On 2 June, the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) passed a bill (2. Gesetz zur Änderung des Telemediengesetzes – 2nd Amending Law to the Federal Telemedia Act; “New Law”). The New Law limits the scope of potential liability for transmitting information for all professional and non-professional operators of Wi-Fi networks. In particular, operators of Wi-Fi networks shall not be liable for copyright infringements committed by the relevant Wi-Fi networks’ users, providing that:

• The network operator has not caused the relevant transmission;
• The network operator has not chosen the recipient of the transmitted information
• The network operator has not chosen or changed the transmitted information.

The above exemptions shall also apply to short-term automatic store of the relevant information. The exemption shall not apply in the event that the Wi-Fi network operator collaborates with the user in order to commit illegal acts. Notably, there is no specific requirement for Wi-Fi network operators to implement and maintain reasonable security measures, such as access controls.Continue Reading German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) releases operators of Wi-Fi networks from liability for copyright infringements committed by the Wi-Fi network users (so-called Störerhaftung)