Striking Back Against the Three-Strikes Rule

As I noted yesterday, the idea of banning people from the Internet after "three strikes" is both outrageous and unworkable. One reason advanced for the latter is that people may be piggybacking on your wireless router, so they get the files and you get the blame.

That may well be true, but I find this rather weak as a potential defence, since it means that you would need to leave your router open, which many would be chary about. But I've just realised that there's a way to do this that goes beyond simply leaving it open and hoping: you join the Fon community, which is all about opening up your router in a controlled way. What's even better, is that it's backed by none other than BT in the UK:

BT and FON have joined forces to create a Wi-Fi community that allows its members to connect for free to thousands of places around the UK and the world, by simply sharing some of their Internet connection at home.

This tie-up with BT always struck me as masterly, because it meant that Fon was suddenly "official", and not some wild hacker thing that ought to be shut down. And yet shutting it down is the only way you could stop strangers from downloading copyright material through your shared connection.

So the three-strikes idea comes down, in part, to this: whether the UK government really wants to scupper BT's attempts to provide "Wifi for everyone", as it puts it, to keep a few lazy media companies quiet for a while - until they realise that plan 'C' has failed too.

BT Learns It's Fun to Share with Fon

Interesting:

BT and FON have joined forces to create a Wi-Fi community that allows its members to connect for free in thousands of places around the UK and the world.

Two things strike me: that BT has effectively sanctioned the use of its data network for Fon connections - and hence validated the whole Fon idea; and that the (revolutionary) idea that everyone gains if everyone shares is being promoted by one of the largest and most traditional companies in the UK. We're making progress.

Why WiFi Sharing is Good for You

One idea gaining currency is that of creating a patchwork of free wireless Internet access points by leaving your WiFi network open for anyone to use. Of course, spoilsports have adduced all sorts of reasons why this might be a bad thing to do, but now, courtesy of those nice people at the RIAA, here's a reason why it might be a good move:

For years, the RIAA has claimed that having the IP address of a computer that has shared unauthorized files is the equivalent of having the evidence of who was actually sharing files. That, of course, is false. The IP address simply can help you know who paid for the internet access, but not who was using what computer on a network. In fact, this even had some people suggesting that, if you want to win a lawsuit from the RIAA, you're best off opening up your WiFi network to neighbors. It seems like this strategy might actually be working.