Wi-Fi hotspot provider fined for user’s illegal downloading
Just a week after it emerged that the U.K. could be on the verge of rolling out free, city-wide wireless Internet connectivity, comes news that could prevent the whole project getting of the ground. A pub landlord has been fined £8,000 ($13,000) because a customer was alleged to have been caught downloading pirated content.
Wi-Fi connectivity in public places is a hot topic right now. Some coffee shops in New York insisted their customers keep buying drinks rather than spend a whole day nursing one to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi. But that is a minor irritation compared to what happened to a British pub landlord.
According to ZDNet, Graham Cove, MD of Wi-Fi hotspot provider The Cloud reported the incident though refused to name the pub in question. A customer of the pub was found to have downloaded copyrighted material from the Internet over the wireless network in the pub. Rather than go after the individual, the unnamed rights holder brought a civil case against the owner of the hostelry.
This is reportedly the first time a provider of a Wi-Fi hotspot has been successfully sued for their part in the downloading process. At least in the U.K.
This seems a bizarre use of the law and could have dire effects on the number of businesses providing free Internet connections. Why would they want to risk being sued for something one of their customers may have done on the premises?
This news comes on top of the the Digital Economy bill that the British government is trying to bring into law. This is the controversial law that aims to crack down on the problem of illegal filesharing by bringing in a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule for persistent offenders. If this case is anything to go by then it would only take three customers doing anything illegal on a business’ premises for it to have its Internet cut off completely.
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November 29th, 2009
there has to be more to this story, because the fine doesn’t make any sense. even with extensive filtering systems it is impossible to stop all copyright infringements, so how can the pub be held responsible, especially since they would have to clad the entire building in a copper cage to prevent the signal leaking out. With the sketchy information available on this story one could just as well sue mobile internet providers for the same thing, especially since they would be profiting from it too.
November 29th, 2009
Yeah I suspect there IS more to this story but confusing this site as “news” versus just poorly researched opinion pieces is the mistake you make.
November 30th, 2009
Minus well sue Microsoft for making the Operating System that allowed the user to download the illegal software. Or better yet, they should sue Dell or HP for making the hardware that the illegal software was downloaded onto and possibly installed on. I mean, when does this become ridiculous?
The possible-end-bad result of this is most places offering free wifi will simply stop doing so and the few places that do offer wifi will have expensive content-filtering hardware and it won’t be free wifi.
December 1st, 2009
Both technically and legally speaking this new Law as to downloading ‘Copyright Material is seriously faulty. As 99% of every WebPage you view be it Google News or other commercial webpage is Copyrighted, hence when you download that page under this faulty law you are committing a crime as it is downloaded into your web browser to enable you to read it.
Hence all such public facilities offering either Internet connection be it Wi-Fi hotspot.or other should consult with a solicitor as to placing a ‘Disclaimer Notice’ in full view of the public, and or getting the user / users to sign a disclaimer disclaiming any legal responsibilities for content viewed or downloaded.
Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk