Tip of the hat to Lauren Gelman for pointing me to this article.
Tim
--
Hot spots elude RIAA dragnet
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 16, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-1026204.html
Early last spring, NYCWireless co-founder Anthony Townsend got a
note in the mail saying that someone on his network had been violating
copyright laws.
This type of note is becoming increasingly common as record companies
and Hollywood studios subpoena Internet service providers (ISPs)
for information about subscribers in order to stop people from
trading songs and movies online. But Townsend's case was unusual:
As the representative of a loose collection of wireless "hot spot"
Internet access points, there was no way he or the relevant access
point operator in New York's Bryant Park could identify or warn the
file trader.
"We brought the notice to the attention of the park management, but
they weren't concerned," Townsend said. "That whole mechanism (for
finding copyright violators) becomes really problematic when the
ISP is someone sharing a wireless access point."
Townsend and others' similar experiences, no matter how limited
today, point to a slowly widening hole in the Recording Industry
Association of America's (RIAA) recently announced drive to identify
and ultimately sue what could be thousands of file swappers online.
Wireless Net access through free, open or publicly available hot
spots is proving to be a last bastion of privacy on an Internet
where the veil of anonymity can now easily pierced. Wi-Fi access
points give anyone who possesses the appropriate computer equipment
within a radius of about 300 feet the ability to reach the Internet.
[...]
--
Snail: Tim Pozar / LNS / 1978 45th Ave / San Francisco CA 94116 / USA
POTS: +1 415 665 3790 Radio: KC6GNJ / KAE6247
"Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind
don't matter and the people who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
--
general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/>
[un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
