[176719] in North American Network Operators' Group
Comcast thinks it ok to install public wifi in your house
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeroen van Aart)
Wed Dec 10 21:35:28 2014
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 18:35:03 -0800
From: Jeroen van Aart <jeroen@mompl.net>
To: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
Why am I not surprised?
Whose fault would it be if your comcast installed public wifi would be
abused to download illegal material or launch a botnet, to name some
random fun one could have on your behalf. :-/
(apologies if this was posted already, couldn't find an email about it
on the list)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/10/disgruntled_customers_lob_sueball_at_comcast_over_public_wifi/
"A mother and daughter are suing Comcast claiming the cable giant's
router in their home was offering public Wi-Fi without their permission.
Comcast-supplied routers broadcast an encrypted, private wireless
network for people at home, plus a non-encrypted network called
XfinityWiFi that can be used by nearby subscribers. So if you're passing
by a fellow user's home, you can lock onto their public Wi-Fi, log in
using your Comcast username and password, and use that home's bandwidth.
However, Toyer Grear, 39, and daughter Joycelyn Harris – who live
together in Alameda County, California – say they never gave Comcast
permission to run a public network from their home cable connection.
In a lawsuit [PDF] filed in the northern district of the golden state,
the pair accuse the ISP of breaking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and
two other laws.
Grear – a paralegal – and her daughter claim the Xfinity hotspot is an
unauthorized intrusion into their private home, places a "vast" burden
on electricity bills, opens them up to attacks by hackers, and
"degrades" their bandwidth.
"Comcast does not, however, obtain the customer's authorization prior to
engaging in this use of the customer's equipment and internet service
for public, non-household use," the suit claims.
"Indeed, without obtaining its customers' authorization for this
additional use of their equipment and resources, over which the customer
has no control, Comcast has externalized the costs of its national Wi-Fi
network onto its customers."
The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages for themselves and on behalf
of all Comcast customers nation-wide in their class-action case – the
service was rolled out to 20 million customers this year."
--
Earthquake Magnitude: 4.8
Date: 2014-12-10 22:10:36.800 UTC
Date Local: 2014-12-10 13:10:36 PST
Location: 120km W of Panguna, Papua New Guinea
Latitude: -6.265; Longitude: 154.4004
Depth: 35 km | e-quake.org
