[Ham-Computers] Wi-Fi Access Can Be Illegal - at least in Michigan

[AD5PE]

Stupid.  If you kick in my garage door and steal my lawnmower, that's
breaking and entering, plus burglary.  If I leave my garage door unlocked
and you open the door and steal my lawnmower,  then it's trespassing and
burglary.  If I leave the door unlocked and you come in, but don't take the
mower, it's just trespassing.  But if I leave the mower out in the front
yard (at least in my neighborhood) then I might as well put a "take me - I'm
free" sign on it.  Not a crime, just stupidity on my part.

An unsecured wireless network is stupid.  Using one is at most
"trespassing".  Sure, you're "stealing" their bandwidth, but the cost is so
low that you wouldn't hit the felony threshold dollar amount for weeks.

Simple way to enforce this - put the password on a chalk board behind the
counter.  Change it every day.  Show it to the customers when they buy
something.



-----Original Message-----
From: ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of kd4e
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 21:47
To: ham-linux at mailman.qth.net; ham-computers at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Wi-Fi Access Can Be Illegal - at least in Michigan

Now here is a scary story - both of the failure of a police officer and a
prosecutor to exercise their responsibility to exercise reasonable
discretion and the less-than-wise legislators in writing such sloppy law.

In any case it suggests that we need to know the local laws and regs before
accessing what appear to be "open"
or "public" Wi-Fi networks.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,276720,00.html


-- 

Thanks! & 73, doc, KD4E
Personal: http://bibleseven.com/kd4e.html Ham QTH:
http://bibleseven.com/steel/cjb-steelhouse-index.html
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