MattyJ wrote:
Why does everyone like to characterize it as stealing?
Because it is. You are taking something you have not paid for where it
is not explicitly understood that it is yours for the taking. Not
least of which because you haven't asked your neighbor if it's okay.
(You killed the quote attribution.)
The car analogy doesn't work any better than the house analogy. Maybe
because it's not analogous? You might be closer if your car didn't
even need keys, there were no license plates, VIN, or other ownership
information anywhere accessible, *and* you parked in MY garage.
Well, you left your garage open with no clear signage stating that I
can't park in there, so why not? You only have one car and there's
plenty of space. What's the harm?
Leave your keys in the ignition, alarm disabled, and doors unlocked? No
problem. Park it in my garage any time, any time at all. :)
More correctly, you paid to rent time on someone else's network. And
it's not out of my way at all. In fact, your sending me everything I
need to know to use your network makes it quite trivial on my part to
do so. Your radio signals are in my house unprotected.
You are right. *I* pay to be on someone else's network, not you.
Do you put locks on your trashcan? Let's say a neighbor of yours is
cheap and refuses to pay for municipal services, so they do not have a
trashcan. You only fill yours half way each week, so they simply put
their trash in your unsecured trashcan on trash night. You're telling
me you don't feel this is any kind of moral violation, not one little
bit? Unused trash bandwidth is just up for grabs because it's on the
same curb that everyone has access to?
Since anyone can legally take trash *out* of my trashcan when I
"abandon" it on the curb, I don't see why they cannot put stuff in. The
legal position on it seems to be that once the can is out on the curb, I
have abandoned it. If I have abandoned it, then I have no say if
someone takes stuff out or puts stuff in.
--
Ralph
--------------------
Security and privacy are not opposite ends of a seesaw; you don't have
to accept less of one to get more of the other.
--Bruce Schneier
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