There's a very interesting (and somewhat disturbing) article on a pub in the United Kingdom that was fine $13,000 for copyright infringement. Apparently, they offered free WiFi and one of their customers downloaded copyrighted material.
Albeight, this is a very grey area of the law - apparently, but I've often wondered about this and thought of the legal ramifications of WiFi access. If the pub is indeed responsible (aka guilty) for this copyright infringement - where could this possibly lead? Would it be liable if a customer downloaded child pornography through an open WiFi? If so, there could be significant risk and liability for any WiFi activity.
I wonder if it would be a reasonable analogy to suggest that if a pub was liable because a customer downloaded copyright material, could you not also extend this logic to suggest that a library would be just as guilty if a patron used it's photocopier to copy material?
The mind ponders - and shudders at the thoughts!
No comments:
Post a Comment