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The FON-Risk?

Today, I want to write something not related to the fonera hardware. To get started, a small disclaimer: I'm not a laywer, and I'm not in law buisness. I am just literate about these topics. Also, I only know the situation in Germany, other countries might be different.

For the ones, reading that I wrote in English, well, I just felt like so. 

As you know, FONs concept is quite tempting: Share your bandwith and get others bandwith for free. Also, you also can decide not to share your bandwith and pay money for your surfing time, as you know from other commerical opertated hotspots companys. This system works good and also attracts lots of people. 

However, there is one mayor difference to these "other" companys: Legal Responsibility. For a reference, please read this article (Sorry, German. Summary: There was a legal judgement, that a owner of a open (not encrypted) hotspot can be held liable for illegal action performed using this access by a third party.

"just a second" you might think, the system is not open. You'll need to register and login. And fon tells - in case of - they will help. 

Well, there some problems with that:

1. To register with fon, you just need an email address. Its easy to get anonymous emails or enter fake informations.
   
2. FON does not check that data. There is no guarantee, that these are correct.
   
3. Even if fon wants to help in an legal case -- they are are just unable to do so:
   • they do not analyze or even log your "guests" activities
   • because how the route works, it is impossible to determine (or log), if you or the guest were doing bad things.
   • Therefore you are in a bad situation if someone accuses you of  e.g possesion/downloading illegal informations, and maybe doing a complete search of your property.
4. They told you, they'll help you, and despite that they cannot, do you have a guarantee? Fon is not really famous for its response time in customer service. 

Conclusion: Only if you know the risks, and know, that you take this risk on you, you should operate a Fonrera.