French Court Levies First Fine Under 3-Strikes Piracy Law 229
itwbennett writes "In the first trial resulting from the controversial three-strikes copyright law, a French court on Thursday fined a man €150 for failing to secure his Internet connection. His negligence led to the illegal download of files, including two Rihanna songs that were downloaded by his wife."
Good job France! (Score:5, Interesting)
Failing to secure it, from his wife?!?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
Either marriage is very different in France or this is a bizarre ruling.
Re:what if don't WANT it "secure"? (Score:4, Interesting)
The fine wasn't for her copyright violation, it was for his negligence.
Here's a more appropriate analogy:
In my state, you're required to have an emergency exit for every bedroom. The apartment I used to live at, before my roommates sued, had a bedroom with only one exit. This would be equivalent to punishing the landlord had my roommate fallen asleep with a lit cigarette and been killed/injured in the fire because he couldn't escape easily due to the building not being up to code.
The appropriate thing to be outraged about is not that he is being held responsible for his wife's crimes -- they're saying he was negligent and that's a pretty well accepted concept. The thing to be outraged about is that they've decided that having an open wifi network is negligent. I intentionally disable the security on mine...what would they call that? Conspiracy? Aiding and abetting?
Re:2 songs - France:150 euros - USA:16,000$ (Score:4, Interesting)
Funny, that's about the ratio for health care costs in those two countries as well...