Re: German court orders wireless passwords for all

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: May 18, 2010 3:41:46 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: German court orders wireless passwords for all

This sounds like "if somebody discovers your keys in the car, takes the car, and commits multiple murders, you will be 
prosecuted with the likelihood of capital punishment, therefore leaving your keys in the car should be grounds for 
prosecuting you for 'intent to commit multiple murder'."

Admittedly, you foolishly left the keys in your car, so it's possible to construe you are creating the opportunity for 
unknowable and perfectly reasonable ranges of all possible crimes.  Therefore you are intentionally causing harm.

Hmmm... we could use that legal theory to get people who don't use strong passwords in their Facebook account 
reprimanded for "intent to let people steal your identity and bully somebody to commit suicide".

This is a good example of "pre-crime" a la Minority Report.


On 05/18/2010 03:05 PM, Dave Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: Rigo Wenning <rigo () w3 org>
> > Date: May 18, 2010 2:41:46 PM EDT
> > To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> > Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  German court orders wireless passwords for all
> >
> > Hi Dave, 
> >
> > the court decision was not by the Federal constitutional court but by the 
> > hightest civil court (Bundesgerichtshof). Everybody waits for the written 
> > opinion to see what their decision really means. 
> >
> > In fact, a person was on holidays when somebody used his unsecured wifi 
> > network to make a music download. There was no massive download involved. Most 
> > reports emphasized that the court required people to change the default 
> > password to something more secure to be out of liability. 
> >
> > Let's see what comes out, but already today, we can see that free wifi will be 
> > very difficult to organize in Germany in the future. 
> >
> > Best, 
> >
> > Rigo
> >
> > On Saturday 15 May 2010 03:06:59 David Farber wrote:
> > > Begin forwarded message:
> > >
> > > From: Konrad Neuwirth <konrad () fimsch net>
> > > Date: May 13, 2010 5:19:47 PM EDT
> > > To: dave () farber net
> > > Subject: Re: [IP] German court orders wireless passwords for all
> > >
> > > Hello there,
> > >
> > > although there was a ruling and it was quite important, I feel that a few
> > > corrections are in order.
> > >
> > > Am 12.05.2010 um 18:37 schrieb Dave Farber:
> > > > > 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.
> > >
> > > The court that spoke was actually the Bundesverfassungsgerichtshof -- the
> > > Federal Constitutional Court. You can find it's web presence at
> > > <http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en/index.html>.  it as much a
> > > criminal court as the supreme court in the US is.
> > >
> > > > > 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.
> > >
> > > What the verdict says is actually a little more specific, and it's actually
> > > in part good news.  Before the verdict, lawyers chasing down the illegal
> > > sharing of copyrighted materials could (and did) make up horrendous sums
> > > of 'damages' that the use of file sharing technologies caused, sending out
> > > large bills to the owners of the specific IP numbers at the time of
> > > sharing.  This is now no longer possible, for there is now the 100 EUR
> > > limit on such cases. It's also not a 'fine' in the sense that it's a money
> > > transaction involving the government -- it's actually just between the
> > > rightholders lawyers and the internet user.
> > >
> > > It also says that the owner of unsecured WLANs can be held responsible for
> > > any and all copyright violations coming from their network, even if they
> > > were on holiday at that time -- the lack of proper WLAN protection is the
> > > point what makes them responsible.
> > >
> > > It'll be interesting to see how WLAN access point vendors react now.
> > >
> > > //Konrad
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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