Broadband ISP Andrews and Arnold ( AAISP ) has discovered a potential loophole in the controversial Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA) that could actually encourage consumers to setup an open / public Wi-Fi (wireless) internet hotspot; as opposed to discouraging it as many people fear.

It's often been reported that the Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA) will make it more difficult to setup public Wi-Fi Hotspots due to the potential threat of legal action or disconnection against the owner by Rights Holders. This impedes the ability of businesses (cafe's etc.) to offer a service and people to get online.

It all stems from the fact that the owner is unfairly made directly responsible for anybody downloading unlawful copyright infringing files over their network. The alternative's of re-classifying yourself as an ISP brings extra legal and cost burdens, as does asking another ISP to "manage" the network for you.

The solution, claims AAISP, is to stop identifying yourself as a "Subscriber" and instead become a "Communications provider", which is apparently critically different from being defined as a "Service provider".


AAISP admits that copyright owners could still get your details and take legal action against you, although in theory the customer now has the perfect defence of running a public Wi-Fi network (i.e. the copyright infringement could have been carried out by a random member of the public); plausible deniability. Put another way, the DEA might actually encourage people to run public Wi-Fi . Of course nobody has tested this theory, yet.

In related news it's been reported that Ofcom is likely to impose a threshold that takes into account an ISP's size and costs of compliance with the Digital Economy Act. The move could result in small Wi-Fi networks and ISPs being exempt from the act. Mobile Broadband providers might also escape. However nothing concrete will be known for a few months.

It's important to point out that many consumer broadband offering UK ISPs will impose restrictions within their Terms and Conditions (T&C's) against the sharing of a connection with others.