One of the potential wrinkles in the UK government’s Digital Economy bill’s anti-piracy elements is how to treat illegal downloads over public Wi-Fi networks, such as hotspots in pubs, bars and other public spaces. Hotspot provider The Cloud says one of its partner venues, a pub, has just been fined £8,000 after one of its customers downloaded copyrighted material over their network. Lawyers seem to disagree on whether hotspot hosts should or shouldn’t be responsible for the activities of their customers, while a statement from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills given to The Register suggests that these companies should install software that prevents customers from accessing P2P services. Source: ZDNET
UK pub fined for illegal downloads through its Wi-Fi hotspot
