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General discussionWhat do you have against internet, Germany?(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 03, 2015
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P1na: Friends of mine who live/have lived in Germany always tell me to be careful to download pirated stuff such as movies, and even in hostels I've occasionally been told that if I downloaded something they would give the police my data.
Yeah no, that's bullshit. Even if they had the technical means to "give the police your data", the POLICE is bound to German law and couldn't do anything with that illegally acquired data.

That doesn't mean you should pirate shit when you're crawling through the series of rusty tubes we call the internet, sir. :)


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Rincewind81: We have a legal thing in Germany, it is called "Störerhaftung". If you offer free wifi YOU are financially responsible for every mischief. If you use my wifi and download a song or movie with a filesharing tool, I can get an "Abmahnung" (please check the link) from a lawyer which can cost several hundreds or till more than 1000€ - per song. This was/and is a huge problem in Germany - even CD Project RED used Abmahnungen after the release of Witcher 2 to get money for pirated games.
First thing I hear, CDPR would have to legally operate from Germany to do that, no? I know that Daedalic has sent these kinds of cease & desist letters, but not to the people who pirated their games (it's legally difficult), but to the people who disseminated the files via filesharing (which makes sense, those are the bastards after all).
Post edited November 03, 2015 by Vainamoinen
Posted November 03, 2015
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P1na: Germany, you suck. I've been here 2 days and I'm seriously thinking of fleeing the country. I simply can't work from here.
Just think of the people who've been stuck here for 40+ years...

Seriously, now with kids and all I don't really consider it, but if were single I'd seriously think about going somewhere else.

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Vainamoinen: Yeah no, that's bullshit. Even if they had the technical means to "give the police your data", the POLICE is bound to German law and couldn't do anything with that illegally acquired data.
In theory that is, remember the mass-gene-tests in Dresden and their aftermath and also the massive use of mobile phone cell data against totally uninvolved people after demonstrations...
Post edited November 03, 2015 by toxicTom
Posted November 03, 2015
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P1na: Friends of mine who live/have lived in Germany always tell me to be careful to download pirated stuff such as movies, and even in hostels I've occasionally been told that if I downloaded something they would give the police my data.
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Vainamoinen: Yeah no, that's bullshit. Even if they had the technical means to "give the police your data", the POLICE is bound to German law and couldn't do anything with that illegally acquired data.

That doesn't mean you should pirate shit when you're crawling through the series of rusty tubes we call the internet, sir. :)
I'd say that since they have my name and ID from the check in and a personal password for the wifi, if the police comes in and tells them about illegal internet activity they would check who was the guest responsible for that. I don't know German law, but I feel there's nothing illegal about that.
Posted November 03, 2015
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P1na: Why is it that you make it so hard for me to connect to the internet from the country?

Ireland and the Chzeck republic have wifi on (many of) their buses, for free. Spain sometimes is supposed to have it as well, even if it never works. Romania had free wifi on the train stations. Finding open wifis en Vietnam was never a problem. Belgium offers free wifi on their main squares (at least in Gent and Kortrijk they do). Worldwide, on all my years backpacking, I've only had to pay for wifi on a hostel twice: once in London (it was something like 1 pound for as long as you stayed) and a place in Glasgow that charged a ridiculous 2 pounds per hour (so I stayed at the nearby pub, and spent the money in beer and connected to the wifi over there).

Enter Germany. The most expensive train prices, premium of 10€ if you want wifi. 30+€ for a HI hostel (more expensive than Paris or Japan), plus 5€ for the internet per day. And it only works in the lobby, not in the rooms! Bonus points for claiming the internet is free on the website despite it all. And if you try an A&O hostel, they have free wifi... well, what appears to be a normal household connection for 500 people; so it works when it feels like working. And then you get desperate, hit a restaurant that has a wifi sticker on the door and think to connect there. BUT! They have security, so you enter your email address and then send the password to your email. All great, except for the tiny little detail that you need internet to check your email for the wifi password, and you need the wifi to connect to the internet in the first place. Starving philosophers, anyone?

Germany, you suck. I've been here 2 days and I'm seriously thinking of fleeing the country. I simply can't work from here.
Yes, thankfully most of the time, when I am in Germany it is business so I don't pay for it. However in UK its not a huge amount better. You have the choice of having BT (Openreach or whatever they call themselves now) either just the cable or the net as well, and they are truly one of the worse companies around, must be something about adding the word British to a companies name (Rail/Oil for example). That and the fact that unless your in central london, on a clear day waving your phone in east-west pattern you can't get signal, let alone xG. Its got to the stage where I am is I type the message on the phone, then attach the phone to a pigeon and send that off.
Posted November 03, 2015
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P1na: if the police comes in and tells them about illegal internet activity
Thankfully, the internet is Neuland for our police forces. :)
Posted November 03, 2015
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Vainamoinen: Yeah no, that's bullshit. Even if they had the technical means to "give the police your data", the POLICE is bound to German law and couldn't do anything with that illegally acquired data.

That doesn't mean you should pirate shit when you're crawling through the series of rusty tubes we call the internet, sir. :)
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P1na: I'd say that since they have my name and ID from the check in and a personal password for the wifi, if the police comes in and tells them about illegal internet activity they would check who was the guest responsible for that. I don't know German law, but I feel there's nothing illegal about that.
as you have rightly guessed this mostly concerns copyright violations. For which the police doesn't even get involved.
The copyright owners(or their lawyers) can walk right to the courts.
sadly we not only have these shitty laws but also a prospering industry of people who watch p2p traffic, filter out german IPs and get a court order for the ISP to reveal the owner. Then just send an angry letter, threaten to sue unless you pay like 800€ in the next 2 weeks. easy profit.
Posted November 03, 2015
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Vainamoinen: Yeah no, that's bullshit. Even if they had the technical means to "give the police your data", the POLICE is bound to German law and couldn't do anything with that illegally acquired data.
To be precise, the police has nothing to do with it, but it is very common that the copy right or distribution rights owner get a court decision, this is normal business, they just have to provide the IP adress and the name of the shared file to prove their claim, this is very fast and takes only a few days, which is necessary - most internet providers delete the IP data after 7 days...

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Vainamoinen: First thing I hear, CDPR would have to legally operate from Germany to do that, no?
No, this is not necessary.
http://www.urheberrecht.justlaw.de/abmahnung/cd-projekt-red.htm
Post edited November 03, 2015 by Rincewind81
Posted November 03, 2015
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P1na: Germany, you suck. .
I agree :-(
Posted November 03, 2015
I just recently got to know, that the city of Leipzig has free WLAN, but I've never heard of such a thing before and wouldn't even get the idea of trying it anywhere in Germany.
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P1na: Germany, you suck.
That about sums it up, yes.
Post edited November 03, 2015 by Klumpen0815
Posted November 03, 2015
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Klumpen0815: I just recently got to know, that the city of Leipzig has free WLAN, but I've never heard of such a thing before and wouldn't even get the idea of trying it anywhere in Germany.
That would be “Wifi 30 min free”

See here at the bottom (German link)
Posted November 03, 2015
My favorite joke from 1989.

-What do you get when you put Germanys together?

-Out of the way!
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Community
General discussionWhat do you have against internet, Germany?(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)