In the “just when you thought you had heard everything” department, it turns out the Courtyard Marriott free wifi comes at a cost.  They are taking every web page served and rewriting it, presumably in preparation for injecting their own ads.

I hate ads as much as the next person but the idea that a page is being altered and what I am viewing is not the same as is served on the ‘normal’ internet is quite abhorrent!

Hotel’s Free Wi-Fi Comes With Hidden Extras | NY Times blogs

The lines of code include references to “rxg,” which stands for Revenue eXtraction Gateway, a service aimed at generating money from Internet access points. On its Web site, a company called RG Nets, which makes Revenue eXtraction Gateway, explains that its system rewrites every Web page on the fly so that it can include a banner ad. “As you can see, the pervasive nature of the advertising banner on all Web pages guarantees banner advertising impression,” a narrator says in the video.