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The New York Times has an interesting article here on the use of open access points for making VOIP-based phone calls.

It brings up a host of legal and technical issues.

The most interesting of these is whether its legal to use an open access point to make a phone call.  There have been several cases of prosecution of people with laptops using open access points.   However, there have also been many warnings to keep your access point locked if you don’t want anyone else breaking in.  I believe California was recently considering a law that puts such a warning right on the box for wi-fi devices.

On the other hand, for low density areas, it appears to me that there is no harm done to the individual providing the access and a substantial benefit to the public at large.

It also seems that this is likely to be an interim solution, because in 5 -10 years there will be a replacement for wi-fi that will be much more effective.  This service will be provided on a flat-fee basis, just like phone service is beginning to be provided now via VOIP (Time Warner, Vonage, SunRocket, Verizon).

In addition to being legally unclear from the perspective of the user, its also not clear what the regulation is on the person providing the service.  Are they to be held responsible for the use of their lines in these cases (it seems not, because they are a service provider).  is it a violation of their terms of service with their ISP?  Possibly.

In any event, I’ve kept my access open for several years.  The main driver was several years ago when I had a hardware failure, and couldn’t get onto my own system for a couple of weeks, and I wanted to use the neighbors’.

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