http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20040108-0435-wifilibrary.html

4:35 a.m. January 8, 2004 SAN DIEGO – Two branches of the city of San Diego Public Library have become the first in the county to offer free wireless Internet access to patrons.

Anyone with portable computers that have 801.11b network interface cards can log onto the Internet at the library’s Mission Valley and Point Loma/Hervey branches.

“Free wireless Internet access can be a valuable service to library patrons,” said City Library Director Anna Tatar. “We hope this will assist people doing research, obtaining information and simply checking and sending e-mail.”

VOILA, here is the January 9th News from AP in Havana. Can the difference be any more clear cut?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20040109-1503-cuba-internet.html

Cuba tightens its control over Internet, banning access over regular phone lines

By Anita Snow
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:03 p.m. January 9, 2004

HAVANA – Cuba tightened its controls over the Internet on Friday, prohibiting access over the low-cost government phone service most ordinary citizens have at home.

The move could affect hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Cubans who illegally access the Internet from their homes, using computers and Internet accounts they have borrowed or purchased on the black market.

Cuba’s communist government already heavily controls access to the Internet. Cubans must have government permission to use the Web legally and most don’t, although many can access international e-mail and a more limited government-controlled intranet at government jobs and schools.

Now Cubans will need additional approval to access via the nation’s regular phone service. Since few Cubans are authorized to use the Internet from home – only some doctors and key government officials – the new law amounts to a crackdown on illegal users.

The law states that the move is necessary to “regulate dial-up access to Internet navigation service, adopting measures that help protect against the taking of passwords, malicious acts, and the fraudulent and unauthorized use of this service.”