If you as a parent saw your child download a song, movie, book, TV show, or game illegally, what would you do? For the most part we’re pretty sure that online piracy is a concept that many are familiar with, but since it “saves” us a ton of money, it has sort of become an accepted thing to do, despite it being very obviously illegal.
However over in Germany, it seems that a recent precedent-setting decision could encourage parents to rat on their kids in the future, unless they don’t mind being on the hook for the illegal download as well. The country’s Federal Court of Justice recently charged the parents of three children with a €3,500 fine after it was discovered that someone in their home had illegally downloaded Rihanna’s 2010 “Loud” album.
The father of the children said that under Germany’s Basic Law, it protected family members from testifying against each other, which he exercised as he refused to reveal who it was that downloaded the album. While the courts did not force him to reveal the perpetrator, they decided to hold him liable in their stead.
Basically what this means is that if you refuse to say who does it, then whoever’s name is on the internet service’s bill will be the one who will be held responsible for the fine. Like we said, it is precedent-setting as we can only imagine that this case will be referred to in future such cases.