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Unsecured Wi-Fi to Become Illegal?
echucker writes "News.com is carrying a story for a draft proposal for law in Westchester County in New York state that would outlaw unsecured wi-fi connections. Public internet access would require a network gateway server with a firewall and also require home/business office users to install firewalls to protect personal info, even if their connection is encrypted. Violations would carry fines of $250-$500."
I can see it now :)
Make Unsecured OS Illegal too!!!
If being an idiot were illegal, most of my company would be in prison.
When I read this article I was thinking that I wouldn't mind having the job of enforcing this. Then I realized I would have to have the mindset of a parking enforcer to do something like this. Hell, let the parking enforcers take care of this as well. They love a good power trip. Parking enforcer: "Ma'am, your wireless access point is not running a firewall." Some old lady: "My what isn't on fire?" Parking enforcer: "your internet. It is against the law to allow others to use your internet for free" Some Old lady: "Oh, my 10 yr old grandson got that internet thing to work? Isn't he wonderful? He is so smart." Parking enforcer: "Ma'am, here is a ticket for running an unsecure access point. Don't let it happen again." Some Old lady: "How dare you come to my house and threaten me with this! I've been living here for 30 years and have never been treated like this! Parking enforcer: "Ma'am, have a nice day" Slow day at work. I apologize
Thank god we have the government to protect us from those evil terrorists trying to snoop on our cybersex IMs!
In other news ...
It is now illegal to use passwords of less than 26 characters, or those containing only letters of the alphabet
It is now illegal to drive a car with clear-text license plates
It is also illegal to speak on your mobile in English. Klingon is permitted until normal people learn it, at which time you'll have to switch to Esperanto.
All medicine bottles will be made from titanium and fused shut. If you can't open it - well, you just discovered what 'survival of the fittest' means.
I used to laugh at the tower of Babel story. Now we're living it.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
It's like someone turning off the protective personal forcefield on their mini lunar spaceship. And then it gets burglarized, and explodes.
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
You're way off buddy, it's more like your forcefield fails, a cat sneaks onto your ship while you're making a sandwich, then you forget about the sandwich and still don't feed the cat. When the cat finally gets upset and leaves, you take a shower and then take a nap.
I don't see how you could have missed this from the start.
It's like being fined for parking your (locked) car in your driveway, instead of in your garage.
There, car analogy.
Is that you Douglas Adams?
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.