In what sounds like an overly-officious move to us, Germany’s top criminal court has ruled that those who fail to secure their wireless connections by password, in order to prevent unauthorised people from using their web access to illegally download data, will be fined up to €100.

Those crazy Germaniacs, hope they haven’t left the wifi unsecured while they’re out on the town.

“Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation,” the court said.

However, the court stopped short of holding the users responsible for any illegal content the third party downloads themselves. According to the Associated Press, the court also limited its decision, ruling that users could not be expected to constantly update their wireless connection’s security — they are only required to protect their internet access by setting up a password when they first install it.

Spokeswoman for Germany’s national consumer protection agency, Carola Elbrecht told the German news agency DAPD that the ruling was fair and that it made sense that users should install protection for their wireless connection and that at the same time it was fair of the court not to expect constant technical updates by private users.

The ruling came after a musician sued an internet user whose wireless connection was used to illegally download a song. The user proved he was on holiday while the song was downloaded via his wireless connection.

As The Inquirer reports, the court says that while he does not have to pay thousands for all the illegal downloads that came about as a result of his actions, he will have to stump up €100 for not having changed the password.