Tag Archives: Broadband

When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail

Posted on by
Reply

Problem: Smoking is bad for your health.
Solution: Put a tax on it.

Problem: We need to increase availability of broadband.
Solution: Put a tax on it.

“Government plans for a 50p-a-month tax on households to fund super-fast broadband across the country have been criticised by an influential group of MPs,” says a report on Sky News, and quite right too.

The instinct of this government is to tax, however clumsy or counter-productive it might be. If the government wants to encourage virtuous activity, they should give businesses an incentive to do it.

Follow-Up

I have to edit this and add the latest piece of insanity from this government. With a recession still ongoing and jobs, you would think, being a top priority, this government wants to increase the tax on jobs that is National Insurance. Not only will workers take home less pay, but employers will pay more too. So:

Problem: Low employment
Solution: Increase the tax on jobs

The WiFi bandit – stealing something of no worth

Posted on by

Police in London have arrested and released on bail a man they saw sitting on a wall using a laptop. When questioned, he had admitted he was using the householder’s WiFi network to get connected. There was no suggestion he was attempting to hack into any computer systems or steal identities, so what was his offence?

The police view is that dishonestly obtaining electronic communication services is an offense under Section 125 of the U.K. 2003 Communications Act, while unauthorised access to computer material is a summary offense under Section 1 of the 1990 Computer Misuse Act.

Broadband accounts are permanently connected and typically billed in flat-rate monthly amounts unrelated to the amount of traffic used. It doesn’t seem on the face of it he has deprived the broadband account holder of anything of any monetary worth or deprived him of the use of anything that was his to enjoy.

If anything, it is the broadband account holder who has been foolish in leaving his WiFi unsecured. The risks of a passing stranger innocently using it without your permission to access his own email or whatever is trivial compared with the risks of having your computer hacked and your identity or bank and credit card details stolen.

If people realise how wide-open they are to that kind of criminal activity, maybe they will secure their networks and maybe then some good will come of this curious incident.