[oclug] The Feds can own your WLAN too

[Adrian Irving-Beer]

On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 12:33:32PM -0400, Jonathon Moody wrote:

> This might not be a wise path to open up - but it would seem to me
> if you were allowed to offer free internet then you would be
> protected by the same laws/regulations that protect your ISP from
> being charged when your connection is used for porn.

But my ISP can fingerpoint to me.  I pay them, and they know where I
live, so they have some indication that I am who I say I am -- or at
least, the ability to send the police off to the right house.

> You would of course hand over logs and could possibly loose your
> account if you were breaching your AUP but I'm pretty sure ISPs are
> very well protected under the law. Of course I'm sure they could get
> a warrant to search your house for child porn but I'm assuming that
> wouldn't be an issue....

Is it standard to search the computers as well?  That would
certainly take time, and might involve confiscating them.  Between
downtime, privacy concerns, and having to regenerate all crypto keys
afterwards (or pray they let me delete them beforehand), I'm just
not sure it's worth it.

I don't object to *freely* sharing my link (if/when that becomes
possible), just to *anonymously* sharing my link.  Demanding photo ID
would probably turn most people off, but that's about the only safe
option I can see.

Certainly if someone (say) waits upwards of half an hour in front of
my place for a bus every morning with their laptop, they might find a
one-time photo ID validation to be worth it.

As another poster mentioned, I too would be interested to know how
internet cafés and other free Internet providers (wired or wireless)
handle this.
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