Buzz Out Loud Lounge forum: Huh, wifi law?

If you transmit an unencrypted plain radio broadcast, you should not be able to expect to limit who can receive it and I don't think wifi should be considered any different. Also note that in the most common case, somebody will be using wifi to just google something or check email which are fairly insignificant tasks that laptop owners benefit a lot from.
I think there are some circumstances where using open wifi can be unethical. What ways can it be unethical? Using up bandwidth downloading very large files which can be a huge problem if an ISP has quota limits as it effectively is steeling somebody's quota allowances. Performing illegal activities or acquiring illegal content so that the RIAA or FBI go after someone other than you. Accessing their personal data on their file shares on their network.

I can't link to it but CNN has a video of this. The shop had a sign that said "Customers Only". I didn't see any mention of whether he had bought anything before using their WIFI.

Looking through someone elses window - you do invade their privacy and in some cases it is illegal. Going to someone backyard and peering at then while they are going to bed is illegal.

There are some circumstances where it should be illegal, ie cracking the WEP key.
But it's as absurd to blankly outlaw looking through a window as it is to outlaw use of wifi. I mean, who has never looked through a window! Of course, you probably want do something about stalkers and voyeur web sites constantly peering in but that's something else.

You'd have to do more than just use wifi and internet for it to be comparable to going into someones house. You'd have to start looking at their file shares for example before it would be comparable.

As like most techie, when I was glancing through morning news websites. My curiousity was peaked when I saw a story about a man getting busted for using wifi on CNN. Annoyingly it was a video broadcast (I hate those, at least CNN has invested technology to make it work finally). So I happened to watch it. The meathead cop was clearly a moron with his reasoning, it was so retarded, I cant even recall the dislogical position for him doing this to that man.
The man, according to the story on CNN webbroadcast, would go check his email at lunch outside a coffee-shop nearby while he relaxed during break.

A Cop saw this and decided to invade this man's personal privacy by interogating him (because he was in a car, the exception to the constitution). And then the guy told him he was checking his email because it was free and he was on his lunchbreak. Cop couldnt figure out a way on the spot to bust him.
Then goes back to the cop station and researches a never-used law that makes this man a felon and facing five years in jail.
This issues a warrant for this guy's arrest.

You know who should be in jail? That cop, they should lock him up for being stupid and malicious and just a horrible person. Giving someone five years for using wifi in his car at lunch outside a place that offers free wifi is just an abuse by the government. This is outrageous! FIVE YEARS of a man's life??? For turning on his laptop which automatically connects to open networks and take away a man's liberty for THAT??
There should be someone on trial and it's not that man, the shopowners didnt care on the video on CNN either. Five years hard time.

Christ, I leave my network open anyhow just in case the RIAA comes a knocking, it was my goshdarn neighbor kids!

if they wanted to make them "secure and authorized" they could give you the wireless name and a password for every person that buys a drink, and have the computer configured so it would automatically enter them into the router as it generates them. Then if they wanted people to buy something to use it, they would have to. The code could expire after being entered once, and then there wouldnt be issues over things as stupid as this =D

I've heard lots of stories of parents dropping their kids off @ school, then lingering 5-10 min while they use the school's wifi to check their email before they continue on to work. I'm in the camp of people who consider non-malicious siphoning of open wifi a "victimless crime". Someone (can't remember who) used the analogy of using the light from someone's porch to read directions. Sure there are abuses, but the schmoe checking his email is a far cry from the dirtbag downloading something nasty & illegal or engaging in the many other types of antisocial behavior that makes the news. I guess it's easy to make examples of the harmless folks because it's a lot easier for the authorities to intimidate and push them around. Way to go, Barney Fife!
Personally, I use FON. It lets others dip into my wifi, but not totally anonomously, and I have a degree of control ..for instance I can limit the 'public' bandwidth from wide open down to 512Kbps - which, frankly, is close to my total DSL throughput anyway

yes,this is what i was talking about, they could make each person that would like a password with purchase a temporary account that expires after one year, if they really are so concerned about people using it that people are being arrested for it...

Seems harmless enough. You're not actively using your lawn, you "failed" to properly secure it with a fence and locking gate, and the guys walking down the sidewalk won't "use it maliciously." They just want to play a harmless drinking game for a few hours, and that's the perfect place to do so.
---> Trespassing.

Or how about your power tools, laying on the workbench in the garage you left open as the kids ride bikes on the sidewalk? You're just watching TV and the total strangers will return everything when they're done fixing their roof.
---> Theft.

Or how about that power outlet on the porch with a plastic cover over it? I have yet to see someone install a lock, so does that give anyone the right to walk up and get a quick charge to make a cell phone call? It's so little it probably won't even make your electric meter move an increment. Oh, and he brought a few friends with him as well.
---> Theft of Service.

Now, you personally may be OK with those scenarios, in which they decide to proceed without ever asking your permission, but I guarantee the majority of people would not approve. Thus, the general consensus made such illegal without permission. The same goes with WiFi. It's technically Theft of Service. It applies to unsecured WiFi networks just as the law applies to lawns that lack barbed-wire fences.

If you're the type willing to share your connection with your neighbors and those passing by (assuming your ISP doesn't prohibit it), great! It's no skin off your back, and I'm sure others will thank you for it. It's a Win-Win situation. However, they have no right to simply take it from you.
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As to securing the network, keep in mind that not everyone knows how, or even that it can/should be done.

* Some simply want to connect to the internet using their laptops throughout the house and never read into the security aspect. After all, how many people do you know that read user manuals cover to cover? Yeah, me neither. And the quick setup guide rarely mentions such.

* AT&T, Bell South, and others hype 'wireless services' in which you can rent a wireless router and have them set it up for you. If the 'technician' doesn't bring it up you may have no clue about security settings.

* Businesses may just want to offer a little nicety to their customers, so they hook up a wireless router in the back. They may have no technical background and thus not think of securing the network until their customers start complaining it takes over a minute to load cnn.com.

Thus, there are potentially millions of individuals and businesses with unsecured WiFi networks who simply don't know about protecting their networks. Is it right to take advantage of them? Is it right for you to take the decision out of their hands?
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When it comes down to it, you are using a service someone else pays for and never granted you access to use. Using it yourself is the very essence of theft. While the laws are still sketchy in most places, I sincerely hope it is addressed more directly in the near future.

John


P.S. As to looking in someone's windows, casual glances are one thing but I believe peeping toms are still given a free tour of the county jail.

Where can I go to get the source story that this discussion is about?