My Conversation with the Government Helpline on the Digital Bill
As many of you know, the digital bill is getting pushed through and it seems quite likely that it’s going to be put in force, so what does this mean for us? I’m the payer for the internet in my shared accommodation, there are 5 students under one house, so this bill will become pretty important for me, so lets say I call up the government helpline to make sure they don’t fine me, they don’t cut me off or anything else of that nature. I imagine the conversation might go along the lines of:
Me
Helpline
Heya, I want to ensure that no one in my house downloads illegally on my shared internet.
I’ve told them not to download but I can’t guarentee, so what do I do? Also I’m in a student area,
how can I secure my network? And can you alert me of any new flaws in wireless security?
Well you can block websites to stop your friends from downloading
But there are tonnes of different sites, and it’s so easy to make new sites that they can find,
so how can I maintain the blocked sites?
Perhaps it would be better to block torrents and p2p networks
That’s not an option because I download a lot of open source OS’s using torrents
You can’t download programs like Windows, that’s illegal sir
Oh no I only download Open Source software
I don’t know what you mean by open source, but I doubt it’s legal
No no it’s ok, it is legal trust me. Ok so if I can’t block people in my house from
downloading illegal content, how do I at least stop my neighbours?
You just need to set up wireless security
I have but I know of software that can break wireless security.
How can I stop this from happening?
The latest wireless security is safe sir
But will you let me know of security flaws if they arise in the latest security?
You can visit this site http://www.thedigibill.com/somelink
But will you alert me of it? I don’t want to just have to check a web page all the time
Well no sir, this is currently the only method
So without Quantum computing style security where it can be guaranteed to be secure,
I am pretty much stuck with no way monitoring my own internet connection,
no way of ensuring my wireless is used by only people in my house,
and I’ll still be held responsible?
Yes sir, that’s exactly it
Thanks