Illegal wireless access is confusing
THE UNIVERSITY of East Anglia's IT and internet law lecturer Daithí Mac Síthigh has published the results of his study into the legal issues surrounding the provision of open wireless networks.
In Law in the Last Mile: Sharing Internet Access Through WiFi Sithigh argues that the law is unclear and could be restricting the use and take-up of services. Sithigh explained that confusion arises when wireless networks are shared, rightfully or wrongfully.
"The key issue here is that when an individual makes use of an open WAP, they may be able to use that WAP to access information on other machines using that WAP or connected to the domestic network", he said.
So, Sithigh asks, "is it legal to use an open WAP? Open WAPs will be found by walking down a typical city street, or auto-detected and auto-joined by some (legally available) devices... attempts to bring these individual facilities together for a collective purpose as mesh networking are popular, certainty if the legal arrangements are desirable. With this in mind, I now turn to consider a question that many users cannot but ask: if they connect to an open WAP and proceed to use it for purposes such as unobjectionable Internet access, do they violate any laws?".
In short the answer is 'not sure'. Sithigh questioned the use of UK laws including the Communications Act and the Computer Misuse Act for prosecuting offenders, explaining that both have elements that remain untested.
Furthermore he also raised the issue that it was uncertain what offenders may actually be guilty of, if anything. While to add further potential confusion over the issue Sithigh considers whether it is the ISP or providers fault and suggests that laws found in other countries may work better, fingering the scan stop and search approach seen in India where operators of unrestricted networks are immediately fined, as one means.
It's a very interesting paper. Just make sure that if you read it outside you do so legally - or at least try and work out if you are or not. µ
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I've never understood why none of the Linksyses, Netgears, D-Links, or further-generic-manufacturers of the world have hit upon building a "guest" mode into home APs: Run one WPA'd SSID, and another open one that routes to the Internet but *not* the link-local subnet. Bonus points for having traffic-shaping and a convenient on-off switch... It'd be a value-add to the appliances on par with the introduction of point-and-click pinholing.
It's not perfect, and certainly doesn't reduce "accountholder" liability for drive-by downloads or the like, but I'm always surprised by the number of people who knowingly run open APs because they just don't care about their data && believe in sharing && don't want to piss off a parade of houseguests that want to get to their Facespaces and Mybooks.
(Of course, being a node in a commercial hotspot network, as has been tried in Europe, is actually much better for personal liability - if someone using the public side does something naughty through your home's link, it's on the ISP's share of the connection and their problem legally; you were just "renting them space.")
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Meanwhile, as incoherent as the first poster was, major US ISPs are starting to offer access through commercial hotspots free with the membership. Downsides would be trusting the commercial hotspot to actually be a commercial hotspot, if you have to enter a unified l/p that also accesses your email, etc - and the lack of availability outside a Starbucks or airport.
I always keep my Wifi connection unlocked (that means no WEP, no WPA, no password whatsoever). On purpose. The name of my hotspot if "Kurkosdr Internet".
This is because a shared internet connection is harder to track. If lot's of people have access to the same hotspot, this makes it hell lot of harder for those from the RIAA to find who really downloaded what.
Just look at the case of university campus piracy. People are downloading half of hollywood from there, yet the MPAA simply can't get them. When the MPAA demanded universities to be held liable or and install software to track those people down, they just say "I can't be held liable for something somebody else downloaded" and "I can't monitor them, I don't know what they download from my connection". And it worked.
You can do the same if you have your connection public. Open your wifi's! Pretending you didn't knew your wifi was unlocked and other people had access would help (wpa? what?).
The reason Rasset was caught is because she had a plain wired modem, and hence she or her family was the only one that access to the connection. So, she was caught. You run the risk of getting caught that way to.
Openning wifis is recommended for downloaders with fast connections.
Also, you 'll help that guy who will not pay the whole amount an internet connection just to check his emails once in a week, and other downloaders of the neighbourhood will be happy to.
In the OpenWRT there is an option called AP Isolation that prevents Client to Client communication. Just enable it and volla!
The easy way to avoid the RIAA is NOT TO PIRATE STUFF.
Also, I hope you don't do banking on any of your computers because an open link to the outside world is just asking for trouble.
Stolen bank account info, Stolen CC info, anything private you might keep on your computer. Yea, Go read up on the guy who was just caught war driving recently.
Only stupid people leave their wifi open. WEP is marginal at best too. So ridiculously easy to crack.
So, kurkosdr Why should I open up my wifi router?
The laws here in the USA are very confusing because they vary county to county and state to state. In one county in NY if you allow open access then it's your fault and anything done originating on that network is the owner's responsibility, in another county you are a victim in the eyes of the law even if you have no security what-so-ever (civil is another story).