Open WiFi To Become A Liability In The UK Under Digital Economy Bill

from the unintended-consequences dept

Tue, Mar 2nd 2010 6:00am — Mike Masnick

Back in January, while in France, I experienced firsthand one of the "unintended consequences" of France rushing forwarding with a "three strikes" law that kicks people off the internet based on accusations (not convictions). Because of that, the idea of open WiFi is now pretty much gone (which, amusingly, was pissing off the very same music execs who were such big fans of the law). It seems that something similar might be happening in the UK, as the folks behind the much maligned Digital Economy Bill have admitted that there will be no exceptions for anyone operating an open WiFi network, even a library or a university. Thus, if a library had an open WiFi network, and it received a few accusations of file sharing, Peter Mandelson could decide to kick them off the internet for as long as he would like.

While it doesn't technically "outlaw" open WiFi, it does put such a big liability on it that it leads to the same result. It effectively makes it so that no one, not even community organizations, will want to offer open WiFi. At a time when the UK government claims it's trying to encourage greater connectivity, it seems pretty silly to put in place a law that could lead to exactly the opposite.

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Filed Under: digital economy bill, open wifi, secondary liability, three strikes, uk, wifi

33 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2010 @ 6:11am

I think that the community organizations need to ban together and not lock up their WiFi, thus pretty much daring Mr. Mandelson to kick them off. Then see if he takes the bait. I wonder if he could outlast the the public outcry, the media attention, and the general public lynching that would follow.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:23am
  
  Re:
  “I wonder if he could outlast the the public outcry, the media attention, and the general public lynching that would follow.”
  
  The MSM is corrupt, they pretty much ignore the situation thanks to bogus laws that enable them to monopolize the airwaves and infrastructure hence effectively ensuring that this stuff gets censored.
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Comboman (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 6:48am

Free but not Open WiFi
At my local library, you have to enter you library card number to use the free WiFi connection (potentially allowing them to trace any infringing activity back to you).
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- mike allen (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:16am
  
  Re: Free but not Open WiFi
  Dont know where you live but our council actively encourage open wi-fi with the library city hall theatre and a vast number of public and businesses places including the reception of our local radio station. offering open wi-fi at the request ( and in some cases payment by city hall). in fact it is so well covered that the city centre is more or less blanketed. + machine boothes in other places with a USB port for a memory stick.
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- PRMan, 2 Mar 2010 @ 12:53pm
  
  Re: Free but not Open WiFi
  At my local library, you have to enter someone else's library card number to use the free WiFi connection (potentially allowing them to trace any infringing activity back to someone else).
  FTFY. Hopefully there's a password.
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 6:50am

Time to kick the bums out
It's time that we (the people who elected these pinheads) fired their asses and threw them out of office in favor of folks who know how the internet works, or should work. At the very least this sort of poorly thought out legislation is indicative of even deeper problems, such as are showing up in the not so gradual erosion of our general rights.
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- Thoughtful Chap, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:02am
  
  Re: Time to kick the bums out
  Unfortunately, not all of the voters know how the Internet works either.
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  - vivaelamor (profile), 3 Mar 2010 @ 9:02am
    
    Re: Re: Time to kick the bums out
    "Unfortunately, not all of the voters know how the Internet works either."
    
    Who would they vote for anyway? Even the Lib Dem's seem to want to be tough on freedom and the causes of freedom when it comes to the internet. I'm sceptical that the Pirate Party are going to be running, this election.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2010 @ 8:21am
  
  Re: Time to kick the bums out
  The complication arises that when it's time to vote, your choices are "bad" or "worse". All politicians suck.
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Planespotter (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 6:56am

Interesting... as part of a further education college who has been implimenting plans to have some form of open access wifi connection that we could offer our students I'm interested to see how this pans out.
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Dom S, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:00am

the funny thing is...
BT (i.e. British Telecom) have been forcing their customers to have open wifi on their wireless routers, the BT Homehub, for ages. its labelled as "BT Openzone" or "BT FON" my homehub broadcasts a signal labelled "BT Openzone" and/or (i forget) "BT FON" which is a pay for use open wifi signal that anyone can get onto if they are willing to pay a small fee to use it. I have been informed that the reason for this is to promote open wifi throughout the country (mostly residential and commercial areas) and create a system whereby if you have paid the fee, your wifi device will switch between the available openzone-supporting hubs automatically when your signal strength changes. or something similar... :-S it sounds like this will be a big problem for BT although im unsure as to what the IP address situation is (i.e. if you get your own IP if you connect to openzone or if they give you the same IP as the hub owner) either way it sounds like BT will be forced to remove this or ensure their homehub users are not adversely affected by openzone signals and the potential for illegal downloading. as a sidenote, it's difficult to remove this option from the homehub. you have to de-register yourself from the option to have it included and apparently they stop the signal going from your hub. not sure HOW they do this but i assume its a custom firmware change for those who remove the openzone "option". annoyingly, if i turn the wifi signal off altogether, openzone still broadcasts which is a little wierd. as a disgruntled (im sure im not alone) BT customer, its very annoying to think that any idiot can get online via my homehub and rape my bandwidth when i never agreed to this in the first place. especially when BT FON is detailed in the small print of the contract and was never disclosed when i went through the sign-up process. im also a little concerned about the infringement possibility. here is the link to the BT FON info page - https://www.bt.com/wifi/secure/index.do?s_cid=con_FURL_btfon
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- Dom S, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:08am
  
  Re: the funny thing is...
  sorry wasnt meant to be a constant torrent of sentences!
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- Rabbit80, 2 Mar 2010 @ 8:03am
  
  Re: the funny thing is...
  You can disable OpenZone on your router. They also give a seperate IP address for OpenZone access.
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  - domo_sy2001 (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 8:17am
    
    Re: Re: the funny thing is...
    interesting, when i turn off openzone, BT FON still runs (they're almost the same thing).
    
    if i turn off the wifi, openzone AND BT FON still run.
    
    glad to hear that there are separate IPs but im still not entirely happy about sharing bandwidth. although saying that, im on the third floor of my house and we either have lead-lined walls or wifi signals are rubbish because you cant get a wifi signal in the downstairs rooms... outside the front is another matter
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2010 @ 11:46am
  
  Re: the funny thing is...
  "BT FON" which is a pay for use open wifi signal that anyone can get onto if they are willing to pay a small fee to use it.
  
