According to a new proposal being considered by a suburb of New York City, any business or home office with an open wireless connection but no separate server to fend off Internet attacks would be violating the law.
Now, I'm assuming by 'separate server' they mean WEP or WPA encryption; a separate server might also imply a firewall, which has nothing to do with inbound wireless connections. The wording:
The draft proposal offered this week would compel all "commercial businesses" with an open wireless access point to have a "network gateway server" outfitted with a software or hardware firewall. Such a firewall, used to block intrusions from outside the local network, would be required even for a coffee shop that used an old-fashioned cash register instead of an Internet-linked credit card system that could be vulnerable to intrusions.
As much as I like being able to rogue when in a pinch, I agree with enforcing WEP or WPA encyrption, requiring network keys or accounts. Anyhow, it's in motion. News.com reports: “Unsecured Wi-Fi would be outlawed by N.Y. county”.