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Finland To Legalize Use of Unsecured Wi-Fi

Posted by Soulskill on from the it-turns-out-not-to-be-a-swedish-trap dept.

Apotekaren writes "The Finnish Ministry of Justice has started preparing changes to a current law that criminalizes using unsecured wireless hot spots (Google translation; Finnish original). The reasoning includes the impossibility of tracking unlawful use, the ease of securing networks, and the lack of real damage done by this activity. It is also hard for a user to know if an unsecured network is intended for public use or not. The increased ubiquity of legal, open networks in parks, airports, and other public places has also influenced this move by the Ministry of Justice."

2 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. There's got to be a better way... by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We need a standard for secure WiFi that allows guests in, most likely by giving them a personal shared key on their receipt or ticket. The big problem with unsecured WiFi is that there's no accountability. Some video-downloading hog can take all the bandwidth, and trying to use anything on 2.4 GHz during a Apple or Google developer conference presentation is near impossible. WiFi was a good first take, but we've got to work QoS and authentication in just like we have for wired just for safety's sake. Otherwise, these laws banning open WiFi actually make sense.

  2. Barnes and Nobel by orsty3001 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just do what Barnes and Nobel does. If you try to connect to their system it will want to text you a temporary access code.