Last but not least: The pirating grandma
Although a retiree owns neither a computer nor a router, she must pay a law firm 650 euros—for distributing a pirated hooligan movie.
According to Spiegel.de, the alleged pirate was tracked down with the help of a program called "File-Watch". Private investigators use this program to scour file-sharing networks on behalf of rights holders. If they find a work for download, this is logged and the time and IP address of the computers involved are recorded. The providers can use this IP address to identify a user. In this case, the pensioner in need of care. And now she has to pay a warning of 650 euros, poor thing. And this despite the fact that she claimed to have been asleep at the time in question - it was shortly after nine o'clock one morning. And even though she probably doesn't even know how to spell computer, let alone have such a device at home. How could she then have downloaded a movie ("something with hooligans, with extreme scenes of violence") ... So no, what an unfair world!
But it seems to be the case that connection owners are generally liable for what happens via their Internet connection. And that's what the lady has - in combination with her landline. And who knows, maybe she does have a little secret passion for bald-headed thugs and splashing blood ...
