28 August 2009

Fon and Games with "Three Strikes"

Interesting:

BT’s wifi network has reached half a million hotspots. Fon has made a major contribution toward its growth, since about 90% of the BT hotspots are BT Fon. The rate of growth is such that, together with BT, we are on the way to one million hotspots. This is the goal for February 2010.

Suppose, now, that people use some of those million hotspots to download copyright material: how easy is it going to be (a) establishing exactly who downloaded it and (b) cutting off that person?

Gives a new meaning to the term "hotspot"...

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4 comments:

Max Randor said...

Probably very easy as when I have used such before I have had to login and pay which associates my connection with both my email address and my debit card...

Glyn Moody said...

But would they store all traffic info for subsequent visits around the country? Would it be possible to associate a particular file download with you? I'm asking, because I don't know Fon well enough to answer...

Max Randor said...

I guess the answer is that it is technically possible but I doubt they currently bother. :-)
Unfortunately this still probably means that FON is not a magic bullet to kill the idiocy of 3 strikes.

Glyn Moody said...

True; but at least it'll give them something else to fret about.