Dutch hotels may be classified as ISPs

The Dutch equivalent of Ofcom is asking hotels to register as internet service providers, according to reports.

According to Webwereld, the Netherlands' regulator Opta is investigating the enforcement of a provision in Dutch telecoms law that call on all public electronic communications providers to register as such, at a charge of €250 each. Opta appears to be considering that hotels might be ISPs if they offer internet access to the public, even thought the hotelier umbrella body Horeca claims hotels are only conduits, not providers, because they themselves get their connectivity through ISPs.

This sort of situation is precisely that which has been predicted for the UK, due to the less-than-precise wording of the Digital Economy Act. The Act does not make it clear where hotels, libraries, universities and businesses stand in relation to the copyright crackdown, so those entities find themselves in a situation where they might be classified as end-users or they might be classified as ISPs.

If classified as end-users, three copyright infringements by the actual end-users may mean the suspension of that hotel or business's internet connection. If classified as ISPs, they are technically supposed to monitor all usage of those connections. However, Ofcom has provided a stopgap measure to avoid this expensive situation — in the draft code for implementing the Act, the UK regulator made sure that only ISPs with 400,000 or more customers will have to install the reporting systems needed for this level of scrutiny.