Five French cafe and bar owners have been arrested for breaking a 2006 law which states that those who proved internet access must maintain access logs for those using the WiFi for at least a year. The arrests took place in the city of Grenoble, with the owners taken into custody last week after they have been discovered to be running open WiFi networks in their cafes and not maintaining a log of past users.
The arrested bar and cafe owners claim that they had no idea that these laws existed, and had never received any notifications from their union, who usually alerts them of any industry-wide legal requirement. By breaking this law the establishment owners involved can now face up to one year in prison, a business fine of up to €375,000, as well as a personal fine of up to €75,000. Although they were not aware of this law it is actually a very useful way in which law enforcement track down malicious behaviour, as they use the logs to find out who is using public WiFi networks to commit crimes.
