Andre Yoskowitz
16 Oct 2009 11:21
The large UK ISP TalkTalk is making a strong point today, calling the Lord Mandelson-backed Internet Piracy bill (three strikes law) "naive," and prone to mistakes.
The law, which would give alleged file sharers two warnings before cutting them off for a "third strike" has met harsh criticism across the world, but was recently made into law in France.
Via a video posted on the BBC news site, TalkTalk shows just how easy it is for everyday users to break into unsecured Wi-Fi (or even WEP, WPA-secured Wi-Fi) and then share music and movies illegally.
Unsuspecting families could be targeted as pirates although they didn't actually commit the crime, and most would be completely unaware of anyone even being on their network.
TalkTalk believes this "presumption of guilt" is just the first step away from due process in the UK, and other nations.
"The Mandelson scheme is every bit as wrong-headed as it is naive," adds Andrew Heaney, director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk. "The lack of presumption of innocence and the absence of judicial process combined with the prevalence of wi-fi hacking will result in innocent people being disconnected."
In the video, a TalkTalk representative headed to a random, ordinary street in Middlesex, hopped on some unsecured Wi-Fi and downloaded two tracks (legally, from iTunes).
However, the BPI says those who have had their Wi-Fi hacked will be in no danger of being disconnected.
"The account holder would receive a notification in the first instance, which would represent an opportunity to discuss filesharing with others in the household and which would provide the account holder with the information and tools to help ensure that the account is not used illegally again," said the group. "This information would extend to explaining to the account holder how they can secure their wireless router to ensure that it isn't accessed by unknown third parties."