Jack Unger wrote:
I think that you will find that using an open access point to allow a first-responder (police, fire, etc.) to communicate with the rest of the world would not be considered a crime.
Technically, yes, it probably is. No prosecutor in this country would touch it with a ten-foot law dictionary, of course, but it's still (I think) a crime.
Unless it isn't... Many (most?) jurisdictions do have special exceptions for law enforcement and emergency personnel, allowing (for instance) firefighters in civilian vehicles to speed and run red lights, and allowing police to commandeer those same civilian vehicles. I don't know whether those are specific exemptions, or if there's a more general "we're saving lives we can do what we need to do" law, and it surely varies from place to place.
OK, I'll forgive the analogy but, in a real emergency, you have to do what needs to be done.
Moreally and ethically, it may be right, but that doesn't make it legal. I'd argue that, especially when lives are at stake, "right" trumps "legal," but that doesn't make the issues with "legal" disappear.
David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
