The German top court has ruled this week that Internet users must password-protect their Wi-Fi, or face a fine if someone accesses their connection and then downloads music or movies illegally.
Those with unsecured connections face up to a 100 euro fine if “a third party takes advantage” and is then caught doing so.
“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,” reads the court decision.
With that being said, the court did say the users were not responsible for the illegal content downloaded by those accessing their unsecured connections.
Additionally, the court said users would only be expected to add a password when they first set up their router, and not need to constantly update to the latest protections as they become available.
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by a musician who sued an individual user for illegally downloading his music. The user proved he was away on vacation when the music was downloaded, but did admit he had unsecured Wi-Fi.
Result for: german court
Last week, the file-hosting giant Rapidshare lost a case to the German copyright society GEMA.
As part of the ruling, Rapidshare was told to “proactively filter” over 5000 tracks from GEMA’s catalog and make sure they are not distributed on their servers.
Rapidshare has announced this weekend that they will in fact be appealing the verdict.
GEMA created a software that can search web forums and extract links that infringe on GEMA’s copyrights. Rapidshare however, scoffs at the software, claiming it does not work.
“It’s questionable whether the application can deal with mechanisms to prevent the scraping of links, open encrypted files, accurately identify audio files or find links in forums that can’t be accessed by search engines.”
They of course are correct, as the software will not be able to identify mislabeled files, password protected RAR files, and more notably, files posted in private Warez forums.
Rapidshare CEO Bobby Chang also noted that GEMA is following in the footsteps of the RIAA, which will in turn alienate their own fans and customers.
“GEMA is trying to turn back time,” he concluded.
Result for: german court
A German court has given both Universal and Warner Bros a preliminary injunction against the streaming video portal Zattoo.
The site had been running commercial spots using films from Universal and Warner. Zattoo shows free German TV channels on its site as free web streams while adding advertising to the content.
The studios however are now suing the site saying “its agreement with German channels does not allow it to insert commercials into its films.”
Zattoo is now blocked from streaming any Warner and Universal films until a settlement is reached, and the site pays additional licensing fees.
The IPTV provider, which launched 4 years ago, has over 4 million registered users and is available in Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.
