Can you imaging getting fined because someone got onto your unsecured WiFi network and did something illegal? Well , if you live in Germany, then that may soon be a reality. The German government has ruled that you are responsible for anyone who takes advantage of your wireless internet connection and uses it to pirate files or cause any other problems. The owners of the WiFi hotspots can be charged up to 100 euro, which is about $126. This law is wrong in many ways. For one, free and open WiFi is very useful to people with mobile devices, especially since the number of mobile devices with built in WiFi is ever increasing. This could also cause a lot of trouble for businesses that offer free WiFi like coffee shops and more. This limits all sorts of people and businesses who have good reasons to offer free WiFi from offering it. This is also wrong because it blames the WiFi hotspot owner for what a user has done. The users should be responsible, not the owner. An interesting point in the law is that it doesn't mention anything about the owner of the WiFi hotspot downloading illegal content. I think that this law will cause a lot more trouble than it will prevent. On another point, your WiFi network should already be secured, whether you live in Germany or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment