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Top EU Court Says There’s No Right To Online Anonymity, Because Copyright Is More Important
(www.techdirt.com)
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From the article-linked ruling press release - what it means in practice, what this was about:
I find the ruling press release is much more understandable (and much more informative) than the OP-linked article.
Definitely; OP's linked article doesn't have any quotes that refer to copyright, while this one of yours adds a lot of context that was otherwise missing. There's a world of difference between allowing retention of IP addresses and creating a cleaning house for IPs suspected of distributing works.
Which just opens more questions: How long are ISPs allowed/required to store customer IPs, and then what happens if I have an open wifi: Can they just assume that I did it or declare me responsible anyway, that is, is it possible for a private individual to enjoy ISP privileges?
Yes if I remember the Hadopi correctly, your are responsible for securing your access point and liable for any use made out of it.
If you read more of the ruling, the ruling allows EU nations to impose requirements on ISPs. So the storage duration would be up to national law. (Which of course one may call into question bring before court on whether they are too long.)
The question of whether you are liable as a provider of open access is an independent question. Yes, it becomes more relevant if you as a provider can't bet on anonymity anymore. But it's independent.
Looking at DE Wikipedia, looks like previous EU court rulings were dismissing being held accountable, but there's still one open. German law freed it in 2018. No mention of EU specifically in this article, so maybe it's national concern - at least until the EU court makes a ruling.