Hardly different, either, when you think about it. Supermarkets purchase apples for sale to their customers. The inventory is there and available for purchase by customers so long as there are enough apples.
The removal of stock is a business variable referred to as 'shrinkage', which is planned for in advance and factored into the cost of each product. Hence the old logic that by stealing, we only make it worse for everyone. Companies purchase blocks of bandwidth for use by their customers. The bandwidth is there and available (or so we would assume) for use by customers so long as demand does not exceed the purchased allotment. In this case, the only real difference is in the fact the apple is still there to sell. Damages would only occur in the event other customers are inconvienced or the company incurs costs associated with needing to increase capacity. Most of the cable modem users I know use their connection for 1) IM, 2) surfing the Internet, and 3) sending email. Nothing else. It is difficult to envision the first case of damages I mentioned occuring, esp. if this is done during the day when the majority of users are not home (and this can certainly be the case, one individual used the additional bandwidth to run his business). As for the second affect, I have never noticed performance improving on my cable modem after calling the company to complain about latency on the line. I doubt most companies purchase additional bandwidth in cases of high demand. This is a breach of the terms of service, not a felony. To call this a cyber crime is to criminalize any activity where an end user reconfigures an application to perform differently than the manufacturers intentions. Which is what raised my ire in the first place... M -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Moretti [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 1:32 PM To: CF-Community Subject: Re: Anyone Seen This Yet? Hardly the same as stealing bandwidth. Taking hardware like that is called "gathering evidence". ----- Original Message ----- From: "Haggerty, Mike" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 6:15 PM Subject: RE: Anyone Seen This Yet? > Right... > > So if I stick an apple in my jacket at the grocery store and leave without > paying for it, 12 armed FBI agents should show up at my house, arrest me, > and seize all of my jackets and some shoes to boot? > > Something's rotten in Toldeo. > > M > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
