Another great technology ruined by a government using a sledgehammer to crack non-conformity. Since file-sharing could result in piracy, the Digital Economy Bill attempts to avoid this eventuality by outlawing free wi-fi. How this helps prevent piracy is beyond me, but what do small businesses and legal clarity matter?
Referring to BIS's comments about the low bandwidth of coffee-shop connections, Lilian Edwards suggested it was "not correct to draft laws hoping they are difficult to break".
Edwards also pointed out that BIS's guidance for universities shows the government admitting "they don't know themselves how universities fit into the Digital Economy Bill".
"[Universities] don't know if they're subscribers, ISPs or neither," Edwards said. "If the government is not clear, how on earth are the universities supposed to respond? This seems almost unprecedented to me, for a government document."
To protect the George Michaels and Hollywoods of this world (as lobbied), the network effects of open-to-air wi-fi must be destroyed in universities, libraries, coffee-shops, pubs and anywhere else that people could congregate to share information online. Just because one aspect of sharing online could be illegal, all sharing online must be rendered difficult or impossible.