"The government will not exempt universities, libraries and small
businesses providing open Wi-Fi services from its Digital Economy Bill
copyright crackdown, according to official advice released earlier this
week. This would leave many organizations open to the same penalties
for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially
including disconnection from the Internet, leading legal experts to say
it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access.
'This is going to be a very unfortunate measure for small businesses,
particularly in a recession, many of whom are using open free Wi-Fi
very effectively as a way to get the punters in. Even if they password
protect, they then have two options — to pay someone like The Cloud to
manage it for them, or take responsibility themselves for becoming an
ISP effectively, and keep records for everyone they assign connections
to, which is an impossible burden for a small cafe,' said Lilian
Edwards, professor of Internet law at Sheffield University."
There's a professor of Internet Law?
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