Russia To Require Registration For Wi-Fi Use 155
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... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And... (Score:5, Funny)
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beaurocracy (Score:5, Informative)
Russia has always been top heavy in beaurocracy, even before Soviet times.
Re:beaurocracy (Score:4, Insightful)
A large portion of the certification process in Russia is run by private labs whose tactics are not that far from the law textbook definition of extortion.
All this means is that they have gotten themselves a "men at the helm" to provide them with more income.
Re:beaurocracy (Score:4, Interesting)
Our modern European and American states are heading down the same path.
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http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8784/1208579998710pd8.jpg [imageshack.us]
The Threatdown! (Score:2)
Re:beaurocracy (Score:4, Funny)
Bureaucracy [wikipedia.org]
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I'm so sorry for this (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm so sorry for this (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm so sorry for this (Score:4, Informative)
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One of the relics of an overturned empire...
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Re:And... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:And... (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
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The situation is far from clear. It seems, that RSOC just backed down because of the public backlash.
muggers (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd recommend concealing them from the muggers too.
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Extrapolating from the summary, does that include microwave ovens, too?
I got one! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I got one! (Score:5, Informative)
Origin of Russian reversal [wikipedia.org].
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WiFi devices (Score:3, Interesting)
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Cue thinkgeek ad.
Wait, what? (Score:2)
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Funny)
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Bluetooth too? (Score:3, Interesting)
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The official that came up with this idea probably doesn't have much of a technical background...
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How long before.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm not going to say it's no different, but speaking as someone who is neither American or Russian, I see having to hand my laptop over to a bunch of oafs in the airport so they can go through it as more invasive than being required to register my wifi adapter. But maybe that's just me.
Yeah, you just keep telling yourself you live in the land of the free if that's what makes you feel good.
Re:How long before.. (Score:5, Funny)
/It took one hour
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Can this be abused? (Score:1)
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of course it will happen (Score:1)
russian (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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Wild guess - not based on any knowledge of Russian politics, you understand, but based on a cynical view of most governments - it was dreamt up by a network operator which wants to establish/maintain a monopoly and they "discussed" the matter with the appropriate parties.
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what do you think you are doing?!? (Score:2)
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Are they doing moon bounce with a dipole?
That's a quarter the capacity of a moderate nuclear power plant.
They're afraid (Score:5, Funny)
Soon in the US (Score:2)
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This is happening in Russia, ok? Not the US. You seem to be thinking that the US is on it's way to some sort of totalitarian government. It's not. Russia IS on it's way to some totalitarian government, and it's obvious to everyone w
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It is. Search Slashdot (or anywhere else) for "net neutrality". Various activists are eager to force their own understanding of "fairness" and "neutrality" on the ISPs.
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There's a difference between ISPs, whom you are paying for access/bandwidth, and private Wi-Fi networks. The GP implies that people will be forced to open up their private networks, which is not the case and has nothing to do with network neutrality.
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There is not. The hardware is privately owned, and who is paying whom for what is nobody else's business.
Yes, yes, everybody wants the rules and regulations to apply to others — not themselves... Landlords can't discriminate on race, but I don't want to
There's a problem when ... (Score:4, Funny)
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It is common Russian way to create shorts. It's easier to say it when you're drunk (also common in Russia) then to spell something in Russian alphabet. Just like 'Gosgortechnadzor' or 'Khosrasschiot'.
It's so sad... (Score:2, Troll)
Re:It's so sad... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Brezhnev (Score:2, Insightful)
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.)
Russia was in one long decline under Brezhnev. And only a few of the Czars accomplished anything, the last one was a disaster.
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.
Russians know that good times are only a temporary abnormality, so they might as well enjoy it as long as it lasts.
Also, hard work is not the way ahead in society in Russia, all you accomplish is to make some gangster or bureaucrat (in Russia, they are mostly the same) happy. So either you become a gangster/bureaucrat, or you work as little as possible and spend what you have o
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I had to work with Russians...Well Russian Speaking Ukrainians to be precise.
The only thing I noticed that may work with your clichés is their subtile saccarstic humour.
Sure the rule of law isn't perfect nor democracy. Bribes exist too (I met a pharmaceutical firm sales rep who had to pay bribes in hospitals for her products). But the situation isn't that far from Bulgaria who just joined the EU.
They are hard workers, I witnessed it...And also pretty good at engineering challenges (I witn
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This is very true. But there is a deeper reason why people in Russia take it easy (one of popular expressions is "work is not a wolf, it won't run away into the forest".) Russians perceive the purpose of lif
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Rossvyazokhrankultura (Score:1)
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Personally I find this abbreviation still too unwieldy. As is the idea that one agency would regulate communications and protect cultural matters. But this is usual bureaucratic power games in Russia.
Not true (Score:1)
Meanwhile at 10 Downing Street (Score:2)
While we're at it.... (Score:1)
Really going to be nice with "exotic" equipment (Score:2)
Something says that they won't look kindly on Lightweight AP+Controller setups.
That's a hoax, and has been known to be for days (Score:3, Informative)
False alarm. (Score:2, Informative)
There goes my password... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
That depends if she works for the government, if so, the Soviet Russia will have sex with you .
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I understand what you were trying to say.. but there are laws (even in Russia) against doing such things.. so your attempt fails.. and please get yourself neutered.. Thanks
Re:Yes, but... (Score:5, Informative)
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Human nature is a disaster.
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Re:Hahahahahahaha! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Ha, Ha! That's wishful thinking. The American no-need-to-register PBS is pretty good, especially all those british progr
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Fortunatly for me i dont have have a tv but can watch BBC programing on iplayer for free.
I think there must be some good US channels? I think the BBC also pushes up the competition, I find C4 much better, but if it wasnt for the BBC they would slump as ITV & FIVE just cant put on anything other than reality TV.
I do worry about Russia, not allowing free access to the internet is the first step in blocking out
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Note that C4 is also publicly owned, it is just advertisement funded instead of using license fees.
Channel 4 has a more entertainment focus than the BBC, but they both have some very good stuff.
ITV and Five are the two privately owned, advertisement funded channels on the analogue over-air network and as you say, they are both
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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.
It probably still beats most US networks, but as seems to be the fashion with TV these days, they've laid on several more channels without first ensuring that they have the quality material to fill those channels.
So whereas 20 years ago you'd get maybe 8-12 hours per week of good peak-time programming divided between two channels, today you get 6-8 hours divided between four channels. (I've reduced the number of hours because Eastenders is on more than it used to be).
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