EU ends anonymity and rules open Wi-Fi hotspots need passwords Result, guys. Result. A campaign by Digital Rights activists to preserve open Wi-Fi hotspots has resulted in Europe’s highest court deciding the exact opposite. The ECJ has advised that open Wi-Fi hotspots should probably be operated password-protected – and hotspot owners should require users to reveal their identities. The …
Just set the password to 'password' and don't tell it to anyone. If it gradually becomes a thing that open hotspots use the word 'password' as the password then nobdoy will have to do any identity checks and nobody will be prevented from using previously open hotspots.
The ECJ will eventually have to make it a law that you can't set your wifi network's password to 'password', at which point everyone can move across to 'password1' and carry on.
The text cited just says that IF the network is password secured, then potentially enforcement of the rights of rightsholders may occur, but in that case, the identity of the people using said password must be ascertained first.
None of this is bound to happen to open hotspots soon, and anyway national laws have to be passed first (well, France may already have a law against this, as in France today there is only one thing that is still allowed: paying taxes)
"Napoleonic law starts from the principle that everything is forbidden."
Huh? What is this "Napoleonic" nonsense? Isn't every single country in the world operated on the principle "everything is forbidden, we just choose to not enforce any of it against you unless you show up on our radar and piss us off"...?
In theory,
- Continental system - (Europe - supposedly) - All rights are granted, and then taken away. - God to citizen system.
- UK and USA system - No rights (start as nothing, not even an object, and then rights are assigned) - Slave to citizen system. That's why they need the bill of rights. Without it they do not legally exist. Oddly, money doesn't seem to legally exist either (not corporeal, not immaterial).
ISP are liable by default if they cannot give up the ID of who is alleged to have committed civil/criminal action via their network. Further, duty of care is now much more the ISP responsibility to prove
To me the obvious outcome is that those people who want anonymous internet access will just war drive or use stolen credentials instead resulting in all wifi/hosting/VPN etc becoming a legal liability.
Brexit wont make a difference as the UK will be one of the first EU states to implement this, given the local track record of assuming that the music/movie industry is being abused by all UK population and compensating them in advance.
What we need is some form of National Identity card that can be used to centrally identify and authenticate us a citizens so we don't need to provide the same details over and over again.
Then a central store could be made of everything we do, you know, as a backup, just in case we make a mistake, or lose it and need to go back, or like investigate who's been doing bad things.
And we can sell the details to some exclusive partners so they can help us in the future.
</sarcasm>
This is like holding a cafe responsible for someones wrong doing because they used the cafe's power socket to charge the laptop they used in the planning, or sat under the cafe's electric light so they could see what they were doing, or used the water in the toilets to wash the hands that wrote the plans.
WiFi is just a utility like electricity, gas or water.
Am I missing something here?
If the connection after the hotspot is via NAT, then how can "big media" identify the user from the internet side? Or are hotspot providers going to have to go for the full ICR logging that the Snooper's Charter is imposing so that they can identify which of their users (who have proved their identity) it was that downloaded the dubious content?
Just setting a password and making users identify themselves to the hotspot operator seems insufficient.
Totally barking.
As an old fogey with failing eyesight, but not on a pension, the UK Government has lifted my driving licence. My passport has expired, so I'm a bit "off the Grid". So if I want to have a coffee in the local Starbucks and browse my droid tablet will I be thrown out onto the pavement (sidewalk)?
.. is incapable of distinguishing between anonymity and accountability.
I observed a while back that the ECJ seems to be changing to a model that ensures they keep busy. This is a classic, because such a policy conflicts directly with the right to privacy. Not quite sure where this will lead, but I suspect this story isn't quite over yet as it encourages data grabbing from everyone near a "free" WiFi access point, where the word "free" was just being challenged because of the enforced demand for personal details.
Honestly, the lobbyists must have spent a fortune on dinner for this result, enough for alcohol to last in the relevant bloodstreams until the verdict. It must have been a rough couple of nights.
All too true. It's game over for the internet. Totalitarianism is here. It's only cognitive dissonance that is stopping people from seeing it. The horrible truth, is, well, too horrible. It will be illegal to not have an internet connection in a little while. It will be illegal to use a VPN for personal use in a few years time (if that). You know how it goes.
