Thread: N810 Carphone
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dick-richardson is offline dick-richardson
2009-03-10 , 17:50
Posts: 174 | Thanked: 71 times | Joined on Aug 2007
#37
Originally Posted by sondjata View Post
Well dick, see the post 26. And it's not just in the UK.
It was really tough to tell if you were serious after admitting you use open access points and then saying it's stealing. So you're contention is that someone who hops on to my open network is stealing because I haven't changed the SSID?

I said they stole. Difference.
And absolutely ridiculous. Stealing prevents someone else from using it and only makes sense when dealing with physical objects (ie your car example).

Had the person who sat in the open and running vehicle then drove off the vehicle it would be theft. That the vehicle is running and open does not make it any less so.
It's still a physical object, and your driving it prevents someone else (presumably the owner) from doing so as well.

A users open WIFI point is like an on and running vehicle. You are free to observe it but actual use of it without the owners permission constitutes theft.
No it isn't and no it doesn't. The only time someone has been prosecuted in the States for using open wifi is AFTER that person has been informed that they are not welcome to do so (for refusing to patronize the store who's hosting the wifi, for example). We have this nice concept here where someone is innocent until proven guilty. By virtue of the fact that I have an open wifi access point for anyone and everyone to use as they wish without fear of repercussion, any argument that someone doing so is somehow a criminal is completely false.