Pirate Busting – German Style!
Over the past few years, at one time or another, my wife and I have both had the luxury of using laptops provided by our employers. We didn’t have a wireless internet connection at home, but thanks to the wonder of unsecured wireless, we had access to nearly a half-dozen networks from our very own home. That’s right neighbors. That was me sucking up your bandwidth. That was me making your internet run as slowly as a one-legged mouse on a cold day. Actually, one of my neighbors even gave me his password and his permission to log on to his network whenever I wanted. Oh, the fun I could’ve had if I were a slimier person.
Now, we have a wireless router in the house, but no laptop. We only use the wireless for my iPhone and my wife’s Nintendo DSi. We also have it secured.
Wait! That’s hypocrisy!
Okay. I agree. It is hypocrisy. But it’s just too risky to have my network unsecured. Only idiots would leave their wireless network so open to intrusion and too bandwidth-suckers like myself. Well, idiots and extremely nice, wonderful people like you, neighbors (Neighbors – I was definitely not calling you idiots. DO NOT firebomb my house.).
Well, it turns out that there’s even more risk to leaving your network unsecured than we thought. In a ruling by Germany’s highest criminal court, it was found that owners of personal wireless networks that are unsecured can be held liable for the actions of people who are accessing your network. Even if they are accessing it without your knowledge. Even if they are accessing it while you are out of town on vacation.
That’s right. Germany’s highest court ruled against the owner of an unsecured personal wireless network that was used by a third-party to download illegal music files while they were out of town on vacation. The third-party then shared the illegal music on a file sharing site, again using the unsecured network of his unsuspecting neighbor.
The owners of the unsecured network were fined the equivalent of $126 for failing to adequately secure their wireless connection against “the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation” (source: MSNBC). On a side note, I hope nobody in your neighborhood has any weird, illegal fetishes that they want to use your wireless network to download pictures of.
It is an interesting ruling considering all of the piracy conversation I’ve been reading online lately. Some of the best discussions are in the two posts (one & two) and their comments at Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds blog, and David Hill’s response over at Machine Age Productions. Go, read them. Let me (and them) know what you think.
Personally, I think the German court is going about the piracy issue in the wrong way. Their approach is like tackling the urban drug problem by arresting the owners of convenience stores on street corners where low-level drug dealers choose to sell their product. Asinine. Agree? Disagree?
