Pub fined £8,000 for customer's illicit downloads, ZDNet reports; Guardian, 11/27/09

Charles Arthur, Guardian; Pub fined £8,000 for customer's illicit downloads, ZDNet reports:

A pub owner has had to pay £8,000 after someone used its open wireless hotspot to download copyrighted material unlawfully, says the managing director of the hotspot provider The Cloud

"A pub owner has had to pay £8,000 after someone used its open wireless hotspot to download copyrighted material unlawfully, says the managing director of the hotspot provider The Cloud.
Graham Cove, MD of The Cloud, told ZDNet UK that the case, brought in the civil courts, is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

A legal expert told ZDNet UK that if the Digital Economy bill, proposed by the government last week, passes in its present form then the problem for hotspot providers could get worse, because under its rules the owner of the copyrighted material would simply target the internet address of the hotspot and look no further. In this case, that would be the pub.

Cove declined to name the pub involved in the case because the pub chain that owns is it is a client of The Cloud's, has not given its permission. Its clients include Fullers, Greene King, Marsdens, Scottish & Newcastle, Mitchell & Butlers and Punch Taverns.

Although copyright owners have brought infringement cases against individuals before in the UK, this case is believed to be the first where the operator of a hotspot - where people can buy or get free access to a high-speed wireless internet connection - has been successfully sued.

Professor Lilian Edwards, of the school of law at the University of Sheffield, told ZDNet UK that businesses operating a hotspot for customers or visitors would be "not responsible in theory" for users' unlawful downloads, under "existing substantive copyright law".

However the business would not be at risk of being cut off under the "three strikes" rule in the Digital Economy bill: it would have an exemption on the basis that it is not a "subscriber"."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/nov/27/pub-file-sharing-cloud-fine