Kari, first let me say that I actually agree with you
(as stated earlier in the post)
Your response actually suprises me though. Considering your vehement hatred of all things Piracy related, you strike me as the sort of person who would oppose this as it quite frankly makes pirate's life easier.
Course I'm obviously wrong
I'm not having a go by the way, just saying I'm a bit suprised.
Although not living in Finland any more, not in a very long time, I have been participating the debate on several Finnish media about this. In the beginning I was strictly against the whole idea, until I thought it a bit more. I believe the English word for someone like me is turncoat; today I am very strongly supporting this bill.
I don't want to make pirates life easier, absolutely not. My comparison was meant to say that we consumers should protect our systems against line pirates, as companies are protecting their products against software pirates.
As I quoted in my first post, Finland has so far had only one case where Court has given a sentence for unauthorized surfing in an unencrypted WiFi network. This shows authorities inability to cope with the current situation. In my opinion, it's better to clarify the existing situation with legislation: if someone is so stupid not to protect their network, it's OK to use it.
My whole point is that I'm worried every time I visit friends and family and notice they don't even think about protecting their networks. A couple times I have showed this by using my laptop to enter the network and hijacked it. IMO any method that can change the current situation, can make people start using encryption, is acceptable.
One important point to understand is that volume based connection model does not exist in Finland any more. ISP's in Finland are selling only what we call flat rate; surf and download as much as you want, whenever you want, the price is fixed. Nobody is going to get a bigger bill, or the line cut, because some passerby downloaded two movies. Of course, this is an important factor behind the bill. This legislation does not suit a country or area where there still exists volume based contracts.
Another aspect is that with this legislation, when you are travelling in Finland and need connection, it's good to know that it's OK to use any open network your laptop can find. Legislators have made their point clear: if you don't want outsiders to use your network, encrypt it.
I can understand how you could think supporting this bill contradicts my known anti-piracy opinions. However, in this case I think it's good the politicians of my country are saying it's enough now: protect your network or do not complain.
Kari
