DJA wrote:
Really? Well, at least you claim it is. Which law? State law? Which
state? Federal law? Which code? Case law? Citations. Maybe you intended
a IANAL?
I thought it should be pretty obvious, but, okay, IANAL.
Making use of a resource places the burden of proof and permission on
the *user*, not the provider.
It is *not* up to the provider to secure the resource, this normally
all falls under the overarching rubric of trespass.
So this is paraphrasing case law I presume.
My impression is the law is far from clear with regards to Wifi, as it
is in most of the computer networking area.
That is true. WiFi *may* give you some leeway about this. However, the
law places the burden on the user in any case where physical presence is
required and even in some where it is not (like power lines).
While you might get a judge who sees things differently because it's
WiFi, do you really want to count on that?
Again, as long as things stay in the "No harm, no foul" range, nobody is
really going to care. We do a lot of things that are "technically
illegal" but nobody cares.
I still have to wonder if all those who've argued here for the
Never-use-a-hotspot-without-permission policy have, without exception,
themselves always done so.
Exactly once.
For me, normally when I'm in an area where I actually see an open
hotspot, I also have some freely available hotspots nearby. Normally,
when I can't see an open hotspot, I'm somewhere that I'm completely toast.
Unsecured AP's imply a fairly narrow range of technology penetration.
It means that people are sophisticated enough to use wireless, but not
sophisticated enough to secure it. Before you reach that level, you
wind up with coffee shops, Panera, McDonald's, etc. all around that also
provide wireless.
If so, I expect that few of them get much use
of Wifi outside their own homes or workplaces.
Not true. There are quite a few public WiFi network points.
Panera is one of the easiest places to grab free WiFi when you are in an
unfamiliar city.
-a
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