Businesses running open Wi-Fi networks should brace themselves for a slew of copyright warnings from rights holders, internet law expert Lilian Edwards has told ZDNet UK.
Edwards also warned that, apart from the civil cases that can already be launched against such businesses, future laws could lead to disconnection before appeal unless the government is lobbied by the business community.
On Friday, ZDNet UK reported how, according to the managing director of hotspot firm The Cloud, a pub was fined £8,000 this summer for copyright infringement, due to downloads made over the pub's open Wi-Fi hotspot.
ZDNet UK asked Edwards, who is professor of internet law at Sheffield Law School, to give advice to companies who run such hotspots for customers or visitors.
"You're probably OK for now in terms of data retention," Edwards said, "but watch out for the pile of copyright infringement warnings coming your way."
Edwards then warned that the upcoming Digital Economy Bill, which could make it possible to have internet subscribers disconnected for repeated copyright infringements, could make matters worse for businesses with open Wi-Fi hotspots.
Referring to the fact that it is currently not yet clear as to whether those facing disconnection would get their chance to appeal before or after being cut off, she said businesses should "lobby for the upcoming Code of Practice to allow an early appeal against [warnings] before rather than after you get disconnected".
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Just as the music industry hijacked the phonograph/gramophone & later used the precedent to command tape & CD usage, now they are about to control the Internet.
This minority must not be allowed such draconian powers to control the innocent.
It now appears that I, a BT FON supplier, providing a service for travellers may now be branded a criminal & heavily fined.
My inability to pay this will make me homeless as the only means of finding the money.
Further since I will have made myself deliberately homeless no help in rehousing me will be forthcoming.
Seems to me someone with millions in the bank & multiple houses around the World possibly making me homeless is the criminal not me.
Luke 19:26
"I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
As a FON spot provider, I think that you have at least a little more protection, or should have. Because the FON (fon.com) system requires individual logons, users' activities can be checked, as in tracked. I think that the FON way of providing a hot spot could be a good example of how to provide a hot spot without the liability to the hot spot provider. I think the individual user who engaged in an illegal activity is the one who should be prosecuted. The pub was not providing the hot spot to facilitate an illegal activity. I would bet that the individual who used the pub's hot spot is a regular and uses the same laptop from time to time. I really can't believe that he cannot be discovered via the logs of his connections. Of course, the complaintant doesn't want to go after the individual because his pockets are not as deep as the pub's.
Just what I would expect from a Brit. I'm a yank thank you and find this legal proceeding against a free WI-Fi provider stupid and a waste of the courts time.
To me this is like punishing a car rental company because one of their customers who rents a car then goes out, gets drunk, gets behind of the wheel and kills someone in a car crash.
Bust the S.O.B. who committed the crime!
Your coppers, IMHO, just took the easy, lazy way out and prosecuted the first person involved.
Don't even try to tell me they can't track down who did the illegal downloading, Anyone who uses a WI-FI network leaves tracks.
Then again, maybe the company that was "robbed" should invest in a better internet security system software. NAY, that would be taking too much personal responsibility for the safety of their copyrighted material.
The preceding comment was clearly NOT written by an American. An American would never say the words: Brit, yank, coppers, or nay. And if you look at his profile he can't even spell Ohio, where he claims to be from.