Why It's OK to 'Steal' Wi-Fi
TIME Magazine printed this week a piece called, "Confessions of a Wi-Fi Thief," in which author Lev Grossman admits to using available open Wi-Fi connections from his apartment. Grossman writes that "stealing" Wi-Fi might be illegal (statutes vary according to where you live) but "definitely unethical." He also mentions a recent survey that found a slim majority -- 53% -- have "stolen" Wi-Fi. I disagree with Grossman. I don't think it's unethical to "steal" Wi-Fi -- or even possible without deliberate hacking. And it shouldn't be illegal to simply use an open, unprotected wireless network. There are TWO REASONS WHY "STEALING" WI-FI ISN'T REALLY STEALING.
3:16 PM * PERMALINK * 5 comments
Comments:
I don't really understand your arguments. #1 is that it's unlocked, so if I leave my car unlocked you can use it as well? Or my house? Leaving something open to theft does not justify theft.
For #2 would you mind if I listened in on your cell phone calls that are passing through me? Heck, even when off your phone is sending off radio waves so maybe I should be able to make calls on it. And what about the terms of use agreement with the ISP? Many of them explicitly forbid reselling or sharing the Internet access and you're forcing the victim of your theft to violate that. Not only that, but you're also forcing the victim to take responsibility for your actions - if you get busted downloading kiddie porn its your victim that gets in trouble.
Sure, WiFi is "free", but Internet access isn't. You're welcome to connect to my wifi network but you don't have permission to use my connection nor do you have permission to talk to my PC or use my router's resources. Just reimburse me for the extra power the router will draw because you're connected to it. Enjoy!
The issue I have is the notion of jailing people or levying huge fines for ignorance of subtle unclear laws surrounding new technologies.
Our jails are over crowded because of nonsense and injustice.
We need to stand up to the government bureaucracies and to big money corporations who insist on punitive actions to protect their interests. None of them ever face jail time for more serious misdeeds.
It is illegal in Canada to use, without permission from the owner (not the router) anybodies’ unencrypted wireless network. It is not illegal in the US, but some would like it to be. I agree with Mike, if it is unencrypted and passing through my house, I should be able to use it without penalty. If it is encrypted, then I can’t/won’t use it, and it should be illegal to try to break the encryption. It should be that simple. If my neighbor leaves his hose turned on and his water is coming over into my yard and I scoop it up with a bucket and water my plants, is that stealing? No, it is not. However, if I went into his yard and turned the water on so I could use it, that is stealing. The agreement about locked cars doesn't work because we already have a culture of laws governing car usage. We don't yet for wireless stuff. As the wireless phenomena changes our culture, our laws need to be written to address those new needs, and not base them on old technology.
It's not the same thing as water leaking into your yard, that's a one-way transaction. This is using something based in your neighbor's house because it happens to be accessible in your yard. Existing laws are perfectly fine on this, if your neighbor had a cordless phone you couldn't use your cordless phone to connect to your neighbor's base station to use his phone line to make a call. Same is true for the Internet, you can't use your computer to connect to your neighbor's wireless base station to use his Internet connection.
What a lot of people fail to understand about wifi is that if you do not password protect it AND you broadcast your SSID openly, then you are pretty much advertising a connection open to the general public.
You don't even have to put on a password to secure your network. When you set up your wireless network, you have the option of broadcasting or not broadcasting your SSID. Those who chose to broadcast their SSID are basically telling the whole world, "look, here is my network and this is its name". If you don't broadcast your SSID, then your network won't show up on a moocher's network list unless he's done a lot of signal analysis.
So broadcasting an open SSID is NOT quite like leaving your car unlocked with the keys in it...
...it's more like leaving your car unlocked with the keys in it and placing a giant billboard with 20' tall letters saying, "free ride, go ahead try me out" and a bright red arrow pointing to your unsecured car.
If you did that, then a person that takes your car cannot be charged with stealing your car because it would be a case of ENTRAPMENT.
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