I think it's dubious. It can come under invasion of privacy [not sure if there are laws here for that] and trespassing. Usually I think it goes down as trespassing.
It usually only gets discussed when someone 'accidentally' discovers that their cable WAN gives them access to some small companies machine, but I'd assume the same laws would apply. I doubt if consumer trespassing is likely to be enforced, but say I get a virus. Most of the recent viruses seem to include a windows-network share attacking part. Will they be happy when their machines get wiped? Will I have trespassed? Even if it could happen completely innocently. ie) I also have linksys [I used to have one, moved to a netgear. But could have happened], and there's no way I'll ever be virus-protected. As to Wards suggestion below. That one would definitely be an invasion of privacy conversation, and I would imagine that accidents are easy to define there. Network trespassing is less easy to define I think. Dunno, just views :) Hen On Sun, 5 Jan 2003, Ward Oldham wrote: > None. I would conclude that it falls into the same category of your > cordless phone accidentally picking up your neighbor's conversation. > The responsibility should be yours to keep your network private, not > your neighbor's responsibility to keep from accidentally tapping in. > > Just my opinion. > > Ward Oldham > > > On Sunday, January 5, 2003, at 01:09 AM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer wrote: > > > What is the law concerning using your neighbor's network connection? > > ie, > > what law are you breaking when your XP machine connects to his linksys > > network? > > > > on 1/4/03 11:13 PM, Henri Yandell at bayard at generationjava.com wrote: > > > >> > >> Yet another reason why XP sucketh. > >> > >> I tweaked the driver for the wireless card, and finally got it to > >> start > >> connecting to a wireless router. Surely you can imagine my elation and > >> excitement as I found a working Internet! > >> > >> Except... well... why is the router named 'linksys'?? > >> > >> Yes. Windows XP will not connect to MY netgear router, but it will > >> happily > >> [when I'm walking in the right part of the house] connect to my > >> neighbour's Linksys network. In fact, as I had DHCP turned on, > >> Windows XP > >> happily just broke the law for me. > >> > >> To make it worse, even though I know the unsecured Linksys network is > >> there next door, there's no obvious way to avoid connecting to it. > >> > >> The Apple machines in the house however are happily still working. > >> > >> -1 to Microsoft for making it automatic to invade my neighbours > >> network. > >> > >> Hen > >> > >> > >> > >> | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > >> | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > > > > Harry, > > > > > > Harry Jacobson-Beyer > > Surveyor of the Passing Scene! > > > > http://bellsouthpwp.net/h/a/harryjb/ > > What a strange, long, trip it is! > > > > remember: it's not how fast you climb the hill that matters, it's how > > fast > > you go coming down! > > > > > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > > | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > > > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
