Could you be more retarded? Obviously everyone is paying for their own bandwidth. Do you think it comes from fairies? They are just reselling some of the part they don't use.

I'm not an attorney, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Fon get into legal hot water. It's also likely that the "Linuses" and "Bills" will get into hot water if they don't carefully read their ISP's terms of service and user agreements.

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George Bailey wrote:
Could you be more retarded? Obviously everyone is paying for their own bandwidth. Do you think it comes from fairies? They are just reselling some of the part they don't use.

That is assuming that the users have the right to sell "unused" bandwidth. Would you be willing to bet your house, your car, your retirement, all your bank accounts and investments, and your income for the next 20 years that you have that right? Do you have a spare $10-25K to pay an attorney to defend you in a lawsuit? If so, go ahead. Otherwise, spend a few hundred bucks to have an attorney go over the legal issues, first.

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George Bailey wrote:
Could you be more retarded? Obviously everyone is paying for their own bandwidth. Do you think it comes from fairies? They are just reselling some of the part they don't use.

This is like you paying $12 to get into an "all you can eat buffet" and then charging 3 of your friends $3 to get in with you. So you get $9 from your friends and pay $12 to the buffet to get in and then you let the 3 friends in the back door..

Then the restaurant kicks you all out and you stand there and say "But we all paid!"

Do you honestly think the restaurant will let all 4 of you in without any problem? You really think all 4 people paid for their meal in that situation?

You know I really would not feel to bad about stealing from a bunch of crooks. The Broadband providers are an evil lot. They are actually lobbying Congress to prevent States and local governments from providing low cost internet for their respective residents. In that case, the Broadband companies are not doing any work, just trying to preserve their revenue streams.

Where I live Comcast is my only choice of provider, and they often prevent me from using services such as Vonage, and I do pay for my service. Comcast does it because it to offers a phone service that is twice as much as Vonages.

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George Bailey wrote:
Could you be more retarded? Obviously everyone is paying for their own bandwidth. Do you think it comes from fairies? They are just reselling some of the part they don't use.

With a screen name of George Bailey you really ought to know better. This is stealing, glorified under technological jargon. The funny thing is that the LInuses stand to lose their service and may face a lawsuit, for virtually nothing in return.

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That means that those of us not participating in Fon's network of thievery will end up seeing our own rates go up, or our quality of service go down.

Of course I'm expecting both of these to happen anyway.

Even as it is, 90% of the bandwidth of most broadband providers is used by less than 10% of their customers. (Note: No, I don't know the exact numbers, but it's something like that.) And yet the heavy users pay the same as the light users.

If this bandwidth sharing becomes a real problem, it's not like ISPs will have no recourse: they'll just change their billing plans to charge the heavy users a bit more. Sucks for heavy users, but it would probably be great for the other 90% of broadband users. Broadband providers are not helpless fawns.

I doubt these hot spots are going to put all that much of a strain on ISPs, though. They'll probably be used mostly for light things — email, web browsing, etc.

I still think Fon's business model is a bit questionable, but I don't see it bringing about armageddon.

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George Bailey wrote:
Could you be more retarded? Obviously everyone is paying for their own bandwidth. Do you think it comes from fairies? They are just reselling some of the part they don't use.

Along parallel lines, I definitely don't mind opening up my computer after hours so it can be used in a zombie network. Heck, I paid for the processor cycles but I'm not using them. Might as well let someone else get a benefit while paying me.

Oh wait, zombie networks are bad...

I would definately catagorize this as a scam and a rip off to anyone who sets one of these up. First there's the chance you lose your service for violating your contract. Then there's an even bigger chance that this router is rigged with spyware so they know how many hits your getting when people from the outside use it.
I wouldn't go near anything like this. You know what they say? If it's to good to be true most likely it's a rip off.

I see a lot of condescension here mixed with assumptions--never a good mix. Oh and just for kicks without any justification let's insert a little fear in too by mentioning "SPYWARE"---ooooohh scary! Guess I'll never buy anything again, just to be safe.

What FON is doing is allowing everyone with an *appropriately licensed* broadband connection to set up their own internet cafe. I haven't heard anyone (yet) pontificate about the evils of internet cafes re-selling their bandwidth, so why should FON users get that treatment, when they're doing the same thing?

There's no harm done as ISPs cap your bandwidth anyway, so sharing only squeezes that part which the FON user paid for, not anybody else's.

And speaking of ISPs, just what exactly do you think it is that they do but RE-sell unused bandwidth??? It's not stealing when they do it, but woe unto the lowly individual who tries to do the same thing! Then it's unleash the scorn and bad morality plays about all you can eat buffets...