The death of free Wi-Fi?

The Digital Economy Bill has just passed its third reading in the House of Commons and is expected to receive Royal Assent this week. 

The idea of holding the provider responsible for user downloads is so fatally flawed you have to wonder what planet the government is on. 

It occurred to me as I was eating my cornflakes this morning... what about the FON network which BT have adopted, whereby BT users can “share” a little of their Wi-Fi bandwidth with passers-by in return for having access to the FON network. This has the beginnings of something great... is this now in danger?

Would BT users potentially be in trouble if a passer-by downloaded something illegal? What about free Wi-Fi, which is increasingly being offered in hotels as part of the service? Will these people just scrap the idea as being too dangerous?

The FSB, the UK’s leading business organisation, is very clear on this one – businesses providing access to Internet services should NOT be penalised for their customer’s wrong-doing.  We have enough problems getting widespread, reliable, inexpensive Wi-Fi access in the UK without the government trying to kill it off through ill-conceived legislation.