Difference between "access point solution" and "hot spot solution"

Question

Hi to all, i'm Fabio.
My customer has a bookshop and wants to allow to his customers access to the internet using wifi connection.
Here in Italy there are a lot of laws and is very hard to create this type of solution without legal permission, authorization and so on.
However, i'm reading some technical website, and lot of them propose solution based on hot spot and not access point.
Now my question my doubts:
-Is there some difference (technical and "conceptual") between hot spot and access point?
-How are the law outside Italy, in order to satisfy this type of request?
You have to think that here, based on the Italy rules, my customer should become a telecommunication operator to allow him to install ten access point for public use!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Fabio Marino.

Answer 1

Ok Surendrea, in this case i post here what you have to translate from my link
(source: http://www.cdaweb.it/Articoli_Vista/tabid/94/articleid/305/Default.aspx?dnnprintmode=true&mid=421&SkinSrc=[G]Skins%2F_default%2FNo+Skin&ContainerSrc=[G]Containers%2F_default%2FNo+Container):
"Quali soluzioni tecnologiche possono essere  adottate per tutelarsi in questo senso? Una esaustiva risposta a tale  domanda viene data in questo articolo di 01Net.it. Possiamo sintetizzarne i concetti. I gestori dovrebbero preferire soluzioni di tipo hotspot, invece che access point.  Questi ultimi infatti hanno la funzionalità basilare di diffusione del  segnale, senza però poter tracciare l'autore di eventuali attività  illecite, in quanto non esiste distinzione tra gli utenti collegati e  non rimane traccia del traffico prodotto. Gli hotspot, invece, permettono di far autenticare con username e password univoci ciascun utente, e quindi rintracciarlo in caso di necessità, gestire  ticket di navigazione, gestire la banda in modo che un singolo utente  non la monopolizzi rallentando o intasando la navigazione altrui,  separare la rete personale/aziendale da quella del Wi-Fi pubblico, e  mantenere traccia di tutto il traffico attraverso i file di log (i  registri degli accessi). Ecco la soluzione ideale che consente  all'esercente di dimostrare di non essere l'autore di attività illecite."
English version:
"What technological solutions can be adopted to protect themselves in this way? An exhaustive answer to this question is given in this article 01Net.it. We can summarize the concepts. managers should prefer solutions like hotspots, rather than access point. These in fact have the basic functionality of spreading the signal, without being able to trace the perpetrators of any illegal activities, as there is no distinction between connected users, and no trace of the traffic generated. hotspots, however, allow to authenticate with username and passwords each user, and then track it down if needed, manage navigation tickets, manage bandwidth so that a single user does not monopolize the slowing or clogging the navigation of another, separate network and personal business than that of Wi-Fi public, and keep track of all traffic through the log files (access logs). This is the perfect solution that allows operator to demonstrate that it is not the author of any illegal activity."
May be based on this information you can learn something new