On Mon, Jul 05, 2010 at 10:51:02AM -0400, Jeremy wrote: > On 07/05/2010 10:48 AM, Andre Courchesne wrote: > > Yeah I'm curious about this. Any one with legal insights on this? > > > > I can picture someone calling the cops and saying "Hey someone is breaking > > into my router and stealing my internet" the first reaction would probably > > be that no one san steal the internet since it belongs to anyone and it is > > not a tangible item... > > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking#Canada
In the 70's, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, I noticed a high-school student was working diligently at a paper route and using the profits to buy computer time at the University computer centre. Prices were high, and he could afford very little time. I encouraged him by giving him a bunch of tickets to use the student batch service (I hav more than my students could use), which he was quite happy with. A few years later, when I had long left the university and was working in Amsterdam, I learned he was the first person in Canada to be convicted for a computer break-in. It turns out in the meantime he got greedy, and figured out how to get access to the main system for free by exploiting some security weaknesses in the MTS system. He was put on probation, and banned from accessing computers for serious time (at least a year, perhaps several; I forget). The actual charge was covered by the criminal code: theft of a telecommunications service. Even though he hadn't used telecommunications to access the computer, the computer was accessible over modem and phone lines, so the court managed to consider the computer to be a telecommunications service. The laws have been changed since to address computers more directly, but yes, I think what your attacker is doing is likely still a crime. You might want to force a prosecution. But then, you might also find that the culprit is your next-door neighbour who sometimes lends you his lawnmower, and he might not be doing anything harmful beyond causing you worry. But he might also be framing you for something illegal. Right now, though, you just don't know. -- hendrik _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
