'Wi-Fi Police' Stalk Olympic Games

schwit1 writes with news from London that Olympic venues are being patrolled by so-called "Wi-Fi police," who seek out and shut down unauthorized access points and hotspots. BT is the "official communications services provider" for the Games, so access points other than the ones they set up or approve have been disallowed. A picture tweeted from the Olympics shows a gentleman carrying a portable direction antenna that can localize sources of transmission and interference. "One possible aim of shutting down such WiFi access points is to cut down on interference with essential wireless communications being used by those refereeing, reporting on and working at the sporting events. ... The news of the WiFi crackdown has angered many of those following the Games online, who were already upset at Olympic authorities' attempts to limit the use of social networking tools at the Games at certain times. The London Olympics had been billed as the first 'social media Games,' but organizers have been accused of bungling the effort to seamlessly integrate popular technologies like Twitter and Facebook into the event."

Comments

I don't see the problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

They're trying to cut down on interference, with the large volume of people at these things, is this not reasonable?

Re:I don't see the problem.

[bws111]

They are chasing down the devices in the venues. Why wouldn't that be legal? You can be restricted from doing all sorts of things in the venues (or any other private property) that are perfectly legal elsewhere.

Short translation

[dkleinsc]

"We want more money."

Actually, a good portion of human activity can be explained by that simple phrase. In this case, it's about enforcing rules guaranteeing BT certain amounts of money.

Re:Short translation

[jimbolauski]

"We want more money."

Actually, a good portion of human activity can be explained by that simple phrase. In this case, it's about enforcing rules guaranteeing BT certain amounts of money.

BT paid to be the sole wifi provider of the Olympic games and at Olympic Venues, if the Venues are private property they have done nothing wrong, just as a home owner has the right throw someone off their property they have the right to do the same. Now if you were directly across the street you can do what ever you please as long at it is within the the Ofcom regulations. They are not saying you can't set up a wifi hub in London they are saying you can't set up a wifi hub at an Olympic venue on private property. If the venues are on public property then they have no ground to stand on as they don't have the authority to remove people from public property.

Re:Short translation

[metrometro]

The cognitive dissonance occurs when people realize that the world's premier global festival is a "private" event in which the incredibly rich can exclude citizen participation for no better reason than it does not make them more rich.

When exactly did we sign up for that?

Re:Short translation

[Beardo the Bearded]

"We want more money."

Actually, a good portion of human activity can be explained by that simple phrase. In this case, it's about enforcing rules guaranteeing BT certain amounts of money.

BT paid to be the sole wifi provider of the Olympic games and at Olympic Venues, if the Venues are private property they have done nothing wrong.

THEY ARE NOT PRIVATE PROPERTY! The games are paid for with public coffers.

All that infrastructure wasn't paid for by BT or McD or Coke or the IOC, it was all the local municipalities or provinces or federal government. It took Montreal 30 years to pay off their Olympic debt, British Columbia is four billion in the hole after 2010, and the same will happen to London in two weeks.

The Olympic Park is Private Property

[Anonymous Coward]

Locog doesn't want your Wifi hotspot on their property, so they forbid it and enforce the policy. If you're not put off by the commercial nature of the Olympic Games, why are you offended by this? Besides, if you were offering Wifi on your property with that many visitors, would you allow anyone to shit all over the scarce spectrum? Didn't think so.

Re:The Olympic Park is Private Property

[Z00L00K]

And no wonder that the businesses in London complains of the lack of customers when the restrictions for the olympic venues are hard enough to make you feel like a suspect.

The 30th Corporate Games

[MickyTheIdiot]

You have to wonder when the hell they will just sell naming rights and be done with it.

Re:Other Olympic blackouts

[Hatta]

Is there anything about the Olympics that isn't corrupt and disgusting?

Re:Food cops also deployed

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a US-only thing. We're required to eat only McDonald's food while watching the Olympics on any NBC partnering Pay TV provider.

Re:Wait what?

[JSBiff]

As someone else pointed out - you are free to use Wifi [em]outside the Olympic Park[/em] which is private property. You are only allowed on the grounds according to the rules by which they setup and you agree to when you purchase a ticket? Don't like the rules - then you become a trespasser and they eject you from the Park.

It sucks, but it would seem to be quite legal. They aren't regulating wireless spectrum, per se, they are regulating access to their property.

"We want more money"

[circletimessquare]

1. by working hard and providing attractive product: ok

2. by embedding yourself as an oligopolisitc rent seeking parasite on the political landscape: not ok *

* but by #2 cloaking itself falsely as a capitalist force like #1, and spreading propaganda to that effect, riling up fools who believe that nonsense, such as with healthcare insurance, we can remain embedded in the body politic, and siphon off cash in a noncapitalistic way, all the while protected by idiots who think they are championing capitalism

IOC is SUCK

[TemplePilot]

This practice actually raises my hackles. Alarm bells and klaxxons go off. Really they have NO BUSINESS doing this dystopian crap. This is exactly the very sort of thing that makes people angry. I for one wouldn't pay those mofo's one bluidy red cent. My wifi my business not theirs. Its not a crime. And they can't make it one just because. SCREW YOU, you damn'd IOC & your lame limpicks. DIAF and all that!

Re:Fox hunt?

[Surt]

As funny as the idea is, those of us who actually suffer with penile gigantism know it's no fun. As one point of interest, for example, vaginal, anal, and oral sex are all out of the question. This is why most of us get surgical reduction eventually, in spite of the level of pain involved.

Re:Fox hunt?

[MaWeiTao]

I think the real problem is that some people actually believe that socialism would negate corporatism; if anything, it institutionalizes that kind of protectionism.

Re:Fox hunt?

[Beardo the Bearded]

It's not the size of the boat, nor the motion of the ocean, but whether the captain stays in port long enough for all the passengers to disembark.

Re:Suck it up.

[shutdown -p now]

Somehow, we managed to have games without all that corporate bullshit up until late 80's or so. And not all of them were held in Berlin, Moscow or Beijing.