German man fined for poor Wi-Fi security

By Iain Thomson on May 16, 2010 11:09 PM
Filed under Security

Not using a network password costs $164.

The German courts have ruled that internet users are responsible for the security of their connections.

In an unusual case - a musician took a home owner to court because his Wi-Fi signal was used to illegally download music.

The home owner demonstrated that he was on holiday at the time the download occurred, and the court cleared him of copyright infringement- but said the access point should have been password protected.

"Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorised third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation," the court in Karlsruhe said, according to the BBC.

British intellectual property barrister David Harris described the verdict as "eccentric" and unlikely in other jurisdictions.

German man fined for poor Wi-Fi security

6 comments in this discussion

"It's essentially like leaving an unlocked gun cabinet in plain view, and then claiming you're in no way responsible if someone takes a gun and uses it to commit a crime. If you leave your networks ..."

By ejobrien

Tags

court, wifi, case, connection, copyright, download

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Comments: 6

Jedidiah_Knight May 17, 2010 4:49 AM	I'm OK with these comments but this is crazy. Who'd have thought that voyager 1 would be beyond the heliopause at this rate???
Slatts May 17, 2010 8:26 AM	Jedidiah_Knight wrote: I'm OK with these comments but this is crazy. Who'd have thought that voyager 1 would be beyond the heliopause at this rate??? Um... What? And I thought the article was about a German bloke not securing his wireless and getting fined for it.. Which, by the way, I think there should be more of. If people started getting fined for unsecured wireless they'd be more likely to get the message about internet security in general. Maybe they could start fining people for not using a firewall and antivirus software and not patching their OS. If the authorities started doing that it'd quickly put a dent in the malware and spam problems.
Mabelode May 17, 2010 8:43 AM	Ridiculous. What happens if it is secured with a weak password such as "guest"? Will there be a fine for that as well?
Ace May 17, 2010 4:40 PM	So hang on, the German actually have a law that someone can be convicted on, for not implementing a sufficient level of Wi-Fi security? Good grief! Does that mean it is perfectly legal to scan for open networks, and use them as you wish in Germany?
ejobrien May 20, 2010 3:01 PM	Good to hear. I hope Australia starts doing the same thing. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of people out there who think that running an unsecured network is their constitutional right, or that they're doing some kind of public service. All they're really doing is leaving an a door wide open for criminals to do what they want with complete anonimity.
ejobrien May 20, 2010 3:10 PM	It's essentially like leaving an unlocked gun cabinet in plain view, and then claiming you're in no way responsible if someone takes a gun and uses it to commit a crime. If you leave your networks open, you could be facilitating criminal activity. Lock up your networks people, it's really not that hard...