Clueless Woman Calls Tech Show When Her Stolen Wi-Fi Disappears

[jimmy olsen]

 

http://mashable.com/2010/02/22/stolen-wifi-confusion/

[Martinus]

 

[Syt]

 

Though he handled that pretty professionally.

[Martinus]

Yeah, an extremely patient and non-malicious guy. He would not fit in on Languish.

[Syt]

Yeah, an extremely patient and non-malicious guy.

Well you have to be to work a helpdesk for longer than a month, I guess.

[jimmy olsen]

Yeah, an extremely patient and non-malicious guy. He would not fit in on Languish.

Yes, now lets all imagine what would have happened if she called into CdM's techline. 

[Josquius]

Its illegal to use unsecured wifi?

Yeah, an extremely patient and non-malicious guy. He would not fit in on Languish.

I dunno, he,s not outright going 'you damn moron' but he's seeming a little bit snarky and talking down to her about it.

[Martinus]

Its illegal to use unsecured wifi?

Why wouldn't it be? I mean obviously you would need to have mens rea (i.e. not think it's some public service wifi) but other than that, hooking up to someone else's private unsecured network is like walking into someone else's home when they leave the door unlocked. It might be not "breaking and entering" but it definitely is "unlawful entry".

[Caliga]

Its illegal to use unsecured wifi?

Yeah, an extremely patient and non-malicious guy. He would not fit in on Languish.

I dunno, he,s not outright going 'you damn moron' but he's seeming a little bit snarky and talking down to her about it.

Could it be because she is indeed a damn moron, and he's just a nice guy?

Your first clue should have been that she thought buying a wifi extender would fix the problem.

[Josquius]

Why wouldn't it be? I mean obviously you would need to have mens rea (i.e. not think it's some public service wifi) but other than that, hooking up to someone else's private unsecured network is like walking into someone else's home when they leave the door unlocked. It might be not "breaking and entering" but it definitely is "unlawful entry".

Sure, it makes sense that way but still, its radio waves (or....something. Science fail probally). You're just picking up and transmitting on a unencrypted channel- I know decrypting is illegal but I've never heard anything about accessing open channels being illegal.
Which is odd considering how common accessing other people's wifi is. There should have been some cases if it truly is illegal.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Well you have to be to work a helpdesk for longer than a month, I guess.

I have done this and I'm not patient or non-malicious.  To be fair I only lasted three months as the help desk dude though. 

[The Brain]

I did some helpdesk work in the army. 

[DontSayBanana]

Sure, it makes sense that way but still, its radio waves (or....something. Science fail probally). You're just picking up and transmitting on a unencrypted channel- I know decrypting is illegal but I've never heard anything about accessing open channels being illegal.
Which is odd considering how common accessing other people's wifi is. There should have been some cases if it truly is illegal.

Presumption of privacy.  Places offering public WiFi typically leave a sign or somesuch notification.  No sign, assume it's private.  The thing with home networks is most work on the technique of MAC address cloning to get around a single-unit ISP restriction; if illegal activity takes place on your home network, then it looks for all intents and purposes like the activity originated from your main computer (unless you do some major digging, which somebody doing the investigating might not know to do).

[grumbler]

I'd be surprised if it were illegal to use someone else's unencrypted signal.  That's like saying it is illegal to listen to the music coming from someone else's stereo.  If one wants to prevent another person from using one's wifi signal, then one can take steps to make sure that doesn't happen.  The onus, though, by rights should be on the owner of the signal to keep others from using it, if that is desired.

[DontSayBanana]

I'd be surprised if it were illegal to use someone else's unencrypted signal.  That's like saying it is illegal to listen to the music coming from someone else's stereo.  If one wants to prevent another person from using one's wifi signal, then one can take steps to make sure that doesn't happen.  The onus, though, by rights should be on the owner of the signal to keep others from using it, if that is desired.

The owner of a personal network is able to take steps, but it would be foolhardy in the extreme to penalize private network owners for lacking the knowledge required to secure a personal network; a large number simply have a router because they use a laptop and don't want to have to leave it wired in a single location to the modem.

Here's some relevant statutes that tend toward including WiFi leeching as "hacking:"
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13494