<story><title>Germany&apos;s Wi-Fi Shortage Set to Ease as Merkel Backs New Bill</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-16/germany-s-wi-fi-shortage-set-to-ease-as-merkel-backs-new-bill</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>codebeaker</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m currently suffering two copyright infringement cases, which I can only assume are the result of the storm that reset my FritzRepeater back to factory settings, leaving an open bridge into my network.&lt;p&gt;Two copyright claims, from two law firms, for albums I&amp;#x27;ve never heard of, at times that I wasn&amp;#x27;t in the house.&lt;p&gt;Because of an arcane, but largely logical German law named &amp;quot;Störerhaftung&amp;quot; I am by default responsible, and have to pay both claims (in the order of €5,000 each). I have no recourse.&lt;p&gt;Tech-savvy as I am, powerless to defend against a case such as this, where do I stand, I could theoretically bring a case  against AVM Deutschland (manufacturer of the Fritzrepeater) but then the burden is on me to prove their buggy software failed, and reset to factory settings.&lt;p&gt;An impossible situation, and I hope that laws such as these move in the direction of transparency, the Störerhaftung is designed to make sure that someone who loses out always has someone to claim against (common other uses, are for example if drunks throw stones from the top of a building, and then run away, the building owner is responsible, in lieu of finding and proving that the drunkards were responsible) - it&amp;#x27;s arcane, and whilst well intended, and the &amp;quot;terrorism&amp;quot; argument holds strong, this is about copyright, and always maintaining the Störerhaftung right.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nisa</author><text>Most cases aren&amp;#x27;t taken to court. Courts have decided against these firms in the past and the general climate is turning against them. I&amp;#x27;ve got similar claims (but only 500€) and the lawyer firm stopped bothering me after I&amp;#x27;ve said I&amp;#x27;m running a freifunk.net router (which I&amp;#x27;m doing) - freifunk.net are having a &amp;quot;war&amp;quot; cash depot and want to go to the BVerG to end finally end this madness. You can follow the drama here: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;freifunkstattangst.de&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;freifunkstattangst.de&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The new law is btw. not helping at all. It&amp;#x27;s lobbying by said lawfirms that bother you and me and in practice things likely will turn out worse. See &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;freifunkstattangst.de&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;die-bundesregierung-hat-beschlossen-die-ausweitung-von-oeffentlichen-wlan-hotspots-zu-verhindern&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;freifunkstattangst.de&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;die-bundesregierung-...&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;p&gt;If it&amp;#x27;s Waldorf and Frommer tell them you are cooperating the freifunkstattangst.de and mail them. They dropped at least my case out of fear (or rather tactics on their behalf).&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a scare game these lawyers are playing. It&amp;#x27;s ridiciolous that this is still a thing. However most lawyers are profiting of it and the majority of Bundestag members are lawyers. For a (kind of unfair) comparison see here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;de.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rechtsberatungsgesetz#Geschichte&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;de.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rechtsberatungsgesetz#Geschich...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Germany&apos;s Wi-Fi Shortage Set to Ease as Merkel Backs New Bill</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-16/germany-s-wi-fi-shortage-set-to-ease-as-merkel-backs-new-bill</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>codebeaker</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m currently suffering two copyright infringement cases, which I can only assume are the result of the storm that reset my FritzRepeater back to factory settings, leaving an open bridge into my network.&lt;p&gt;Two copyright claims, from two law firms, for albums I&amp;#x27;ve never heard of, at times that I wasn&amp;#x27;t in the house.&lt;p&gt;Because of an arcane, but largely logical German law named &amp;quot;Störerhaftung&amp;quot; I am by default responsible, and have to pay both claims (in the order of €5,000 each). I have no recourse.&lt;p&gt;Tech-savvy as I am, powerless to defend against a case such as this, where do I stand, I could theoretically bring a case  against AVM Deutschland (manufacturer of the Fritzrepeater) but then the burden is on me to prove their buggy software failed, and reset to factory settings.&lt;p&gt;An impossible situation, and I hope that laws such as these move in the direction of transparency, the Störerhaftung is designed to make sure that someone who loses out always has someone to claim against (common other uses, are for example if drunks throw stones from the top of a building, and then run away, the building owner is responsible, in lieu of finding and proving that the drunkards were responsible) - it&amp;#x27;s arcane, and whilst well intended, and the &amp;quot;terrorism&amp;quot; argument holds strong, this is about copyright, and always maintaining the Störerhaftung right.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ju-st</author><text>You (most propably) don&amp;#x27;t have to pay anything.&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.arag.de&amp;#x2F;auf-ins-leben&amp;#x2F;udo-vetter&amp;#x2F;filesharing-oft-reicht-ein-dickes-fell&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.arag.de&amp;#x2F;auf-ins-leben&amp;#x2F;udo-vetter&amp;#x2F;filesharing-oft-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>