The German courts may have just opened the floodgates. Their top criminal court ruled this week that home wireless users can be held responsible for not password-protecting their wireless connections. If the unprotected connection is used for illegal file downloads, the owner can be fined up to 100 Euros (currently $126).
The ruling came about after a musician (not identified) sued a man whose wireless Internet connection was used to download music to a file sharing site. The ruling basically stated that people are responsible for securing their networks during initial setup, but there was no requirement for maintaining and updating security. Nor was there any ruling about the content of the abused files.
But now that this precedent has been made, where will it lead? What if you apply a password but it’s not really secure: will there be further rulings about the format? And what about the home user who gets duped into opening spam or clicking a bogus URL and subsequently joins a botnet: will he/she eventually be held responsible and fined for the resultant amount of spewed junk mail? Think how much money can be collected if the hapless user were fined for this. It could actually be a win-win situation for lawmakers: charge and fine the people responsible for setting up the botnet, AND fine the people who become unwittingly responsible for the spread of spam.
I’ll bet some official somewhere in world is already thinking ka-ching, ka-ching!
What do you think: should home users be held legally responsible for taking security precautions? Should they be held responsible for the results of their ignorance and/or negligence? How far do you think the courts will and/or should take this?
Reference:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37107291/ns/technology_and_science-security/
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