Pub 'fined £8k' for Wi-Fi copyright infringement

From ZDNet UK -

The owner of a pub offering free WiFi has been fined £8,000 because a user unlawfully downloaded copyrighted material. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK with the fine being recently levied in a civil case.

Laws in the UK surrounding open WiFi networks and the liability of those running them are actually a grey area. Measures brought in under the Digital Economy Bill does not apply to a business operating an open WiFi spot since it could be classified as a public communications service provider, which would make it exempt. According to the terms of the bill, only subscribers can be targeted with sanctions.

However a public communications service provider must, under the terms of the Data Retention Regulations, retain records for 12 months on communications passing through their network. This data includes user IDs, the times and dates of access, and the online destinations that were being accessed, although the actual content of the communications cannot be retained without the user's permission, due to data-protection laws. But there is a get-out clause in the Data Retention Regulations, in that no provider has to keep such records unless they are notified by the government to do so. Although this clause might itself be non-compliant with the EU data-retention laws.