IDG Contributor Network: EU court says no liability for no-password Wi-Fi is OK
If you’ve ever wondered why some countries have more open Wi-Fi hotspots than others—Germany has very few—it’s because some places have laws that make a Wi-Fi network owner liable for the illegal activities of network users. Operating the no-password, free network isn’t worth the liability.
That may be about to change with an opinion from a senior legal official advising lawmakers that hotpsot owners should not be liable for illegal activity.
The non-binding, but important opinion is from Advocate-General Maciej Szpunar of the European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe.
The David and Goliath-led beginning-of-the-end for open-hotspot-barren parts of Europe started when Sony Music Entertainment sued a German store owner for supposedly allowing a customer to Torrent a song on his network, according to World Intellectual Property Review, who has written about the matter.
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