PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - View Single Post

wolfbln · 12-08-2014, 19:03

This problem is more and more recognized by the public and finally the lawmakers. As they are the only legitimate people to change the present judicial situation.

Actually, there is a big discussion going on about the liability of the Wifi owner for illegal downloads. The construction of free WLAN networks (that's how Wifi is called in Germany) planned in the cities is blocked and more and more technical progress is hindered.

Unfortunately, there is no big support from the IT and Telco industry, as e.g. Telekom Deutschland is happen to run both mobile internet and many so called "open" WLANs (which need a German SMS verification). So a real competition of both access ways to the internet is still not taking place.

But slowly politicians of the present government seem to change that and at least to exclude hotels and restaurants from the "Störerhaftung" (the judicial principal on which the liability claims are founded). If you can read German, this is the actual situation in detail: http://www.teltarif.de/bundesregieru...ews/56639.html

It's still unclear what the owners of copyright protected files get in return. Germany after all is a state which doesn't want to intrude into privacy very much. So the beneficiaries of the present situation are mostly lawyers sending out dissuations to the owners of the logged IP addresses and some scared people pay.

To catch illegal downloaders by this system is just a bad joke. You may get some minors, but most people use file hosters these days which are considered safe, as in this country downloading is not a crime for personal use, only to upload (and with torrents you do both).

Btw. I agree with your comments about the xenophobic nature of the verification of many so called "open" WLANs only by a German mobile number. This gets even more ridiculous by the fact that prepaid SIM registration is handled very lax. A lot of verified users are actually called Dagobert Duck (= Uncle Scrooge) living in Entenhausen (= Duckburg).

	(#8)
wolfbln (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 206 Join Date: 14 Jul 2014 Country:	12-08-2014, 19:03 This problem is more and more recognized by the public and finally the lawmakers. As they are the only legitimate people to change the present judicial situation. Actually, there is a big discussion going on about the liability of the Wifi owner for illegal downloads. The construction of free WLAN networks (that's how Wifi is called in Germany) planned in the cities is blocked and more and more technical progress is hindered. Unfortunately, there is no big support from the IT and Telco industry, as e.g. Telekom Deutschland is happen to run both mobile internet and many so called "open" WLANs (which need a German SMS verification). So a real competition of both access ways to the internet is still not taking place. But slowly politicians of the present government seem to change that and at least to exclude hotels and restaurants from the "Störerhaftung" (the judicial principal on which the liability claims are founded). If you can read German, this is the actual situation in detail: http://www.teltarif.de/bundesregieru...ews/56639.html It's still unclear what the owners of copyright protected files get in return. Germany after all is a state which doesn't want to intrude into privacy very much. So the beneficiaries of the present situation are mostly lawyers sending out dissuations to the owners of the logged IP addresses and some scared people pay. To catch illegal downloaders by this system is just a bad joke. You may get some minors, but most people use file hosters these days which are considered safe, as in this country downloading is not a crime for personal use, only to upload (and with torrents you do both). Btw. I agree with your comments about the xenophobic nature of the verification of many so called "open" WLANs only by a German mobile number. This gets even more ridiculous by the fact that prepaid SIM registration is handled very lax. A lot of verified users are actually called Dagobert Duck (= Uncle Scrooge) living in Entenhausen (= Duckburg). Last edited by wolfbln; 12-08-2014 at 19:28..