  If it's a pay service, then it isn't open wifi.
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Alex, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:07am

Then see if he takes the bait. I wonder if he could outlast the the public outcry, the media attention, and the general public lynching that would follow.
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slim (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:12am

At the very least this sort of poorly thought out legislation is indicative of even deeper problems, such as are showing up in the not so gradual erosion of our general rights.
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david (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:20am

Hmm, I wonder...
I wonder who gets to make the allegations? On the assumption that networked photocopiers/laser-printers can be found infringing (Would You Believe Copyright Infringement Notices Are Based On Faulty Information?), I imagine that there is the (good) chance that an IP address in the Houses of Parliament could be found to be downloading torrents. Certainly if the French government, under Sarkozy, is anything to go by...

Could we get the Houses of Parliament/the British Government suspended from the internet? =)
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- Devilish Presley (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:32am
  
  Re: Hmm, I wonder...
  "Could we get the Houses of Parliament/the British Government suspended from the internet? =)"
  
  From a few trees would be preferable.
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Overcast (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:21am

Simple fix - turn it off then.
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- domo_sy2001 (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:34am
  
  Re:
  umm i would but... as per my above comment, EVEN if i do turn off the normal wifi, BT have a signal being broadcast all the time which i need to "opt-out" of. ive tried but for some reason my BT login details dont work on the BT FON website.
  
  just as an additional thought... If i own an iphone and a netbook and neither have a wired network card, turning off the wifi would not help me it would just prevent me from using my internet on my devices.
  
  not exactly a "simple fix" to turn it off as im sure there are people out there who dont have wired networking built in to all of their network(ed) devices.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:23am

It occurs to me...
Most legislation is poorly thought out. Obviously legislators are bad at devising solutions to problems.

On the other hand, x-prizes (and similar contests) produce results. Perhaps we should have more open contests as to our new laws/institutions/procedures (et al) and less legislation.
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yozoo, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:29am

a beneficial side effect
So the large telecom lobbies will also like this law. Wow the pols should be raking it in left and right on this one. Although Im not sure if bribery is legal in the UK (as it is here in the US)?
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NAMELESS.ONE, 2 Mar 2010 @ 7:48am

and SO it BEGINS
now when you all were quiet and others fought
NOW when they will close up your holes YOU WERE quiet
NOW they close others giving free you get noisey

go join the fight against ACTA
that will derail them permanently

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288885939910
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- yozoo, 2 Mar 2010 @ 8:07am
  
  Re: and SO it BEGINS
  How is a facebook group going to derail ACTA? If you really want to derail it you need money, lots and lots and lots of money. In politics, like pretty much everywhere else, whoever spends the most money usually wins and supporters of ACTA have a big spending headstart on you already.
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  - The Infamous Joe (profile), 2 Mar 2010 @ 11:44am
    
    Re: Re: and SO it BEGINS
    No, to get ACTA pushed through you need lots and lots of money. To get it derailed you need lots and lots of eyeballs.
    
    There is a reason they won't let the public look at it.
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    - yozoo, 2 Mar 2010 @ 12:41pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: and SO it BEGINS
      I dunno maybe your right outside the US, inside, it really wouldnt matter.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2010 @ 8:18am

“which, amusingly, was pissing off the very same music execs who were such big fans of the law”

I hope these execs realize the public harm they cause just to promote their selfishness. They only care about the harm these laws cause when it affects them negatively, otherwise they could care less. Then again, these executives probably don’t follow most of the IP (and other bogus) laws they pass.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2010 @ 12:01pm

Whos an ISP?
Under this bill, in order to classified as an ISP then your main business has to be that of providing Internet service. I'm guessing that would be based on income. Now based on that, I'm not even sure that a lot of companies that are now considered ISPs would qualify.

For example, if BT's telecom operations brought in more income than it's Internet operations, then it would no longer be considered an ISP. Then all it would take is 3 accusations against some of its customers for BT itself to be cut off from the Internet (since they wouldn't qualify for the ISP exemption). Of course, I'm sure they're planning to use selective enforcement so that that would never happen to BT.
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Lou Nisbet, 3 Mar 2010 @ 3:07am

Open WiFi
Hi,
There is a simple answer that defeats ALL this red tape. Leave your wifi unprotected. As anyone can connect no one can prove who is responsible - unless they're using a credit card. The defence lawyers will have a field day with this.
The BT network thing mentioned already partially defeats this ridiculous and completely ignorant attempt to censor the net. When WILL the idiots learn that's never going to work.
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- vivaelamor (profile), 3 Mar 2010 @ 9:04am
  
  Re: Open WiFi
  Or use WEP and advertise how to hack it in 30 seconds, as a short term measure.
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WiFi Geek, 3 Apr 2010 @ 11:01am

Open WiFi
Free WiFi is good idea to offer the freedom of INTERNET connectivity but OPEN is worst idea and thing.
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Wickko, 9 Apr 2010 @ 2:13am

Free WiFi but not Open
Free WiFi is Ok its great fun. But no OPEN WiFi this have big security holes.
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