Re: A German court now requires you secure our private Wi-Fi network or you can be fined.

[Lothar Kimmeringer <bugtraq () kimmeringer de>]

Michael Painter schrieb:
> BERLIN - Germany's top criminal court ruled Wednesday that Internet 
> users need to secure their private wireless connections by password to 
> prevent unauthorized people from using their Web access to illegally 
> download data.

That's not what they ruled. They ruled, that a user with a wireless
network doesn't need to keep it up to date in terms of security for
not being liable if it got abused.

> Internet users can be fined up to euro100 ($126) if a third party takes 
> advantage of their unprotected WLAN connection to illegally download 
> music or other files, the Karlsruhe-based court said in its verdict.

That's not correct, either. The 100 EUR is the maximum a lawyer can
ask for if he writes a letter to that user to tell the user about the
situation and allow him to stop that before a court is coming into
action at all. This is called "Abmahnung" and until now the fee (not
fine) for that depended on the value of claim (which is obviously
ridiculously high) so in general you had to pay 1000 to 2000 EUR.

If you are brought to court and are found guilty, the fees will
become much higher.

> "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.

See above.

A german report about that decision can be found at
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/BGH-schraenkt-Folgen-der-Stoererhaftung-fuer-WLAN-Betreiber-ein-998591.html
Maybe there are translation-sites out there that can translate
that law-specific language in a way it can be understood in english

> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100512/ap_on_hi_te/eu_germany_wireless_passwords 

The writer's name sounds german, I don't know why they got it wrong.


Regards, Lothar
--
Lothar Kimmeringer                E-Mail: spamfang () kimmeringer de
               PGP-encrypted mails preferred (Key-ID: 0x8BC3CD81)

Always remember: The answer is forty-two, there can only be wrong
                 questions!

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