Marriott got slapped for $600,000 for preventing guests from using their own Wi-Fi connections, as opposed to paying for the right to use Marriott’s connection.
“FCC Warns Hotels, Others Not to Block Personal Wi-Fi,” Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2015 B4. Practice was ruled to be an “unlawful intentional interference with the public’s right to use the airwaves.”
If you restrict the channels by which information flows, you may have a problem, even if it isn’t your information. Is your attempt to force people to pay you to use your channel part of your “information governance”? How does this apply (or not) to net neutrality? Or Google’s strategy to expand a phone service solely through Wi-Fi channels owned by others? Are the airwaves the ultimate public utility? How do you regulate something that must be open to all? What about signal blockers, that block all transmissions, in or out? Same analysis?
infogovnuggets 