RIAA targets ISPs and threatens open networks

Over two years I forecast that open networks and unfirewalled computers would be targeted by the copyright goons (that's RIAA and MPAA). Now RIAA is putting its lawyers where its money is and trying to make this real - real soon. Having failed to convict homeowners who's networks were used by unauthorized outsiders for file sharing, they are now trying to get a judge to assert that ISPs are responsible for such illegal file sharing activity.

This would have severe consequences for anyone running an open WiFi network - probably not for the reasons the Wired article suggests. After all very few coffee shops, hotels or other companies are "an ISP" as such. They just share the access they purchase from someone else - as do most home owners who set up (or unintentionally create) an open wireless network. Its actually more likely to affect directly those who charge for such access although in that case they probably have a better idea of who paid for access - unless it was with cash.

I think the consequence would actually be that "real" ISPs, the type that most consumers and small businesses hook up to, like AT&T, Earthlink, AOL and the like would start taking a very hard line on their customers who share their network. This would include threatening letters about the dangers of such things, trying to force use of preconfigured "secure" routers on all customers and getting back to the bad old days of MAC restrictions so that only pre-authorized machines could connect to a network.