[LINK] Copyright holders unhappy with piracy plan (was Re: Comms Alliance's ....

[Kim Holburn]

On 2011/Nov/29, at 9:22 PM, Fernando Cassia wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 06:29, Kim Holburn <kim at holburn.net> wrote:
>>  And the guff about putting a password on your wifi.  Really!  Sad!
>> Kim
> 
> I´ve been long advocating securing wifi hotspots.
> As the "owner" (user) of the broadband account, you´re responsible for
> all the packets that originate on your assigned ip address.

Securing a wifi hotspot is not the same as putting a password on it.  That's just misinformation.  Also frankly I know few non-geeks who can effectively "secure" a wifi system.  Until they are sold in a secure state they are not going to be secure. 

> Doing so prevents you from the hassle of dealing with the consequences
> of a neighbor downloading child porn or a wardriver hacking Nasa.gov
> from your assigned IP.
> 
> Analogy: When you park your car in front of your home, do you leave
> the key with a big sign reading "it s ok for you to drive it as long
> as your return it here"? surely not. Likewise, if someone drives your
> car and runs over people, cameras will likely identify your plate and
> police will come looking for *you*.
> 
> Of course you´ll then have all the chances to explain that it wasn´t
> really you who was driving, that it was someone else because you are a
> nice person and lend your car to any passer by that wants to use it.

If you understand and mitigate the risks, running an open wifi is not dangerous at all - unless you live in the US and a swat team armed to the teeth breaks into your house, searching for pedophiles.  Barring this incredibly unlikely event - and we live in Australia so our police are less militarised than the US, so far - what is wrong with sharing?  Oh, corporate world says no!  Bad consumer.   

Kim

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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