The internet has turned into a fucking fascist nightmare. It's wild west time allright, but not for the common man, for the law makers and law breakers, the spies, the top five companies that run the net (google et al). They just don't give a flying fuck. In bed with the politicians who are pissing themselves with fear over the threat the internet provides to their authority. They are putting the internet genie back into the bottle. Game over. It's already lost.
They do it bit by bit, like the proverbial frog boiling. Already services are stopping working on Tor, bit by bit, like the proverbial frog, boiling. Tor is already compromised. But most websites just block it when they detect an exit node (or wtf), even then, the crippling you get by blocking javascript et al makes it essentially useless.
There is no anonymity, there is no privacy. Game over.
Totalitarianism is here, today. Already I see most of you too afraid to comment on articles in this very esteemed organ. I get it. You don't want to get your name on the list. You're afraid. I do understand.
I know that quite a few of you care about this, but you don't say anything about it, due to fear. The fascists have already won. Call them totalitarians, fascists, or whatever - same thing. Authoritarianism gone mad. They are already stepping on your faces, and you just say: Do it to Julia, do it to Julia!
I'm going to stop making political comments as well. I don't see why I should martyr myself for other's freedom, when they won't stand up and be counted. You didn't love your freedom enough. Now it's been taken away from you. Game over.
Voland's Right Hand wrote:
--------------------------
So, let's step back for a minute. There are two ways to look at this.
1. The anonymity of the Internet is an essential freedom.
2. The Internet natural development route is over time to stop being anonymous and the identity of each and every user and device to be known.
Realistically, we are already very close to 2 anyway.
-----------------------------------------------------
You are very right, in fact more right than you realise. Did I mention the war has been lost? Game over.
We aren't 'very close' at all. It's finished, there is nothing left to discuss. It both amazes and sickens me at the same time when we get these articles in el Reg, and they only get a dozen weak and lame comments. Time after time, because you are scared. That means they have already won. They have put the fear of god into you. They have divided and conquered you.
And it will be you, good little techie boys and girls you are, that implement the future stamping on the face of humanity, coz let's face it, you've done fuck all so far. But I understand, you are afraid. There are laws against thinking the wrong way. Words are being banned. You may realise (and I know you do) that when you ban words, you ban thought. You of all people know that. You can be put in jail for offending someone. They have crushed your freedoms bit by bit, and you can't face up to the sheer blatant inhumanity of what they are doing. I understand. You're afraid. Game over.
There's an essay that is over ten years old now, by John Walker of Autodesk fame (not to mention fourmilab.ch) - in fact it's sub-titled "How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle."
https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/
It's a long essay, and not really totally understandable by non-techies. Most of you here will have no problem with it, at least getting the gist of it anyway.
Read it and weep. It's 13 years old now. Everything he predicted has come to pass (just about). Unique identifiers on chips, licenses needed like a driving license, draconial laws to punish dissenters. It's fucking soviet russia and the stazi all rolled in to one, but on steroids. I'm a pseudo intellectual and not well read, but even I know what time it is and what's up. The genie is not coming back out of the bottle now.
Game over. You just didn't love your freedom enough.
And all done in the name of 'hate speech', paedophiles etc. Pure bollox, and you know it is. They have the power to close the paedos down if they want, but they allow them to exist, because it pushes their agenda forward. They don't care about little kids getting fucked up the arse, because it's just collateral damage to them. It's YOU they fear, it's YOU they are attacking. And it is YOU that are conveniently turning a blind eye, because, well, the horror...
They are ramping it up - the whole shebang. Because they have to act fast while you are beaten down, because you are. They know they can get away with it, because you let them. Because you are afraid. I understand. I'm only posting this, because I want to die. I am ready to take my own life at any moment. The end can't come quick enough for me. But don't worry all the security services reading this, I won't martyr myself. I'm going to shut up and be a good little boy, with all the rest of them, there will be no further dissent from me. I'm no rabble rouser. You probably even appreciate the psychological impact it will have on the weak and the silent. You've put them in their place, they are afraid, and pretty soon it's going to be time to start slapping them around a bit. And you'll get away with it - it might even be fun!
Paedophiles my arsehole, it's the general population that must be stopped. And this is how they do it - this is how they put the internet genie back in the bottle. Read that 13 year old essay by John Walker. It will make your blood run cold.
What we are dealing with here, is not the MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL complex. It is the MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL/MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT complex. Or MIME for short.
