We...got a thing...that's called...WiFi Love!

[profundis]

"...we got a wave in the air..."

Well I'm camped out here at Panera Bread enjoying a nice hazelnut latte and some free wireless internet time - but wait! Freedom isn't free! My free internet came with censorship! Arg! No bear411 or any such site allowed! pr0n! Eeek!

This is disappointing, partly because I actually do *business* using various websites that are blocked, but mostly because I HATE BEING TOLD WHAT I CAN AND CANT LOOK AT! I mean, why the fuck should they have a bug up their ass if I want to chat up the menz on my own machine? Virus fears?

If they don't have virus blocking on their own servers, they got bigger problems than worrying about whether I will be displaying the image of some hot hairy bear on my screen while I'm here. So of course, I'm changing my wallpaper to the image of a hot hairy bear.

Suck it, Pornera!

Comments

pornera...

[barak.livejournal.com]

lol!

[tropicstyle.livejournal.com]

Really show um.. get your webcam out!

[profundis.livejournal.com]

Great idea! Too bad I dint bring it. :(

[tropicstyle.livejournal.com]

Goes and gets it.. *grins* then let me know!

[ericdabear.livejournal.com]

Well if Panera had unrestricted wi-fi access then little tommy and suzy could come download all the pr0n they wanted and mommy and daddy would have to sue for bad parenting!

Plus, they'd just suck up all your bandwidth for free pr0n, leaving your business datastream bottlenecked. I know I would.

PR00000000000000000000000000000000N!

Freedom isn't free?

[jefferzephyr.livejournal.com]

Snatch it down!

Re: Freedom isn't free?

[barak.livejournal.com]

Free is dom(esticated).

Re: Freedom isn't free?

[jefferzephyr.livejournal.com]

Till the kows come home.

Re: Freedom isn't free?

[barak.livejournal.com]

Party with the kows!!!

Re: Freedom isn't free?

[profundis.livejournal.com]

It looks like two squirrels fighting over an acorn...

muff parade

[jefferzephyr.livejournal.com]

The winner will be displayed in the freedom cage.

[psifire.livejournal.com]

I can understand Panera being rather prickly about access to certain sites. However, I believe it has little to do about virus protection or malware. That can be easily handled without blocking site access and with proper security.

Given the litagory nature that follows free wireless access, it has yet to be legally determined who is responsible for what. It is your computer, it is their network, it is someone else's content. Who is ultimately resonsible? The whole area is very... grey. It would not be unfeasible for upset parents, or individuals, to drag Panera into a lengthy lawsuit over not protecting them from obscene content while in a public arena. Little hacker Timmy starts packet sniffing over the open air, recompiles the data and suddenly pops up with a picture of big hairy men fucking. While not technically trivial, it falls within the skillsets of even 10-13 year olds.

While you and I would find the responsibility line of litigation bull, I can bet you dollar to legal brief that a lawyer will snap it up in an black-heartbeat. Especially in the state of Georgia which seems to have taken the DoJ's calls to stomp out obscenity to heart. And the general public opinion that if you can blame a company, do so and do it big.

[tecknow.livejournal.com]

In addition to customers (who may be underage) What about employees under the age of 18? Any of them could use the wireless network to look at porn or be subjected to others looking at porn in public, all of which is of questionable legality if not outright illegal. Many libraries use filtering programs or attach a decency agreement to the terms of your library card to cover themselves.

Given the laws as they are, and that the front page of Bear411 is patently pornographic (the bearload.com advert) what exactly would you like Panera to do? Short of barring anyone under 18 from working or shopping there, I don't see how they could protect themselves with an unfiltered public internet connection.

[profundis.livejournal.com]

What would I like them to do? Isn't that obvious? I'd like them to stop trying to nanny me. I'd even register for their service (with all the spam that goes with it) if they'd arrange not to play mommy for me thanks very much.

[jdtdco.livejournal.com]

1.) Your complaining about a free service... huh ?!

2.) It's blocked to ensure people around you continue to have a nice dining experience without having to possibly glimpse "unacceptable" sites. Keep in mind there are minors who eat at the establishment.

3.) Legality issues, since the service is free, and they do not require you to login and/or verify your identify to shift legal burden to you, the user.

4.) It's free, quit yer bitchin! ;-)

[profundis.livejournal.com]

1, You're new here aren't you? LOL!

This "free" service is not being given out of the kindness of Panera's heart, it's to draw business people to lunch there and spend money on them. I'm glad to be able to check my email and LJ there (for now - until they define LJ as "mature content" but I'm extremely disappointed that they have decided to restrict my surfing access to do someone else's parenting for them, or "protect" grown adults from possibly "glimpsing" something they might find offensive. I found the blaring "make millions from home" infomercial tutorial that my booth neighbor was playing to be offensive too, but alas.

2. I take exception to that logic. Nothing at all is preventing me or anyone else there from displaying pornographic, religious, political, or any other "adult" material on our screens from our hard drives, CD's or DVD's. No one is forced to look at my screen, in fact I take great pains to keep people from readng over my shoulders no matter what I'm doing (ask logomancer about my "no hovering rule") ;)

There is no such thing as a gaurantee of a nice dining experience when eating out (my idea of nice would be no minors around, no stuffy blue-haired busybodies and unrestricted internet access).

3. I wish they would require registration and let me browse where I want, I'd be happy to take the responsibility for my own actions, rather than being nannied. *I* chose not to have any children that need protecting from my bear sites, but if I had any I'd be paying attention to what they were doing while we were out eating. And they wouldn't have their own laptop at the age at which I'd care what they were surfing anyway.

4. Never! There are lots of free services at the churches all around my neighborhood but they wish to nanny me and insult my intelligence and undermine my adult judgment as well, and I complain about them too!