Free Wifi access for a café.

[Cobby]

What would be the best approach to this? I have a strong wireless signal from my home package next door, so I could attach another router to isolate and control public usage.

Are there any legal implications to this? Any disclaimers, etc. I'd need to implement? I'm not looking to charge anyone, and it probably wouldn't get a huge amount of use.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[3cellhosting]

I have been doing some work for a client and I would point you to the following article...

http://www.speedyfi.co.uk/wifi-a-the-law

Looks to me like a minefield of red tape just looking for a victim!

Hope this helps

David

 

[That Guy]

I have installed a few of these before and they are great: http://www.usemynet.biz/

You can limit who uses it by generating a customer access code for each user, control bandwith, download speed and session time.

You can also customise the landing/start page and choose sites that are free to browse without getting an access code from you, for example your companies website.

Its all controlled in the routers control panel so you will need a laptop or computer running so you can generate access codes for new users but well worth it as it gives you complete control.

This is the actual product you need: http://www.usemynet.biz/wifi-hotspot-router

Have Fun

 

[Cobby]

I have been doing some work for a client and I would point you to the following article...

http://www.speedyfi.co.uk/wifi-a-the-law

Looks to me like a minefield of red tape just looking for a victim!

Hope this helps

David

Thanks for the info. That looks a little like scaremongering to sell their product, and there's no source to the landlord fined £8k, but it does highlight potential worries.

 

[british steve]

Thanks for the info. That looks a little like scaremongering to sell their product, and there's no source to the landlord fined £8k, but it does highlight potential worries.

Here is a link!

http://www.t3.com/news/pub-landlord-fined-£8000-over-customer's-illegal-wi-fi-download?=42551

Its not scaremongering! Its pointing out that if you try to offer your customers access to the internet via a open router you could end up getting done for it. Under the new Digital economy bill you could be liable for almost unlimited fines and possibly some man love in prison if one of your customers downloads illegal content.

 

[Cobby]

It sure sounds like scaremongering to me. After reading the article you linked, I found it odd there were no details, and a quick browse through similar news stories from google led me to the source. ZDNet.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/commun...er-pub-wi-fi-case-remain-unanswered-10014595/

There doesn't seem to have actually been a successful prosecution at all. Between that and the slightly older news article from the BBC (which centres on Universities but covers cafés too):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8543142.stm

I guess as long as you throw in a disclaimer before accessing and then limit your customers access to web ports, you're pretty much covered. For now. :/

 

[andykinsey]

dependant on nature of your needs, my advice would be to skip all the other stuff and go for a BTfon device (which i think are still free) and this gives everyone access, if you go to bt openzone you can get another device where you get some commission i think and dont need to look after the device.

they are legally responsible not you

 

[Cobby]

dependant on nature of your needs, my advice would be to skip all the other stuff and go for a BTfon device (which i think are still free) and this gives everyone access, if you go to bt openzone you can get another device where you get some commission i think and dont need to look after the device.

they are legally responsible not you

Huh, I was under the impression you can only use the FON service if you are a member. I'll have to go look that up to double check.

 

[british steve]

It sure sounds like scaremongering to me. After reading the article you linked, I found it odd there were no details, and a quick browse through similar news stories from google led me to the source. ZDNet.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/commun...er-pub-wi-fi-case-remain-unanswered-10014595/

There doesn't seem to have actually been a successful prosecution at all. Between that and the slightly older news article from the BBC (which centres on Universities but covers cafés too):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8543142.stm

I guess as long as you throw in a disclaimer before accessing and then limit your customers access to web ports, you're pretty much covered. For now. :/

What part of "No details" did you miss !!!

This was taken from the T3 website. http://www.t3.com

Headline "Pub landlord fined £8,000 over customers illegal download"

Case in point is the lawsuit just handed to a UK pub landlord over a fine he’s faced with to the princely sum of £8000. The pub, which offered free Wi-Fi courtesy of The Cloud network, has been handed the fine after one nameless user was caught downloading pirated digital media.

 

[british steve]

dependant on nature of your needs, my advice would be to skip all the other stuff and go for a BTfon device (which i think are still free) and this gives everyone access, if you go to bt openzone you can get another device where you get some commission i think and dont need to look after the device.

they are legally responsible not you

Fon is fantastic - BT Openzone is not. Take a look at the prices that BT Openzone charge for access. It is a proven fact that many people will activly seek out a free rather than paid for wifi hotspot - If you have any sort of open wifi system in place and your customers download illegal content then it is you who liable and not the wifi provider. Anyone thinking of offering wifi should go though a proper wifi provider such as wifi spark, polkaspots, speedyfi, freerunr and many more. These providers will offer your customer safe, secure wifi.

 

[Cobby]

What part of "No details" did you miss !!!

This was taken from the T3 website. http://www.t3.com

Headline "Pub landlord fined £8,000 over customers illegal download"

Case in point is the lawsuit just handed to a UK pub landlord over a fine he’s faced with to the princely sum of £8000. The pub, which offered free Wi-Fi courtesy of The Cloud network, has been handed the fine after one nameless user was caught downloading pirated digital media.

No amount of exclamation marks will reinforce your position, steve. Perhaps read links as well as post them?

From the ZDNet article in the link I posted:
"Firstly, £8k is a strange figure to be paid in such a case. Secondly, a "fine" is actually something that is paid in criminal, not civil, matters (hence, when people talk about "parking fines", they really should say "parking penalties" instead). Thirdly, according to legal experts such as Lilian Edwards, who we quoted in the story, a court should not have found the landlord liable.

Finally, no-one can track the case down through court records. This is partly because the UK has no comprehensive, centralised court records database. However, after we published, we even had a major rights owner group call us to say they too were stymied as to the case's identification. No pub association has been able to track the case down, either.

Earlier this week, we asked Graham Cove, The Cloud's MD, whether the £8k really had been a fine, or whether it might have been an out-of-court settlement. He would or could not say. "

T3 have done that tabloid thing of throwing out the scare story without actually checking for facts.

 

[timwebster]

I'm on the polka newsletter run and one of their customers is doing this:

public-wifi.co.uk

Which is apparently like fon but more for businesses. Its powered by polkaspots (whatever that means) but isn't supported by them. For those of us that can plug a box in and wait 2 minutes, i would imaging it's fine!

I think public wifi have more hotspots than polka now which is weird!