Law in the Last Mile: Sharing Internet Access Through WiFi

Sophos, a computer security company, once said:



"Stealing "Stealing Wi-Fi internet access may feel like a victimless crime, but it deprives ISPs of revenue. Furthermore, if you've hopped onto your next door neighbors' wireless broadband connection to illegally download movies and music from the net, chances are that you are also slowing down their Internet access and impacting on their download limit."

UK ISP Karoo currently requires its customers to agree that:



"[Karoo] shall be entitled to terminate the Service immediately if We discover that . . . you have permitted (whether knowingly or not) a third party (or third parties) to access the Service using a wireless connection over Your Communications Line." "[Karoo] shall be entitled to terminate the Service immediately if We discover that . . . you have permitted (whether knowingly or not) a third party (or third parties) to access the Service using a wireless connection over Your Communications Line."

Daithi Mac Sithigh concludes:



"It is suggested that the thread connecting domestic WAPs [Wireless Access Point], municipal wifi and spectrum reform is a desire to enable the use of the Internet by individuals, rather than the management of a network in the interests of [ISPs]. Some of the legal provisions criticised ... are more appropriate to large, discrete networks rather than the flexible, atomised wireless commons.



Consider instead, however, a situation where the law protected the ability of the WAP admin to share and the external user to connect ... that providing access to the Internet with the maximum possible freedom of action and of use reserved to the user was itself important. In the context of rules on state aid which might hamper municipal wifi, this is clearly important.



Inappropriate legal constraints on or actions against WAP admins, wifi users or public authorities acting in the best traditions of the local library or park (if one may be permitted to use a metaphor!) are a clear and present threat to this model."