Pirating in Portland about to get easier.

[SquirrelDip]

So if, say, my neighborhood wanted to set up some sort of community wifi hot spot we could - since the connections would be 'with permission.' However, we should have some sort of 'login' that records the MAC, IP and agreement - even with it still wouldn't be recommended since a neighborhood does not have the financial backing to fight any sort of suit.

Of course this thread is largely geared for US - Canadian laws, as I understand, are quite different and agencies like the RIAA/MPAA have not had nearly as much luck fighting their fights up in the Great White North.

edit: Should note that same here as in the US - winning or losing a suit is so often not the point. It still costs boatloads of cash to fight regardless of the outcome.

[AlecWest]

edit -- I'm going to check further into the registration form for "free" registrants.

[adam]

SquirrelDip: If a community voluntarily shared access to internet service subscribed to by one household than it could not violate the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but that doesn't mean it would be legal. The contract with the isp would surely prohibit this type of arrangement, meaning that the isp could at least sue the account holder or cancel their service. Also, this would still be theft of service under state law. It doesn't matter that the account holder is giving access freely because its not him providing the service it's the isp. If the people receiving the free access know or should know that the service they are receiving is one which ordinarily must be paid for, than that's theft of service.

[thecoalman]

edit -- I'm going to check further into the registration form for "free" registrants.

While you're at if you can find out if you need to activate it from the e-mail account. Someone could still hide behind a proxy when accessing the account but a active e-mail account would be one place to start to find the person accessing it.

Edit: I was just thinking.... ok what if you internet newbie and don't have a e-mail account anywhere.

[SquirrelDip]

adam: Point taken - which is why, in previous posts I said notwithstanding the ISP agreement. However, didn't realize that this could still be considered theft to the ISP even i you're agreeing to sharing.

thecoalman: What is this e-mail you speak of???

[AlecWest]

Well, I'm going to go one step further. I just went to my local CompUSA's pre-anniversary sale and came home with a 17" HP/Intel 1.73 GHZ duo-core notebook (2GB DDR), WIFI ready. I've decided to make myself a guinea pig. I may not do it right away (perhaps over the next week or two). But, I'm going to visit a cafe within a MetroFI hotspot and see if I can sign up with totally bogus information (grin). I'll give you my report after I succeed (or crash and burn, hehe).

P.S. Humorous after-story. CompUSA's display computers were hooked up to a wireless network so customers could try them out. Curious, I decided to open up the network connection window to see what connections were nearby. There was one ... but the network name wasn't "CompUSA," it was "Michael's AC" ... which didn't make much sense to me until after I left the store and saw, two doors down, a different store called:

Michael's Arts and Crafts

So (snicker), it appears that CompUSA is piggybacking their display computers off a nearby arts and crafts store's connection. Tsk tsk.

And yes, "Michael's AC" was a totally unprotected net. So, anyone who wants to pirate anonymously should ... nah, never mind, hehe.

[AlecWest]

I don't know how difficult it would be to provide false information and still get registered, but if the information used is correct than a 3rd party can still, quite easily, trace you.

I suspect that the registration form is very generic. It is after all meant to service travelers on business trips or vacations ... so there can't be too much info verification going on if it's a free service.

The IP addresses may be "owned" by MetroFi but each user of the service is still assigned a unique IP address each time they log onto the service. So anyone witnessing an infringement on some P2P service would just trace the IP address through MetroFI and it would lead them straight to the MAC address of your access device.

The MAC address can be easily spoofed, leading people to believe the violator is using a Toshiba notebook when it's really a Dell or HP:



I'm certainly not encouraging this kind of activity ... nor would I involve myself in it. But, as you know, if it "can" be done, somebody will do it ... perhaps several somebodies.

In any event, I came back to this topic because I just received an email from MetroFi. They've recently expanded their service area. And, they tell me I "might" be close enough to pick up their WiFi signal. I'll be testing it out over the next few days. Sadly, though, I live in a basement apartment unit ... so the earth around me will make WiFi problematic. But if I went upstairs and sat at the picnic table on the deck with my laptop??? Anyhoo, I'll give it a try. And if I can connect, I'll register with them (using my real name and without spoofing my MAC) and post a copy of their registration form.