From the article below “Peterson, a 39-year-old toolmaker, volunteer firefighter and secretary of a bagpipe band, wanted to use his 30-minute lunch hour to check e-mails for his bagpipe group”
That’s when all the trouble started…
Poor guy… a bit of an overreaction on the part of the polilce methinks. I think a warning would’ve sufficed, especially since he was cooperative and honest about it.
Ya, I think its a bit harsh. Kind of a stupid law if you ask me.
And whats this going back the station and looking for a law that might be broken?
People will leach period.
If I leave my Wifi open I deserve to get others using it.
Put a fricken password on it.
The guys could have just got a coffee.
That would have been the nice thing to do.
How hard is that?
Bagpipes?
Uh uh.
He could have done that at the Cafe.
I’ll put money he was surfing pron.
Oh, curse those darned pron surfers. And pron is just the beginning of it! Next thing you know they’re into the hard stuff like scallpo and lobters. 
djm
the shame…I am rather fond of lobters 
Hmmm…
lexicon problems I fear.
Perhaps I should have written:
“teh pron”
And now for a random cat picture!
Population density in the UK is a little different from population density in the US. WiFi networks are not unusual - I can think instantly of three private systems outside of work. Only one has good security - and that’s not the one in my house! In a typical detached house, you are liable to detect two or three private wireless networks.
Although it’s a little harsh, I agree with the law. The guy was using a resource, persistently, belonging to someone else. He was caught red-handed and the police decided to make an example of him.
If I was the police I might mention the issue of wireless security to the Café owners. If they rotated the name of their network on a regular basis it would foil casual piggybackers, especially if they also used System ID concealment. “Ask the cashier for the current name of our network”. That would do it.
Nope. That’s fair enough in my view.
He used a network without authorisation, it’s his own fault.
Over here that’s a breach of the Comptuer Misuse Act and can be punishable by considerable jail time.
Bummer.
Silly when it comes to wi-fi networks I think. I want others to be able to surf on my dsl/wi-fi network. If it’s not constant it’s no skin off my back and if it’s constant I can kick that computer off my network, without making it a closed network.
A couple of points –
First, the police did not make the decision to file charges on this guy. They forwarded the information to the prosecutor, who decided it merited prosecution. The cops apparently didn’t even arrest him; they just detained him because he looked suspicipious as hell sitting in his car in the same place every day for a week in an area in which the neighborhood had been having problems with a stalker.
Second, there is no mention of whether the victim, the cafe owner, asked or even wanted to press charges. That’s a pretty key piece of information. The cafe owner said he could have come in and used it for free, but I would bet dollars to doughnuts that when asked if she wanted to press charges, she said “Hell, yes.” Property crimes this minor generally don’t go forward if the victim doesn’t care. Both cops and prosecutors have better things to do.
Of course, it’s always possible that this is an election year, and the prosecutor pursued this on his own as a way of sucking up to his Chamber of Commerce campaign contributors.
This is a very civil and generous attitude. I applaud you. My worry
is that if someone were to solicit a minor on Myspace using your
open WiFi, the FBI might be knocking on your door…
What an excellent point. I never thought of that. I do not use Wi-Fi anything at home, not because of concerns of others piggy-backing, but because of concerns that others can monitor everything you do yourself, including picking up your bank and credit card numbers and your passwords. I remember reading about encryption freeware being available, but it seemed a lot of bother, and I don’t see any real need for myself, as all my computers are in the one small room.
djm
What is WiFi? I have it written on my keyboard, but I have no idea what it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi
It is a wireless networking protocol. Most modern laptops come
equipped with it. You can set up a WiFi network in your house
or you can use networks that exist at many libraries, Universities,
and coffee shops. It’s short range, so you have to be pretty close to
connect to it.
It can extend about 100 yards in every direction. In the UK, this may well include four or five neighbouring houses.