It is hard to argue that this type of network access makes up more than a tiny fraction of file swapping. People using public Wi-Fi access points typically use them for just a few minutes or hours, rather than staying online for the long periods of time necessary to download movie files, for instance. This could change as the patterns of Wi-Fi use change, becoming more residential, however. Just last week, ISP Speakeasy opened a programme that allows home broadband subscribers to sell wireless Net access to their neighbours, becoming in effect a mini-ISP with Speakeasy's help. This kind of program illustrates further the potential holes in the RIAA dragnet. A Speakeasy customer who has several customers of her own could wind up unwittingly being the conduit for file-sharing activity. In that case, Speakeasy would receive a subpoena, and be required under recent court decisions to give up her name. Moreover, under the provisions of the company's new programme, her role as "administrator" for other people's accounts would make her responsible for any illegal activity by the people using her wireless Net access. "If our terms of service are violated on (that broadband) line, we hold the administrator responsible," said Speakeasy chief executive Mike Apgar. "We think the best person to understand their local area is the administrator." However, unless the administrator keeps detailed logs of everybody's account use -- which is not required by law -- she may well not know who was swapping files at the time the RIAA identified a problem, and the subpoena may hit a dead end. Recording industry officers declined to discuss their legal strategy in detail, but said that the Wi-Fi issue was not necessarily a dead end for investigations. "We are not limiting ourselves in that respect," said RIAA senior vice president Matt Oppenheim. What the group and other copyright holders can do if Wi-Fi access points turn out to be a substantial nexus for piracy isn't wholly clear. Unlike the file-swapping market, which in Napster's wake has been populated mostly by small companies that exist on the margin of the law, Wi-Fi is the technological darling of giants that range from Intel to Verizon Communications. In theory, copyright holders could press policymakers for some regulatory framework that would require individual computer users to be identified wherever they were logged on to a network. That way, even people logging on to a free access point like the one in New York City's Bryant Park could be traced if found to be doing something illegal. However, previous technological measures that involved the strict ability to identify users or users' computers, such as the unique serial numbers once built into Intel chips, have proven extremely controversial. Privacy and civil-liberties activists, by contrast, are encouraging the spread of Wi-Fi access points, whether officially under a plan like Speakeasy's, or simply by setting up a wireless access point on their own. "I think there is good reason for people to become ISPs and offer this service in order to give people real anonymity again," said Fred von Lohmann, an Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney who has represented file-swapping companies against the recording industry. Von Lohmann, a copyright lawyer, contends that individuals and businesses that operate open Wi-Fi hot spots should be eligible for the same legal shields that ensure that ISPs aren't liable for the online actions of their customers. Hot spot operators like Townsend say they are likely to attract the RIAA's subpoenas and lawsuits, which are due in mid-August. But they say, for now, they're not worried. "It is obvious that people are using wireless hot spots to do the same kind of thing other people online are doing," said Townsend, whose NYCWireless group is made up of 160 hot spots around the city, mostly run by volunteers. "But there's no evidence that this kind of thing is any more prevalent. We haven't been asked to make (identifying people) any easier." Click here to see a map of the UK's Wi-Fi hot spots.
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