Worrying about legal consequences of hosting a MT Server ?

[LMD]

Title basically already says all : What do I have to keep in mind when opening a MT Server here in Germany ?

[Linuxdirk]

See here, here, here, and partly here.

[LMD]

Thanks for those links. Anyway, there's more; those links only cover DSGVO and "Impressumspflicht". But what about things like "Störparagraf" ? I was told that for instance if someone uses your Server as part of botnet, you are risking punishment, as you are a "Anbieter" then.

[Festus1965]

...But what about things like "Störparagraf" ? I was told that for instance if someone uses your Server as part of botnet, you are risking punishment, as you are a "Anbieter" then.

If I remember right, you have to shut like this down for sure after you got the knowledge about it, mainly by third persons. If not then, sure a problem ...
Anyway make sure your server is safe and now strange threads are running, causing that problem.


So my question here would also be, if new gaming clients make games joining on our minetestserver, but making advertising on the clients are our problem then also, as they cause side effects during the loading and break from the advertising ?
When I see how often they "freeze" I sure wanna block them out also.

[Sokomine]

I was told that for instance if someone uses your Server as part of botnet, you are risking punishment, as you are a "Anbieter" then.

I'm no lawyer. You need to consult one if you want any real/good advice.

Any victim of botnet attack could in theory claim that your server was participating in the attack, and in a way that'd even be a case where the Störerhaftung could IMHO *morally* be applied - without badly administrated computers out there there wouldn't be such a huge base for that kind of attack. However, the way those things go there are many many computers involved, all contributing just a little bit, and the individual "fault" of the server owner is small. Chances that the victim will get anything from you are rather small. Still, there are victims, so please keep your machine as clean as possible and take every step you can in order to prevent it from becoming part of a botnet.

"Störerhaftung" is used for other purposes. It kept (and still keeps) open public WLAN nets in Germany much more rare than in other countries. If you open your WLAN for public use, someone *could* offer a song for download. That'd make some lawyers very happy because they can get a bunch of money from you for almost no work at all on their side. Some of these laws where changed but it's uncertain if that's sufficient.

Another problem might be weather your server might be considered "private" or not - and what might arise from that.

[LMD]

Thanks for your reply ! To clarify : No the server will definetely be public.

[Festus1965]

Just the "German highest Judge" BHG ...

Anbieter haften nicht für offenes WLAN

"Offerer of open WLAN are not in charge for illegal uploaded ..." or like this in english, ...

The reason behind is, that the law allows the "companies, owner of a right" to use normal judge to first tell the offerer to close it ... or like that.
So I guess it would be similar to a not wanted offer from our server, that we have to stop when we get information about it.

Anyway, I have a look on my gamers what they write ...

[ChimneySwift]

As long as you deal with any illegal actions on your server if and when you become aware of them (which is something you're likely to do anyway, nobody wants to have people doing illegal stuff on their server), it's unlikely that you'll run into any legal troubles.

ISPs are a good example of this, sooooooo much illegal stuff goes through their services, but because they're only responsible for connecting computers together, they don't know about it. If they're told about it (through a system like the DMCA takedown notice) then they are required to take action, otherwise it's fair game.

So basically, if you see something illegal happening, or are told about it, don't ignore it, deal with it appropriately (remove, ban or report the user) as per the laws in your area, and you shouldn't run into any issues.

EDIT: I'm not a lawyer though lol, so make sure you do your research too, and possibly talk to one