This is what all this is about. The media are as complicit in all of this as the paedophiles. At least the paedos are honest about what they do. And as for the entertainment (music) industry, well, you didn't realise something was up, when music died over ten years ago? Crushed. Only for cookie-cutter inanities like fucking Adele, being used as tools of the establisment to demoralise the population via mediocrity, useful idiots they are.
Anyway, never mind all that, those cunts on mumsnet have a lot to answer for. But eh, muh kiddie-fiddlers.
Hopefully I've not offended anyone. Though I feel seriously fucking offended every minute of every day, just being alive and breathing in the air on this seriously fucked up planet. And I know I'm not the only one.
Have a good day.
I am with you on most if not all of that, saw it as the internet honeymoon being over, ranted about it years ago but of course people don't want to look at the bigger picture, will try to get a mob against anyone who uses reality or the "truth", remind me what is the opposite of truth, lies isn't it? so these days you can be derided for being a "truther" because that word has connotations, fuck em speak the truth regardless of the hashtab.
In case no other bugger says it, don't off-yourself too soon buddy, there is dark stuff creeping and those who seek to benefit from oppression but there is also higher meaning, and energy at work if we are open to it. Sometimes in this field we might have to step out of the technology forest to feel the light.
Thanks for the post, bit of fuck yeah moment.
sorry but you seem to be mentally unstable and you need to find help soon because you said it yourself your suicidal
I dont think its game over for the internet, the internet will be free for years to come and many are still fighting for it
anyway this could be a joke but you should talk to someone before its to late
Nicely written - inflammatory and humorous - article, but I am not convinced El Reg has its facts quite straight.
An article on IP Watch (OK, probably batting for the Sony-side of this argument) gives a more complete view. http://www.ip-watch.org/2016/09/15/wifi-providers-can-be-forced-to-require-passwords-on-rightsholder-request-ecj-rules/
To me this says that a rights holder can ask for an injunction on someone operating an open Wifi hotspot to secure their internet connection by means of a password.
So Mr Sony et al, are you going to order all open wifi hotspot operators to secure their internet connections? Really? One-by-one! Nah.. so most of the little guys will carry on BAU. At least I hope so!
As for the bigger hotspot operators - eg BT, Sky/The Cloud, or Virgin Media/Arqiva Wifi are already authenticating users.
internet freedom <-or-> bomb under your butt
Monitoring the net won't stop "terrorists". Hell, most of them live in areas where the place is so devastated that electrical anything is pretty much impossible let alone electronic coms (we are still calling people fighting in their own land to defend their land and way of life from the US "terrorists" right?) .
If the net was to be totally monitored, al encryption not only banned but actively blocked, all users activity logged and all users registered including with iris scanners, then either simple codes would be used to pass on basic messages or other means of communication could be used that aren't electronic and thus aren't open to monitoring.
And a "lone wolf" with a truck is beyond all attempts to monitor.
1. Does this Euro Parliament thingie have WiFi?
2. TV ads for "I can't believe it's not Proper ID"
opening soon in a country near you, ID that would not fool a copper or a border guard, but would probably get past a barista.
It strikes me that 99.99% of public WiFi hotspot users are doing the normal things. A measure which royally arses up their usage is not a proper balance between their rights and the rights of property owners whose property rights those users are not infringing.
If all that is required is to add a password to the hotspot - as in the WPA2 password, and presuming that it will never be changed after it's been added, then there are a good 20 apps where after connecting to a password secured network, the password is then sent off to a server so that anyone else running the app no-longer needs the password to connect. Google "WiMan" for an example.
I love a good old snark along with most commentards but isn't this whole thing trivial?
(1) Having no password on the WiFi absolves the provider from all responsibilty for user actions.
(2) However the provider can now be sued and forced to put a password on the Wifi.
This then removes the protection from (1) and opens the door for further litigation.
Or have they (as is so often the case) tried to be clever and added in another little feature or two to make the second round of litigation that bit easier and managed to include all current closed Wifi services (that is, ones which already have passwords) in their new vision of closing down pirates?
Thus moving a very focused decision aimed at people deliberately punting "anonymous" Wifi services to deliberately circumvent current legislation and sweeping up not only poorly configured old home routers but all public WiFi services?
Well, yes, I wouldn't be at all surprised.
