked very easily or like this case be someone on a wireless that's unsecured. I can't find the article right now but I read it a few days ago.


Sorry its the movie the hurt locker

http://gizmodo.com/5537281/hurt-locker-producers-take-up-arms-against-pirates

 

[acurasd]

I felt the same way when they went after napster for people using their software to transfer the software..

"someone" had to have that music on their computer... "someone" had to request that music.

All napster did was create a "P2P" connection.

I could send a illegal music file through Outlook... does that mean they will shutdown the whole microsoft office suite or sue bill gates.

I just think they didn't go after the two guys that stole the music becuase they didn't have any money.. maybe 23 dollars to their name. The only one that had money to their name was the company "napster." so why make a big stink over something if your not going to get "something" in return...

right?


=================================
I think the people in the music industry are just afraid that people stealing all this music and they are loosing all the money from this. They are not going to be able to afford all this nice houses and cars. They might actually have to revert using their brains instead of talant.

Heavens forbid if they actually have to get a real job like the "walmart greeter" *lol*

sueing people is just a scare tactic....for the music industry

 

[whs]

I think that decision is somewhat logical. If you park your car with the keys inside and it gets stolen, the insurance company need not pay either. It is tough times for the innocent and clueless, but if people want computers, they have to get used to the fact that these are no appliances.

 

[severedsolo]

over here in the UK, a company called ACS Law was getting information on people downloading illegal content (through the ISP) then basically blackmailing them, like "give us £2000 or we'll take you to court" luckily! when my ISP found out, they turned round and said "if your not taking them to court, we're not giving you the information" which i thought was nice

 

[Win7User512]

I felt the same way when they went after napster for people using their software to transfer the software..

"someone" had to have that music on their computer... "someone" had to request that music.

All napster did was create a "P2P" connection.

I could send a illegal music file through Outlook... does that mean they will shutdown the whole microsoft office suite or sue bill gates.

I just think they didn't go after the two guys that stole the music becuase they didn't have any money.. maybe 23 dollars to their name. The only one that had money to their name was the company "napster." so why make a big stink over something if your not going to get "something" in return...

right?


=================================
I think the people in the music industry are just afraid that people stealing all this music and they are loosing all the money from this. They are not going to be able to afford all this nice houses and cars. They might actually have to revert using their brains instead of talant.

Heavens forbid if they actually have to get a real job like the "walmart greeter" *lol*

sueing people is just a scare tactic....for the music industry

Good points.

The movie and music industries are going about it the wrong way. If they truly wanted to protect their "art" they would invest in DRM technologies to block the copying in the first place; instead of frivolous lawsuits.

 

[Win7User512]

I think that decision is somewhat logical. If you park your car with the keys inside and it gets stolen, the insurance company need not pay either. It is tough times for the innocent and clueless, but if people want computers, they have to get used to the fact that these are no appliances.

But you pay insurance to cover that. Having your vehicle stolen is not a crime. Only the act of stealing it is.

 

[acurasd]

DRM technologies

*lol*
That is just something to give hackers to do for the night....
heat up a few hot pockets and they will have that cracked....

they need something a little better.
Like I said... they need someone with brains... along with talent...

All it is in the music , is greed...no matter who's lives they ruine along the way

 

[whs]

I think that decision is somewhat logical. If you park your car with the keys inside and it gets stolen, the insurance company need not pay either. It is tough times for the innocent and clueless, but if people want computers, they have to get used to the fact that these are no appliances.

But you pay insurance to cover that. Having your vehicle stolen is not a crime. Only the act of stealing it is.

My point was that if you do not properly protect your assets, you are responsible for the consequences of misuse. Theft of a car that you did not protect or theft thru your router that you did not protect are very similar.

 

[severedsolo]

yes but if your car gets stolen, you will not be prosecuted!

 

[acurasd]

It is like the old saying "Locks are not meant to keep the burglers out, it is meant to keep the honest men, honest"