The main lawyer of the court of the EU believes that the owners of WiFi points should not be responsible for the traffic passing through them

The chief lawyer of the European Court believes that the operators of free open Wi-Fi Internet access points should not be held responsible for the actions of third parties who download unlicensed content through these points.



The opinion was expressed in connection with the consideration of the lawsuit filed by Sony Music Entertainment Germany to the owner of the German store of sound and lighting equipment Tobias McFadden [Tobias McFadden]. Sony insisted that through its network, music was illegally downloaded, the rights to which the company possessed.



The main court attorney denied the validity of the charges, saying that although the work of accessing the Internet through this operator can be prohibited, it is unwise to require him to analyze the traffic or set a password on the access point. In fact, the operator of such a network has the right to limit liability.

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Although the opinion of the main lawyer is not decisive, and the judges will still discuss this issue, the decision on limiting liability is welcomed by the European Internet Service Providers Association (EuroISPA). According to providers, copyright protection issues need to be balanced with basic human rights, in particular, with the right to access the Internet.



The absence of restrictions on access points will contribute to the further development and spread of the Internet. And, according to the chairman of the commission for the consideration of cases on the responsibility of intermediaries Malcolm Hattie [Malcolm Hutty], the prevalence and availability of the Internet in Europe depends, no less and no less - its economic future.



The European Court (European Court of Justice) is the highest court of the European Union Court, whose decisions cannot be appealed. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg was one of the first institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community, founded by the Paris Treaty of 1951. The Rome Treaty of 1957 obliged him to monitor the implementation of all European treaties.