It was illegal to offer public WiFi hotspot in Germany until about 2018 because any consequences for its illegal use (up to and including fines for downloading movies and prison for downloading child porn) would automatically fall upon the person to whom the IP address was registered.
Imagine if any time someone was caught driving drunk, the registered owner of the car went to jail.
This was fixed in 2018 by adding a special exception to the law. Other countries had public wifi a decade earlier. Germany still doesn't have much.
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can you explain why? what unintended consequences would such a law have?
It was illegal to offer public WiFi hotspot in Germany until about 2018 because any consequences for its illegal use (up to and including fines for downloading movies and prison for downloading child porn) would automatically fall upon the person to whom the IP address was registered.
Imagine if any time someone was caught driving drunk, the registered owner of the car went to jail.
This was fixed in 2018 by adding a special exception to the law. Other countries had public wifi a decade earlier. Germany still doesn't have much.