Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

UK Bill Would Outlaw Open Wi-Fi

Posted by Soulskill on from the talking-and-listening-are-next dept.

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from ZDNet about another troubling aspect of the UK's much-maligned Digital Economy Bill: "The government will not exempt universities, libraries and small businesses providing open Wi-Fi services from its Digital Economy Bill copyright crackdown, according to official advice released earlier this week. This would leave many organizations open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the Internet, leading legal experts to say it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access. 'This is going to be a very unfortunate measure for small businesses, particularly in a recession, many of whom are using open free Wi-Fi very effectively as a way to get the punters in. Even if they password protect, they then have two options — to pay someone like The Cloud to manage it for them, or take responsibility themselves for becoming an ISP effectively, and keep records for everyone they assign connections to, which is an impossible burden for a small cafe,' said Lilian Edwards, professor of Internet law at Sheffield University." Relatedly, an anonymous reader passes along a post which breaks down the question of whether using unprotected Wi-Fi is stealing.

4 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. I went to a drinking club once by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Bars were outlawed. The only place that could serve drinks were private clubs.

    So I paid a $7 "membership fee" at the door and had a great time. First drink was free!

    To paraphrase the philosopher Ian Malcom, "Life finds a way".

  2. Ad-hoc too? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What happens when your diners start sharing across an ad-hoc wireless network in your shop? Are you obliged to jam signals?

    1. Re:Ad-hoc too? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, that would be illegal. I think the first point here is that the government wants to remove their responsibility for wrongdoings.
      More importantly, while I really doubt they would go around disconnecting everyone with open wifi, it gives them a nice
      convenient law they can use to harass, arrest, detain and threaten people with. Dont forget every crime in the UK can get you
      arrested and as it involves more than one person, you'd probably fall under the SOCA legislation meaning they can detain you
      for upto 28 days.

  3. Open wi-fi should be perfectly legal by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Open wi-fi should be as legal as me, on my own property giving away things for free. No one would care if I was giving out free water bottles on a hot day, nor would anyone care if I was giving away books for free, but when I'm giving away something in essence unlimited* it becomes bad?

    *yes, it does increase bandwidth and would slow down your internet use, but how often is someone going to notice that?

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.