In article <46e43ff4$0$27169$742ec2ed@
news.sonic.net>,
SMS
geemail.com> wrote:
> Bruce Markowitz wrote:
>> Actually there are. It is theft of services. And there is a prosecution for
>> it right now in Wisconsin.
>> "none"
bc.com> wrote in message
>> news:a-917ED4.22484708092007@mpls-nnrp-03.inet.qwest.net...>>> "Bruce Markowitz"
worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>>>>>>> AND, it is ILLEGAL to connect to someones router without permission.
>>> no it's not, there are no provisions in the law for that. sorry!
>
> It varies by state and by interpretation. Intentionally connecting to
> someone's router without permission is illegal, but the question is what
> constitutes intent and what constitutes permission. Many businesses and
> governments provide Wi-Fi and implicitly or explicitly grant permission
> to use their networks, but that didn't stop the prosecution of that guy
> who sat in his car outside a coffee house using their WiFi connection.
> The owner of the coffee house didn't even care, but some cop with
> nothing else to do took it upon himself to do some enforcement.
>
> A lot of unauthorized connections are unintentional as well. I have my
> own WiFi at home, but sometimes my computer will connect to the local
> free WiFI (MetroFi) or to a neighbor's unsecured network.
>
> Many individuals intentionally leave their network unsecured, trying to
> create more free WiFi spots. However there is no way to know if an
> unsecured network is because someone doesn't know how or doesn't want to
> bother to set up secure access, or if it's because they are okay with
> others using their network.
I don't recall at the moment how Windows handles things, but if none of
your "trusted" networks can be found, and there's no other Internet
connection, OS X will find the open WiFi network with the best signal
and pop up a dialog asking if you want to connect to it. After that the
network is added to your "trusted" list, and the computer will connect
to it without even asking, if it has the best signal.
It seems ludicrous that someone could be prosecuted for connecting to a
network that is configured in such as way as to cause people's computers
to actively invite them to connect!
The fact that some people may not be technically competent enough to
know they are inviting people onto their network is, IMO, irrelevant. I
don't see how anyone has any legal responsibility to take the invitation
to join an open, publicly advertised network (e.g. one with an SSID
broadcast that can be picked up on public property or on the property of
others) at anything other than face value. Particularly given that there
are a non-trivial number of people and organizations that *do*
deliberately leave their networks open for others.
--
"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing
about him is that I read three--three or four books about him last year. Isn't
that interesting?"
- George W. Bush to reporter Kai Diekmann, May 5, 2006
