[OpenWireless Tech] Germany Court ruling affects open wifi

[Christian Huitema]

> This is why we need vpns and maybe something even stronger (in case of
> compromised vpn providers). This is why we need to educate people about
the
> risks properly. That is unless we do not care if we read news like this
with
> retroshare replaced by openwireless. (We discussed this already, but many
> people on this list seem to belive that security is about "subjective
fears")

There is a slippery slope there. Accommodating silly regulations invites
even sillier laws. The silliest laws are those that proclaim that anyone
providing free Internet access is a potential accomplice to copyright
violations, child porn, or maybe terrorism. Yes, variations of VPN will
mitigate some of the current regulations. But they will come at a cost,
making open wireless harder to deploy, harder to explain, and overall a
weaker statement.

Laws are about politics. You do not change politics by accommodating silly
regulations. You change politics by having a clear message. "The Internet
should be somewhat open and we will use VPN to make sure that the police can
still check who connects to what" is not a clear message, and won't change
politics. "The Internet should be open" is a clear message. Open wireless
should be just that.

-- Christian Huitema