Accessing unsecured wi-fi without permission is illegal (in the US, at least). - by Ultraviolet
mopgoblin on 24/5/2007 at 19:19
Quote Posted by Myoldnamebroke
The literal technical process behind connecting isn't really relevant in deciding people's honesty, though.
It's not just a technical process, though. At a higher level, it translates to the router actively telling <em>people</em> that they can connect to this network, and there isn't a particularly strong reason for the person offered the connection to believe this isn't intentional. I can see the "people don't usually want strangers on their network" argument, but that's a bit too weak in this case - the offer of a connection negates it, as people can have all sorts of reasons for doing apparently illogical things.
sparhawk on 24/5/2007 at 20:21
Quote Posted by Turtle
Wrong.
The shop owner noticed the man in his car everyday sitting for a half hour or so and wondered what he was doing and if he was a threat. (IIRC the cafe is only a block or 2 from the school.)
Where did you get this from? In the article it says nothing about the shop owner, until the officer already go the guy and asked the shopowner.
Quote:
Prosecutors were hesitant to charge him, but with the explosion of Wi-fi availability some groundwork had to be laid for future cases.
Which of course is a good reason. :p I'm not really in favour of this conviction, because I feel it is quite ridiculous to exert the full power of the law for a minor offence.
Turtle on 24/5/2007 at 21:18
I got this from the local news.
I live about 15 minutes from Sparta, and used to live there.
SD on 24/5/2007 at 21:24
insert 300 joke here
Celtic_Thief on 24/5/2007 at 22:00
The world will know that free [man] stood against a [coffee shop]. That [one] stood against [a few]. And before this battle was over, that even a [Wi-Fi] can bleed.
Telliamed on 24/5/2007 at 22:12
Quote Posted by Ultraviolet
I don't see how. He'd only go in if he wanted coffee. Otherwise, he'd stay out. You wouldn't walk into a coffee shop and just chill by yourself.
I do it all the time when I'm in town and need to get online quickly. I've already asked the guy in the coffee shop and he said it's fine for me to use the internet without buying anything. I didn't just assume it was okay, and if he said otherwise then I'd just move on to the next hotspot until I found someone who didn't mind. (In another 300 meters there's the public library, but their connection is slower.)
Quote Posted by raph
The
router says that. The router broadcasts an invitation to join in, and merely enabling Wifi in XP makes it look for open access ports to connect. The router sends invitations all over the place, you just have to open the wifi to connect. It's not obvious, and it's not written anywhere, that's the problem.
So I was looking at this website that told me I could download the entire new Smashing Pumpkins album even before it shows up in stores. Which sounds pretty cool, so I click the link and first it tells me I need this thing called "Azureus" which I check and isn't a virus or anything, so I guess it's okay. And I did all that and in a few minutes I had all the songs. But Windows and Internet Explorer never told me that downloading music over the internet was illegal so I didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Legal disclaimers would just be ignored. Just like the small print on all ipods that says, "Don't steal music". Do you honestly think that has prevented a single song from being downloaded illegally?
Quote Posted by raph
The issue with wi-fi is that there's no law to begin with, and most people are not computer geeks, so it's fuzzy for everyone involved.
As has been mentioned, there usually is a law. I say usually because I have a feeling there's no federal statute. I thought there was, but a quick review of some legal documents say that if a radio broadcast is unencrypted, it's fair game. My info is incomplete and a bit out of date though. And a lot of states have lately been tightening the definition of computer trespass to include things like this. It may even be that, even though you can legally receive the WiFi radio frequency, accessing the DHCP/DNS/etc of the router isn't permitted. (One is a public broadcast, the other a private resource.)
Still, the burden of education must always be on the citizen. Otherwise you're just pandering to laziness. I have no problem with punishing stupidity.
