Legal advice

Factual Questions
1

Thinking about setting up public internet access on the side at a premises I have, but don’t have any time at all to monitor after setting up the computer. Two questions about legal liability (in Scotland btw):

  1. Am I legally responsible if someone does something illegal over the internet?
  2. Am I legally reposnsible if someone installs a key logger etc and steals other punters identities?

Should point out I will take reasonable precautions (Goback, secured system, etc).

2

I am not a lawyer. Anything I say is merely hearsay.

Having got that out of the way, I’ve just been through the same thing in English law (I’d imagine latter-day laws between England and Scotland are fairly similar), launching a government site and defining the site’s liability.

  1. People do illegal things over the internet all the time. I suspect that you mean “am I legally responsible if someone does something illegal using my site?” If so, the answer is yes. There are some grey areas, but also precedent for the site owner’s liability based on how much intervention there has been by the owner if any complaint has been raised.
  2. You’d have to give more info about what sort of transactions/identities you’re talking about, but guessing what you mean - yes, probably, but again if you intervene in time, you’re probably in the clear.

But without more details about what you’re up to, it’s a bit difficult to say anything more.

3

I mean an internet cafe sort of thing (not a cafe though), not a website. Intervention will pretty much have to be asking someone to turn the computer off until I return, which might take a while.

4

Even if you are not legally responsible, it still could cause you some problems. I would call up my insurance carrier and ask them if it can be covered. If they will agree to cover you, they will probably give you some guidlines to follow, e.g. log the ID’s of everyone who uses the computer. If the carrier won’t cover it, then it’s prolly not worth the trouble.

5

Oh. In that case, no idea.

Having said that, how many other cases have you heard of where cybercaff owners have been sued/prosecuted for naughty things their patrons have done? You should do some research, but I’m guessing “not much”.

6

That’s basically it. A McDonalds I go to has computers set for patrons to use. So do lots of businesses. It is pretty universal around here and I have never heard of any special legal concerns.

7

Me neither, and I cannot find anything in a lexis search either.

8

I think you need proper legal advice, and here ain’t the place for it.

9

I’m looking for guidance, not advice. The money that would be made does not justify doing this properly.

10

If you do go through with this, I suggest getting a router that lets you log all the MAC addresses of the computers that connect. That way, when the feds break down your door and confiscate your computer after they find out that terrorist activities were being coordinated from your IP address, you can helpfully point them to the file that contains the MAC log, and you might get a lesser sentence at the conclusion of your trial for Patriot Act violations.

-Tofer
p.s. I would also suggest setting up a really good firewall on your computer, because then the bad guys will have a more difficult time hosting their bomb plans on your hard drive.

11

yahwc has given the best advice (sorry, guideline) so far. We could bat back and forth on your potential liability (and our ultimate conclusion will be: “it depends”), but in the end much of the time the question isn’t whether or not you are potentially liable, it’s who is going to pay for your defence even if you’re not?

12

I would think that the money you could lose if you were legally liable for your patrons’ internet usage would justify doing this properly.

13

Legally wouldn’t punishing the owner a public wireless internet node for the activities of a browser be like arresting the manager of a mcdonalds because someone made a bomb threat from the payphone outside?

If so it would be difficult to criminally prosecute anyone since you have no idea who is at any given keyboard.

14

jjimm, do you have a cite for Post #2? I’ve never looked into the question, but I’m having trouble coming up with any basis for assessing criminal or civil liability for merely providing internet access which is used for nefarious purposes. Assuming, of course, the provider is not party to the nefarious plot.

15

What, all of it? I misunderstood what the OP meant by “premises”, and assumed he meant internet “real estate”, i.e. a website - see post #5. My cite for websites is paid-for legal advice from an internet-specialist barrister. More info than that I cannot reveal, sadly.

However, many of the respondents to this thread need to realise we’re talking about Scottish law, so American legals, especially “the Feds”, do not apply here.

16

Okay, now I get the distinction you’re drawing between mere internet access and a website. What threw me was using premises to describe a website as virtual real estate, as opposed to the shop where a computer accessing the internet sits. And, yes, I noticed that the OP raised a question of Scottish law. But, since we don’t dispense legal advice here, I wasn’t worrying about that overmuch.