Reuters is reporting a German case that seems to have held that access to the Internet is comparable to access to a car, as an "essential" part of life.
The ruling was in the context of a two month service outage, and, according to the article, German law provides that the loss of "essential material items" can be compensated.
Perhaps the decision is more understandable in this context — that it is actually a means of obtaining what seems to be a fairly sensible remedy for a consumer (at least, I think he's a consumer) when a service provider fails.
A more expansive interpretation, that DSL (at what speed?) is essential is perhaps pushing it too far, particularly where there are areas without broadband access.
Or is access to the Internet essential, along with water and power?
No comments:
Post a Comment