Who owns the air?

MassPort, the Massachusetts agency that runs Boston's Logan Airport, is demanding that Continental Airlines shut down its free hotspot. Airport officials say the Wi-Fi radio in Continental's customer lounge poses an "unacceptable potential risk" to police and other security transmissions, according to a News.com report. A more likely reason, notes ZDNet's David Berlind, is potential interference with the airport's own paid Wi-Fi service. "If MassPort prevails, this could set an incredibly ugly precedent for what I thought was freely available, unregulated airspace."  Meanwhile, ZDNet blogger Dana Blankenhorn sees this case as a collision of real estate and communications laws. "What's really at stake here is whether real estate owners also control radio signals coming through their property."