[OpenWireless Tech] A small question about tracking

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org> writes:

Russell> Dude, I have been.  For years (since 2005, personally, since
Russell> 2000 for our project).

Brad> That's wonderful!

Brad> Now, tell me -- how many people have you inspired to set up
Brad> their own networks and take that same risk, in today's legal
Brad> climate?

We have ~85 networks right now, total, so ~84. ;-) And actually a lot
more than that over the years, as some have gone away from ordinary
attrition (businesses closing, people moving out of town, etc).  By
and large, for every one we lose in attrition, we get a new one from
word-of-mouth.  Pretty much every one of those 50k people per year
that use our networks for free, love what we do.  Some of them start
sharing their own networks, either by themselves or with our help.
Some of them tell their favorite bar or coffee shop to call us to help
get them set up.

The current legal climate isn't much different than it's been in the
last 10 years in the US, afaict.  (Germany, France, etc, I know have
gotten worse).

Portland had a pretty robust ISP community coming out of the dialup
era, and if you could get DSL in Oregon, you had a gigantic list of
ISPs to choose from.  And although many have disappeared, we still
have a fairly broad choice of local ISPs, most of which are what we
call "Sharing Friendly".  We have a few that sponsor networks.  But
the overwhelming majority of our networks are small businesses and
individuals sharing their own bandwidth at their own expense.

There are hundreds of not thousands of intentionally open, free wifi
networks in Portland (particularly in coffee shops and bars) that we
have nothing directly to do with.  Except perhaps that in the early
days we helped establish the expectation that they be open and free
and it stuck.  None of them get raided by cops, or I think I'd have
heard about it.

So, forgive me if I consider the whole "OMFG, the cops are going to
kick down my door!!!111ONEONEONE" as cowardly, in light of the reality
I have observed actually doing it, and the number of people we've
helped.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net