NewsWireless.net's Guy J. Kewney reports that FON users are (virtually, not physically...) dumping their routers en masse into a lake near Madrid.

"It's because of a clever idea - or so it seemed: let people 'earn' 15 minutes of free Internet time on the FON WiFi network by watching adverts," Kewney writes.

On the FON discussion boards, user Claudi writes, "I just realized that fon allows 15 minutes of free surfing on my personal fonera without prior asking for my permission. I found out that ANYONE can use those 15 minutes for anonymous surfing - when opening the free account any faked email address can be used. 15 minutes is a long time and nobody can control what an anonymous user is able to do in that time on my router. I do have safety concerns and do not agree to this and therefor moved my fonera virtually into a lake near Madrid. I suggest that anyone else thinking that fon should NOT act that way moves her/his fonera there as well."

"The 'safety issues' appear to be primarily a concern for German users, because of strict Internet laws in that country, making the owner of an IP address responsible for anything transmitted from it," Kewney writes. "The users are not actually dumping their WiFi routers into the water. They are just disrupting the FON network by making them appear to be there. The system is, apparently, wide open to abuse: the free 15 minutes are assigned to the apparent MAC (Media Access Controller) identity of the mobile device. It's not at all difficult to "spoof" a different MAC address and get another 15 minutes, completely anonymously."

More here on the FON Boards, including skynetbbs' rather obvious point that "If you move your fonera to that lake that means that anyone will still be allowed to access your fon spot because IT IS STILL TURNED ON!!! I understand that some people may want to protest, but the best way to do that is still to just turn off your la fonera, not moving it on the fon maps..."