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Re: [PLUG] Philadelphia Wireless Project
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On 22 Nov, 2004, at 10:42, James Kelly wrote:
George Gallen wrote:
| I see major issues with this plan. I see rampant identity theft
| that will occur with people driving around sniffing packets pulling
| emails and files right out of the air. The potential for child porn
| to be downloaded while sitting in your car looking at the kids
| playing in the playgrounds, or in the parks, totally anonymously.
| As well, I can envision the drug dealers utilizing this free
anonymous
| network for inventory and distribution services.
All these issues already exist. In fact, if anything, this alleviates
these problems. A perv who wants to be anonymous to download child
porn
before might have gone to sit outside your house to get it. The trail
ends there. If he uses the city wifi they will realize after a while
(if they care to look) that he is getting his porn every wednesday at
9pm after getting Checkers. Soon enough he gets picked up.
Same with the drug dealer scenario.
Now obviously I understand that there are some users who are smart
enough to avoid all this, but if they are smart enough to do things
like
use encryption and/or change their mac address, they certainly didn't
have a problem getting their porn or stealing information now.
No, these issues are NOT resolved!
One of the hallmarks of the "free" service being proffered by the city
is that you can "register" using any name or address that you feel like
using.
Put another way, this network will be neither free nor anonymous once
the rubber meets the road.
Nobody gives a hoot about people downloading porn or buying drugs but
the cops -- However, what will get the Internet Community royally
pissed off, very rapidly, will be all of the SPAM which will originate
from this network. The city will suddenly find their entire network
"black-holed" one day. Remember, we're not just talking about a couple
of hot-spots, in popular parks. We're (supposedly) talking about a
wireless network that is available anywhere in the city.
All of this speculation ignores the simple fact that the City really
does not have a Clue what it is trying to do from a technological point
of view.
The real problem with this entire project is that, like with Cable
Television, PGW and the Telephone before it, the City will create
Monopolies (aka franchises) that will operate this "thing" however they
want to operate it. There is no technical Public Input into the entire
process now, and there will not be any later. The entire "Committee"
is made up of "stake-holders," i.e. people from non-profits and NGOs
who are looking to get free HIGH-SPEED internet connections. There is
no technical capability on the committee. All of their technical
"expertise" comes from an outside consulting firm they have hired.
T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com
whmagill@gmail.com
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