Avoiding legal problems from shared wireless internet

Jemma-T

mrJ wrote: »

Not garbage - it can happen.... everyone who gets letters from the music, film, or software companies either downloaded something illegally (supposedly - but correct half the time) - if unsecure others can use your connection and get you into possible bother etc.... you are the account holder and are thus responsible.
The rest are more extreme and rare, but again... it can happen...

Nonsense. Unless you have actually provided something knowingly (or should have known) or allowed a service to help someone commit a criminal offence that's utter rubbish. That's like selling a comb from a shop and someone stabs someone with it. Are you responsible for death by hair implement? If it were a knife and the person who bought was under age then you'd be responsible but not directly for the death. That can't be applied to the Internet unless you knowingly set up a free network for downloading alleged illegal material. That's what the OP wants to do essentially. Set up a network for free !!!!!!, music, films and anything else people fancy. That's what it'll be used for of course but that doesn't mean the OP should have known about it.

Either way, I get your point and the OP would need to be stupid to put his name to anything where someone can abuse it [in essentially his name].

mrJ_5

Jemma-T wrote: »

That's like selling a comb from a shop and someone stabs someone with it.

Completly different - it's copyright infringement (and usually a civil matter)....

Here a minor downloaded songs, yet mother gets the bill... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4640415.stm

An old couple get a letter for downloading something illegal (and other people too) but didn't actually do it... http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/28/internet-!!!!!!-bill-mistake

Even if it is open or free for others to use, you are responsible for what happens - firstly, you're the account holder and secondly, you can't let others use the connection without your permission (since you'd be responsible) nor can you charge for it... if you can prove it wasn't you, then you'd be off the hook so to speak...

(A little different, but the same in a way) Pirate Bay got into trouble as it supplies a service which can be used to download illegal things, yet they don't physically have the illegal content on their own servers...

Jemma-T wrote: »

That's what the OP wants to do essentially. Set up a network for free !!!!!!, music, films and anything else people fancy.

Let's just hope that the OP won't do it, otherwise there will be a lot of bother in the future if they do and the BPI (etc) demand the OP to pay up.

Jemma-T wrote: »

the OP would need to be stupid to put his name to anything where someone can abuse it [in essentially his name].

Agreed..... like Pirate Bay - if it started out with good intentions (not that the name suggests that), then it just takes one person to abuse it to destroy it (and end up with some sort of fine).

Jemma-T

Getting a 'letter' off some scumbag chancing lawyer, ISP or Hollywood based film company does not make you "responsible".

Anyone can take you to court for almost anything but that doesn't make what you did "illegal" or that you're responsible.

Big difference between civil and criminal. Please don't get private companies mixed up with the authorities. Saying that I'm sure the UK government would be quite happy to let ASDA, VirginMedia or anyone else who wore a yellow jacket in a car park have legal powers to take you to court.

DatabaseError

I'd check with the broadband provider before sharing the connection...I imagine it will be against the TOS of most providers.
..then you have the problem of what to do if the person in room A decides to use a torrent app...not only are you questionably open to legal action, as already discussed, but the connection is also useless for anyone else (including yourself) unless you have a decent router with QOS.

aerostar

Have a look at the opendns site, you can block specific sites, or block by category.

however you would also be blocked if you live in the same house and you have a wireless/adsl modem.

To get round your blocking ,then the best thing would be to get an extra wireless access point and connect that to the modem, in this new one you would set up the DNS servers, and give the students access to this wireless network. Your own network would be in the modem and must be encrypted and on a different channel.

There are a few tech bits to get round re DHCP but is not insurmountable.

here is the list of categories you can block with opendns

Adult Themes
Adware
Alcohol
Auctions
Automotive
Blogs
Business Services
Chat
Classifieds
Dating
Drugs
Ecommerce/Shopping
Educational Institutions
File storage
Financial institutions
Forums/Message boards
Gambling
Games
Government
Hate/Discrimination
Health
Humor
Instant messaging
Jobs/Employment
Lingerie/Bikini
Movies
Music
News/Media
Non-profits
Nudity
P2P/File sharing
Parked Domains
Phishing
Photo sharing
Podcasts
Politics
Pornography
Portals
Proxy/Anonymizer
Radio
Religious
Research/Reference
Search engines
Sexuality
Social networking
Software/Technology
Sports
Tasteless
Television
Travel
Video sharing
Visual search engines
Weapons
Webmail