Caveats In Reselling DSL Bandwidth To Neighbors?

chrisleetn writes "I'm contemplating getting Slashdot (Speakeasy) 6Mbps broadband or something similar and offering wireless internet access to my neighborhood. Speakeasy even has a plan to allow this. What should I be aware of as far as legal/business/regulatory implications? I know I need to restrict obvious illegal stuff and probably p2p to be safe, but is the local cable modem company going to come after me for competing with them? Has anyone done this who can offer some insight?"

Comments

Re:Why would the cable modem company come after yo

[lordsilence]

How the hell is this offtopic?
As an ISP we would not allow our customers to host or re-sell bandwidth commercially unless we specificily sold them uplink for that purpose (which is much more expensive then home-uplink).

Re:Why would the cable modem company come after yo

[kilodelta]

Indeed - with streaming media becoming more and more mature people could, uh, torrent tv shows, movies etc. And for every tracked site the MPAA shuts down, another three pop up. It is a losing proposition and the studios that back the MPAA aren't losing money. But if they continue this bullshit instead of adpating their market to the net economy they are doomed.

Re:Is it really worth the trouble?

[G. W. Bush Junior]

i'd call it the Food for IP program. like food for oil, but not corrupt.

I know it isn't a political post, but just to catch this before it becomes one of those memes that everyone repeat even though they are false, like "Al Gore says he invented the internet":
Is there actually any evidence that the system is corrupt?
I'm willing to beleive the evidence that Saddam Hussein tried to use the program in that way, but thats not the same as evidence that it actually worked.
Finding evidence that the mafia was planning to try to pay off some cop is not evidence that the cop is actually corrupt.

The reason you have to be particularily wary about beleiving claims about the food for oil program is that Bush has a vested interest in hurting Kofi Annan... the guy actually attacked his war in iraq publically.

This is just one of those cases where you have to think critically and not just be another sheep repeating what your government (or karl rove) tells you to beleive.