RIAA Trys to Kill Free WiFi

Not content with trying to kill P2P, the RIAA has filed a motion for reconsideration after a judge ruled that you are not liable for the actions of users on your open wifi network. If this ruling is overturned (as the RIAA hopes), then we will see the possibility of omnipresent wifi become much less feasible (not to mention cool startups like FON sputter).

In the case Capitol v. Foster, the respondent Foster was found to not be liable for file-trading using her IP address because she had an open wifi network which allowed anyone to use her IP address for internet access (and presumably file-trading).

Incidentally, I have a friend who leaves his home network open for this very reason and I would hate to see his plausible defense against the RIAA disappear.

[Via Wired]