Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dnlrn 3766 days ago
What also hinders open Wi-Fi adoption in Germany is a law called "Störerhaftung", which basically states that the owner of the Wi-Fi is liable for all damages that users of his Wi-Fi do, for example filesharing, hacking, whatever. Keeping track of all users is not an option that all free Wi-Fi operators have. I'm sure other countries have similar laws. Do The Netherlands not have such a law?
1 comments

I just came across Airfy which apparently gets around this by tunnelling (I assume) all traffic and taking all legal liability and risk. I've also read that this Stoererhaftung law is set to change this year, specifically to allow things like free WiFi in businesses.
IIRC there is an exception in the law for ISPs and Airfy registered as an ISP.