Parents not liable if kids download illegally
Published: 16 Nov 12 07:47 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121116-46203.html
German parents cannot be held responsible for their children illegally downloading and sharing music from the internet - as long as they have told their kids not to do it.
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The couple from Cologne were fined €3,000 by a regional court because their son had been downloading and spreading music illegally.
But the Supreme Court in Karlsruhe overturned the ruling and the fine.
“In this day and age children have access to a computer, their usage of which cannot constantly be monitored,” Judge Joachim Bornkamm said.
Adults were not, the court said, obliged to monitor their children's internet habits or to install restrictions on household computers. Only when they had already received a warning about illegal activity would this be necessary.
Parents should, he said, teach their offspring that sharing copyright-protected files on the internet is illegal but they should not “have to distrust them from the get-go and presume that they are breaking laws.”
Cologne's regional court told the pair that they had to check their computers regularly for illegal file sharing programmes – a decision the couple's lawyer called unrealistic.
Other lawyers welcomed the ruling. "It is the precedent case that we have been wanting for years,” said Munich-based Bernhard Knies, who went to Karlsruhe especially for the hearing.
“If this decision had been made earlier lots of parents could have been spared their own money,” Knies added.
DPA/The Local/jcw
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Your comments about this article:
The internet trolls take the providers to court to obtain your name and mailing address then the law firm sends you a cease and disist letter demanding anywhere from 800 to 2000 euros not to take you to court.
This happened to me when my brother in law stayed at our place while we were away.
The law firmed informed me that it did not matter who did it, only the IP address matters even though I could prove I was out of country. as it was my IP address I was expected to pay or go to court.
I decided not to pay ,and never heard back from the firm ,it has been 2 years now.
I did some checking on the net and found out that Germany has the highest success at prosecuting these downloads, while the US supreme court rulled that an IP address is not a real person and you need further proof of guilt to prosecute.
If you live in Germany beware if you download from any file sharing sites
from a web share site ,they were then sent letters for every German group on the list demanding money for each single .It amounted to a vast sum ,the download was done by a child under ten but as has been pointed out it made no difference,thousands of euros wasted .
It never went to court (too expensive) and was purely done from lawyer to lawyer ,I doubt if the groups or singers even knew let alone received any money .
This is guilty until proved innocent and even then still fined.
The next ruling will make you prove that you told the child with a note from a solicitor signed in front of witnesses who are not family members etc,etc.
If anybody out there knows the new ruling well ,will it be possible to claim the money back ,if not why not?
I get videos sent to me on Facebook by the bands themselves ,click on the link and GEMA block it ,sooner or later the bands will take them on or we will get no new music in Germany ,unless it is a dummed down chart show where idiots talk through the music and or the videos unless they have a "live " bad that are 40 years passed their best before date.
Artists rights don't make me laugh where would Phy be without the internet? he would never of been heard of if GEMA had it's way, censorship under another name.