| 26 February 2010 |
| Cafe WiFi hotspots may be outlawed |
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WiFi at your local cafe may soon be under threat if new laws are passed as part of the Digital Economy Bill. The UK Government has decided in its wisdom that open WiFi networks are not good for the general public. The upshot is that it will be necessary to obtain a password from the coffee shop owner to use their WiFi system.
With a host of other clauses and limitations in the bill some experts have predicted that small businesses will find the provision of a WiFi hotspot too expensive and troublesome and hence the number of access points may drop dramatically. Internet cafes are also likely to be affected as they will be expected to store customers data for a period of over three years in case it needs to be used for investigations or reference by the rights holder. There are service providers who can run systems for cafe owners but of course this is an added expense. According to the latest clarification from the Government many organisations will be open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the Internet.
Lord Young, a minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is worried about encouraging copyright infringement although by his own admission internet cafes usually have a low band width which is totally unsuitable for file sharing and other illegal activities. Basically any business providing an open WiFi networks to a customers will have to decide if they are an ISP (internet service provider) or a subscriber. According to Lord Young this will "depend on the type of service and the nature of their relationship with their consumers... although it appears unlikely that few other than possibly the large hotel chains or conference centres might be ISPs".
The new bill is basically the result of constant lobbying from the music and entertainment industries to make a stand against illegal downloads and piracy. Can the UK government infringe peoples freedom anymore without locking them up? I think WiFi hotspots are very convenient and allow many people to freely work outside the confines of their work or home and there is nothing wrong with that. To stop this is a total travesty.
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