[0rph3u5]

Sounds anachronistic, doesn't it?

If you ever have been to Germany in recent years, you might have noticed that WiFi/WLAN in public spaces was hard to come by - compared to elsewhere - and when it was avalible you still had to provide a login and password. This way is no small degree to a legal concept called "Störerhaftung".

"Störerhaftung" made the providers of WLAN liable for what customers/users would be doing while using their access, unless they secured it either with a password or a login mechanism. A legal risk and financial cost a lot of small buisnesses' (like Cafés and Bars) were unwilling to take.
Now that has been struck down in the internal government debate, and slated to go through the parliamentary process in the upcoming sessions. *cue the fireworks*

Of course this isn't all about a letting go of legislation that was stupid in the first place. Much of the pressure to strike down this non-sense came after the release of a legal evaluation in "case C-484/14" by ECJ's Advocates General which already implied that the relevant section of the law would be rendered mute by an upcoming ECJ ruling.

(Sorry, no english language link avalible yet)
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/stoererhaftung-union-und-spd-einigen-sich-auf-wlan-gesetz-a-1091731.html

[Bobboau]

but how are they going to arrest you for complaining about minorities if it's all free and open? I mean people will be able to freely speak their mind, you might even have people start to elect the wrong party, it'll be utter chaos.

[Det. Bullock]

but how are they going to arrest you for complaining about minorities if it's all free and open? I mean people will be able to freely speak their mind, you might even have people start to elect the wrong party, it'll be utter chaos.

Those things are made more with terrorism in mind, similar things happened in Italy, the first thing they did after 9/11 was forcing internet points and public places to take the IDs of people that wanted to use wi-fi, which essentially made public wi-fi an incredible hassle to implement.

Fortunately they repelled the law after a while, but it's the unfortunate side effect of old people making laws about hings they really don't understand, I sincerely doubt they would have considered Deutsch Telekom liable because a bunch of terrorists discussed their plans on the phone.

Germany has the same problem with video games, they are not considered a form of art protected by the consitution so they tend to get censored heavily, games with nazi imagery are outright forbidden no matter the context while a silly Indiana Jones movie can get away with it just by not having nazi symbols in the poster or the BD box because movies are considered art officially so their content can't be censored.

[0rph3u5]

Those things are made more with terrorism in mind

Acutally it was more about copyright protection and illiegal downloads - when it comes to terrorism there are even more ****ed-up measures in place

I sincerely doubt they would have considered Deutsch Telekom liable because a bunch of terrorists discussed their plans on the phone.

ISP's were exempt form liability (as are Phone Providers and Post Services, in similar instances)

but how are they going to arrest you for complaining about minorities if it's all free and open

It is still possible to identify a device by it's hardware IDs, something the makers of the original law where unaware off


EDIT: Just to add more context why this is a big deal:

WiFi has not been a thing in Germany has had a huge impact on the telecommunication market, esspecially concerning cellphone services. It is one of the main reasons why german cell-service providers get away with some the weird and ****ty service models they have been pushing, esspecially in regards to mobile internet access.
Those will not change overnight (esspecially considering what's happening in other segments of the telecommunications market) but here is a start.

[Bobboau]

You mean MAC address?

[SypheDMar]

I was in Germany three months ago, and I gotta say, good riddance to those damn not-really-public Wi-Fi.

(I thought it was a European thing until today!)

[Klaustrophobia]

You know, I don't think I've EVER used public Wi-fi.  Unless you count hotels and college, both of which I had to log in for.