Say goodbye to public hotspots

The government's determination to find scapegoats for online copyright theft could see thousands of public Wi-Fi hotspots disappear.

This week, a pub landlord was fined 8,000 because a customer in his pub used its public Wi-Fi hotspot to downloaded copyrighted material.

I would quip that this decision is somewhat dubious, being based on licenced premesis, if the situation weren't so serious.

The fact of the matter is that if people are going to be prosecuted and given hefty fines for being the owner of a public hotspot, then nobody will take the risk of doing so any more. Instead of providing what is an undoubtedly useful and forward-thinking service, they just won't bother.

This is a backward step – the government should be encouraging more people to use the web rather than discouraging people from providing enabling services.

But the Digital Economy Bill is a flawed piece of legislation that only succeeds in showing the government's willingness to bow to commercial powers in order to find someone to blame for piracy.

They seemingly don't care if the wrong person gets prosecuted, as happened in this case, just as long as someone does.

So be warned – if you make your hotspot available for others to use, even inadvertently, you could find yourself hauled up in front of a judge because of something someone else did on it. And, judging by this case, you shouldn't expect too much understanding or sympathy.

Secure your wireless network