"Method of ensuring total unbreakable security on wireless networks"
Essentially this is a way to distribute a one time pad to an array of machines in a way that cannot be broken at least in principle.
It does however require access to the machine but only in the form of a burned DVD+RW containing the pad which is then overwritten in the host machine while being consumed.
Substitute memory card for DVD+RW or for that matter a file on external device, the effect is still the same and it is also possible to distribute the pad using a screen with a one use key that unlocks the network for an encrypted download via wideband TKSP, etc.
324 bit AES is still unbreakable and typing in the key by hand from a paper receipt is a minor but necessary annoyance.
Internet Sensoring Pricks?
It's late. I've run out of glue.
It's fucking murder finding a carpet laying shop around here in the middle of the night.
And I live in Axminster!
Never mind the horror! It's the fucking irony I can't deal with.
[plausible deniability, your honour - I was out of my mind at the time, suffering severe Thixofix withdrawal]
... use public wifi without a VPN? I certainly would not. So how is this going to help catch anybody who is determined to do something wrong? It is already in the interests of public wifi providers not to allow a few users to suck all the bandwidth --- all you've got to do is ensure no-one gets more than about 2Mb/s. So how big, really, is the threat of wholesale copyright theft at public wifi hotspots?
Of course, the tech savvy know to use VPN when in public wifi land such as at airports. I'm not even tech savvy and I know that.
I upvoted you, even though it seems you did not read and digest my earlier rant/post.
It's all about the MIME - Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment complex.
None can exist without the other now. Lady Gaga and Adele are as complicit in the killing of innocent children, as Thorn EMI (great label-Harvest-Harvest Moon-Dark Side of the Moon - Well an eclipse actually, but I digress). Whoah, the synchronicity...
There was an eclipse of the Harvest Moon tonight, and Pink Floyd recorded Dark Side of the Moon on the EMI imprint - sub-label 'Harvest'. Why do I bother?
:-)
It's all about demoralisation of a population via psychological operations. There are books written on it. It's not made up. It's real. And Adele, and Lady Fucking Gaga are the enemy!
Not even joking or being ironic.
It's not about copyright theft, it's about control.
Have you noticed all the big torrent sites getting shut down? The ones left, riddled with malware. They are putting the internet genie back in the bottle (a la the John Walker essay).
It's all about restoring the Consumer/Producer paradigm (or vice versa) like back when the BBC could rattle off any old shit and cause micro-revolutions in populations via divide/conquer.
Read the essay by John Walker - The Digital Imprimatur - it is on Fourmilab.ch - and any hacker worth his salt, or even worth his weight (swidt?) will already know it.
They are putting the internet genie back in the bottle. The whole MIME paradigm (Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment complex) is just a smoke screen, within a smoke screen within muh kiddie-fiddlers, via muh copyright infringers, via, muh terrorists.
They are the fucking terrorists! And to say that is treason!
Pretty sure most of you could have figured all this out for yourselves, if you could only face The Horror!
Cognitive dissonance is a bitch alright. One that will come back to bite you on the arse, when Adele and Lady Fucking Gaga are herding you into the cattle train on the one-way railway, to go for a little 'clean-up' for being the dirty dissenter you are.
Hell, I'll probably be manning the fucking ticket turn-style if the powers that be have a sense of humour about it all. If not, I'll be fighting for air like the rest of you beaten fuckers....
We really didn't love our freedoms enough. Did we?
Film at 11, but fuck all on.
Night night.
Did the court define what passwords or keys are? Oddly, Shannon never did.
"password" is a viable password. If a unique is required "2016password" would suffice.
This problem can only be solved technologically, not legally.
In addition, legally speaking, since today's standard cryptographic systems are "juvenile" at best, with WiFi systems being trivial to breach, it is not too difficult to prove that it is impossible to secure one's own WiFi without changing the password every minute. This is the flawed judicial reasoning behind the decision. Technically, the providers of security products should be held legally liable, since they provided the security systems. Surely users cannot be responsible for faulty products.
In criminal cases, the onus of proof of liability falls on the prosecution, in civil cases on the plaintiff. Beware of future legislation where the onus of proof (disproof) will be legally preassigned to the defendant. This is to protect crap security and security corporations.
In other words, your legal rights are getting screwed to protect profits. But have no fear, a literal cryptographic shit-storm is about to hit the fan.
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