March 2, 2010 at 09:37British bill could kill free wifi
British lawmakers intend to introduce a new bill called the Digital Economy Bill, which could severely limit the availability of free Wi-Fi in the country. The essence of the bill is that the owners of the access point will be personally responsible for any form of violation of copyright laws in their networks. There will be absolutely no exceptions for individuals, businesses, public places, libraries, universities or private entrepreneurs.
Even if the owners of access points agree to block access with a password, they will still have to save all the information about the connections in order to provide it to the competent authorities. The government hopes that the information collected will help another, highly controversial bill on the admissibility of just two violations. After two warnings, the user loses access to the Internet permanently.
The bill is estimated at one billion dollars, but according to the assurances of the media industry, it will attract more than 2.72 billion dollars in profit. Unfortunately, this can hit owners of small businesses, the availability of free Internet, and the right to privacy.
More details here: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=17797
Even if the owners of access points agree to block access with a password, they will still have to save all the information about the connections in order to provide it to the competent authorities. The government hopes that the information collected will help another, highly controversial bill on the admissibility of just two violations. After two warnings, the user loses access to the Internet permanently.
The bill is estimated at one billion dollars, but according to the assurances of the media industry, it will attract more than 2.72 billion dollars in profit. Unfortunately, this can hit owners of small businesses, the availability of free Internet, and the right to privacy.
More details here: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=17797