Piggy back Wi-Fi user faces 5 years in prison

K

kseine

Registered
A Michigan man faces 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for accessing a wi-fi network without permission.

Each day he drove to a coffee shop parking lot and piggy backed on their wi-fi to check his email. What he did is a felony in many jurisdictions. If he would have gone inside and purchased something, his wi-fi access would have been free and legal.
 
A five year term seems harsh. A local lad around here just got six months community service for beating up an old man in a car rage incident.

6/12 for grevious bodily harm and 5 years for accessing someone else's WIFI Hotspot?
 
That is one of the dumbest thing I heard of in forever, and I piggyback all the time on vacation.
 
5 years is too damn harsh. Thousands of people piggyback WiFi locations every single day, especially in larger cities. I feel sorry for this guy; he obviously had a reason for doing this.
 
probably had a bad lawyer, because it's a public wifi, thats supposed to be for anyone if it doesn't have a password. I use mcdonalds and the airports all the time.
 
icemanjc said:
probably had a bad lawyer, because it's a public wifi, thats supposed to be for anyone if it doesn't have a password. I use mcdonalds and the airports all the time.
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If people don't lock the doors to their house, they're asking for trouble. If you go round houses hoping to find an unlocked door so you can help yourself to stuff since it's "supposed to be for anyone if it doesn't have a lock", you're asking for trouble and deserve the trouble you get.

Some people are complete nubs when it comes to anything computer related. Many who should not even go near a computer unsupervised are actually setting up Wifi networks. It makes ripping them off easy, but it don't make it right.
 
http://fe39.news.re3.yahoo.com/blogs/null/26517
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/23/1551227
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060227-6272.html

Turns out he did not get 5 years. He got a $400 fine and 40 hours community service. Still too harsh, if you ask me, but hey, it won't ruin his life. I hope the lawmakers make some adjustments after this. This crime falls under a very large umbrella that was clearly never intended to cover such petty things. It's a technicality more than anything. At least the courts saw that and let him off easy.

I think it was reasonable for him to assume there was nothing wrong this. (And it seems he did, since he freely admitted what he was doing when asked.) Furthermore, I've never seen any statement of any kind saying these WiFi networks are for customers only. Maybe you think that's common sense, but that's debatable, and in any case, common sense does not make law.

It seems like the coffee house never even complained. And really, why would they? I doubt they lost even a penny over it. (Unless of course you consider the natural alternative to using the WiFi from his car to be buying something and using it in the store. But I think that's silly.)

From arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060227-6272.html said:
Coincidentally, the cafe owner that Peterson was leeching WiFi off of didn't even realize that what Peterson was doing was a crime at the time. Neither did the police officer. "I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn't know exactly what," Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski told the TV station.
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The potential penalty is just that, potential.

The café operator is not interested in seeing her potential customer in deep do-do. He thought what he was doing was OK.

IMO, he will get a slap on the wrist.
 
If you leave your network open, it should be no more weird if anyone uses that than if you leave your front door open and someone walks in ... like door fully open, not just unlocked like in Canada.
 
Giaguara said:
If you leave your network open, it should be no more weird if anyone uses that than if you leave your front door open and someone walks in ... like door fully open, not just unlocked like in Canada.
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You telling me that if I see somebody's home with the door open, and I walk in and help myself to the contents of that home, I'm not committing a criminal offense?
 
PGTips said:
You telling me that if I see somebody's home with the door open, and I walk in and help myself to the contents of that home, I'm not committing a criminal offense?
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I eatchyo food if you be leavin' that do'open.

The point was not that he messed around with property, it's that he used the internet, which -to my knowledge- nobody owns. The means by which he viewed the internet was the door, and it was definitely open.

So, a better analogy would be: "You telling me that if I see somebody's home with the door open, and look inside for a while, I'm not committing a criminal offense?"
 
Qion said:
So, a better analogy would be: "You telling me that if I see somebody's home with the door open, and look inside for a while, I'm not committing a criminal offense?"
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That's called trespassing, and in some countries you have a right to shoot trespassers.
 
PGTips said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trespass: You beat wives legally in the US? o_O

To be perfectly honest, if an intruder was in your house (not just on your land), you are afforded the right to self-defense.
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I just want you to know that the analogy is weak.

Also, the internet is anybody's domain. If you had a warehouse of free sample cookies -like you'd find at Kroger's-, and you left the door open, don't blame me for walking in for a taste.

Just.
 
Dude, seriously. Just give it a rest. You get free access to the internet? After all it is anybody's domain and nobody owns it. Try telling that to your ISP and see how well that flies.

Wifi points in cafe's are provided for the customers. Piggy-backing on it is just abusing the goodwill of the people who provided the service.
 
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