A German court has ruled that, by not specifically warning his son about the consequences of downloading pirated content, the father is therefore liable for the illegal download.
In a case heard before a Leipzig court, in regards to the illegal download of an audiobook, it was found that the owner of the Internet connection used to make the download was liable despite him not being at home at the time of the download. It was later discovered that the man's 11 year old son was ultimately the one who initiated the download.
The court so ruled because it felt the father had not properly warned the son about the consequences of downloading pirated content. The father argued that he did tell his son to only use the computer for school purposes, and that to refrain from downloading "random things" or anything dangerous.
This, the court ruled, was not enough in terms of anti-piracy education.
In the official order, the judge writes that the father failed to "instruct a child on the illegality of participating in illegal file-sharing exchanges, and to explicitly prohibit this behavior," according to a translation of the order obtained by torrent news website TorrentFreak.
The father was found guilty by the court and fined 956 euros in damages and legal costs.
[via TorrentFreak]
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