Russia To Require Registration For Wi-Fi Use

Oleg.salenko points out a ComputerWorld story with some bad news for Russia's wireless users, which starts out "Business travelers to Russia might want to keep their laptops and iPhones well-concealed — not from muggers, necessarily, but from the country's recently formed regulatory super-agency, Rossvyazokhrankultura (short for the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service)... Rossvyazokhrankultura's interpretation of current law holds that users must register any electronics that use the frequency involved in Wi-Fi communications, said Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the agency's communications monitoring division, according to an English commentary provided by website The Other Russia."

It gets worse: "Aside from public hotspots, the registration requirement also applies to home networks, laptops, smart phones and Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs, Karpov reportedly said. Registration only permits use by the owner. Registration for personal devices is said to take 10 days, but registering a hotspot — including a home network — is more complicated, involving a set of documents and technological certifications akin to putting in a cell tower."

And...

Cue the Soviet Russia jokes in 3,2,1...

Re:And...

In Soviet Russia, joke cues you in 1, 2, 3...

beaurocracy

Russia has always been top heavy in beaurocracy, even before Soviet times.

Re:beaurocracy

beaurocracy - rule by the beautiful?

Bureaucracy [wikipedia.org]

Re:beaurocracy

Beauracracy (and the inherent corruption therein) is what brought-down the Roman Empire in the 300s and 400s A.D. Too many employees, gobbling-up too much money, and not enough taxes to support the weight.

Our modern European and American states are heading down the same path.

I'm so sorry for this

In Soviet Russia wifi-register.su

Re:I'm so sorry for this

In case it isn't obvious (it wasn't immediately obvious to me), that TLD is the extension that was created for the Soviet Union. Apparently it is still in use today [wikipedia.org].

Re:I'm so sorry for this

In fact this was a story on /. Saturday [slashdot.org].

Re:And...

I would rather cue the jokes about Soviet Australia, as the dudes from computerworld.com.au misinterpreted the function of this agency, which only registers hotspots or for-profit wi-fi networks. The end consumer is fully exempted. Here's the google translation of their article: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rsoc.ru%2Fmain%2Fabout%2F858%2F887.shtml%3Fid_news%3D628&langpair=ru%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 [google.com]

Re:And...

Actually, no.

There was a splash in Russian-speaking blogs about this law. It's NOT clear what they mean by "end-user devices". It may be interpreted only as a WiFi card inside your notebook, for example. So you'll still need to register your wireless router.

In short, that law is just a plain money-grab. And will be probably ignored by anyone: "Strictness or Russian laws is alleviated by their optionality" (sorry, it sounds much better in Russian).

muggers

Business travelers to Russia might want to keep their laptops and iPhones well-concealed -- not from muggers,necessarily,

I'd recommend concealing them from the muggers too.

I got one!

In Soviet Russia, WiFi registers you!

Re:I got one!

Just out of curiosity, where did the Soviet Russia jokes come from?

Origin of Russian reversal [wikipedia.org].

WiFi devices

Looks like everyone who doesn't register their Nintendo DS is going to be a dangerous criminal! :O

How long before..

How long before some idiot tells us this is no different from what we have in the US?

Re:How long before..

How long before some idiot tells us this is no different from what we have in the US?

This is no different from what we have in the U.S.

/It took one hour

russian

Almost fake story.
1. It's not required for end-user to register his wifi enabled devices.
2. Short range Wifi hotspots must be registered if you allow access to a third party (10 days and approx. 1000 rub for registration)
3. "a set of documents and technological certification" required for ISPs (if you sell wifi access for profit) and for wavelength not in a/b/g range

Re:russian

That sounds much too logical for a bureaucrat to have come up with.

They're afraid

Afraid that someone in Russia might use the internet for legitimate reasons instead of for crime.

There's a problem when ...

There's a problem when a word like Rossvyazokhrankultura is considered *short* for something. What happened to NAMBLA?

Re:Yes, but...

Yes, but while I'm in Russia can I have sex with an underage prostitute?

That depends if she works for the government, if so, the Soviet Russia will have sex with you .

Re:Yes, but...

The registration is required by commercial organisations only. Please stop the FUD.

Re:Hahahahahahaha!

ROFLMAO, you beat me to it. I was just wondering what service would be like. Just what can you steal? There are probably not too many Brits laughing. They have to register their bloody televisions.

Mind you, they get a nice return on that, or used to. Not sure how good BBC programming is these days but I'm willing to wager that it has any of the major American networks beat hands down. I know there are those that like to watch television commercials, but then again, there are people that like reality television too. Go figure.

When I was growing up (rumor has it that I have not done so yet) I read all kinds of Science Fiction books. This was before the intarwebnets and WiFi. Now, more and more, I find that I am living in one of those worlds that were known only science fiction fans.

This sounds like an attempt to sell Russian made equipment, or the beginnings of it. Ahhhh government regulation: an attempt by the ruling to create criminals of those who are not.

Fortunately, in most of the rest of the world WiFi devices have been given rather loose regulation to allow the development of Wireless services and functionality.

In countries where there is no major wired infrastructure it builds revenue streams if you have to be licensed and regulated to do the work. No PC/WiFi entrepreneurs for Russia... sigh! God forbid that Russians actually communicate easily with the rest of the world.

Personally, this makes me sad. Check http://www.englishrussia.com/ [englishrussia.com] and have a peer inside what the rest of us have only just begun to appreciate and understand. The Internet is fucking awesome. I'm sad that there are restrictions on it for Russians, and Chinese for that matter.

Re:Wait, what?

My flashlight doesn't have it. Yet. Gimme a few hours.

Re:It's so sad...

If you look at history you will see that Russia's potential is most effectively realized under authoritarian governments (Czars, Stalin, Brezhnev) and mostly wasted under "democratic" rulers (Gorbachev, Yeltsin.)

Must be the weather or something.

It's not the weather. It's russians. Given the choice they don't work. Unlike americans, russians are not chasing the golden calf, preferring instead to have good time. Nothing gets done this way.