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U.K. Pub Owner Faces $13K Fine Over Customer's Illegal Download

by Terrence O'Brien on November 30, 2009 at 02:50 PM

U.K. Pub Owner Faces Fine Over Customer's Illegal Download
The owner of a pub in the U.K. has been fined £8,000 (roughly $13,183) because a customer used its public Wi-Fi hotspot to illegally download copyrighted content. The pub owner has not come forward, but the existence of the case was confirmed by Graham Cove, managing director of The Cloud -- the provider of the hotspot service.

Professor Lilian Edwards, of the University of Sheffield's law school, told ZDNet UK that under existing copyright law, businesses providing hotspot access are not responsible for illegal downloads made by customers. However, under the pending Digital Economy Bill, IP addresses -- not individuals -- would be targeted. Since all users of a hotspot share the same public-facing IP address, the line of responsibility would end with the pub owner. Edwards warned that under the new bill, repeated infringements could result in a business's hotspot service being disconnected.

British law surrounding public Wi-Fi spots is still somewhat of a gray area however, and it's unclear who will be deemed ultimately responsible for the content in this case. Logic would dictate that the pub not be deemed liable for how customers use the service, but law rarely bows to the demands of common sense. If it did, Napster might still be a popular file-sharing network, as opposed to a second-tier music subscription service. [From: CNET, ZDNet UK, and Guardian, via: Digg]

Tags: copyright, law, piracy, top, uk

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