Implications of the Internet SAFETY Act, part 3

[This is a short series I'm doing about this act. This is my opinion, and in no way represents the opinion or stance of WWU as a whole or in part, nor does it imply anything about our lobbying efforts. This is editorial.]

Part 3: Trade Shows and Conventions

Perhaps the most visible area to be impacted by this act would be trade shows and conventions. Conventions like DEFCON, TechEd, VMWorld, BrainShare, and the like all have wireless access as part of the show. It allows journalists to mail their impressions of the event to their editors, bloggers to blog, fliker photo updates, IM-based event coordination among attendees, and a billion other things.

Wireless access at these events is not going away. It is far too critical for correct function for it to go away. Instead, they'll have to adapt. What'll most likely happen is that you'll get a uid/pw on the back of your convention badge that you'll need to enter to get access out of the local network. It'll just be a fact of life.

At conferences like DEFCON where network perversion is a game, you can guarantee that the auth mechanism will come under extremely heavy attack.

Unlike your local coffee shops or the hotel you're staying at for the convention, the big convention centers have wireless access as a core business need. They will solve this problem. The interesting court cases will be about who is the custodian of the user/IP audit data for these conferences.