SubscribeIHT.COM is running a story about a guy who is being charged with unauthorized access to a computer network (a 3rd degree felony) for using someone else’s *unsecured* wifi connection.
Now perhaps I’m oversimplifying this a bit, but… If I’m walking down the street and I come across a tray of cookies on a table at the end of someone’s driveway, I may be inclined to grab one. They’re being offered for free, it would seem.
I would apply the same thought pattern to using someone else’s *unsecured* wifi to access the Internet. There are quantities of documentation on the web telling consumers how to secure their WIFI node if they’re concerned about it being used by others. Failure to lock down your wifi access point, is in essence giving its use away for free. I feel this is especially true if the person using your access point is *only* using it to get access to the Internet and while on the ‘net they’re not doing anything bad (like spamming, etc.). Since most Internet consumers pay flat rate for their connection, the person donating the use of their WIFI access point is loosing nothing.
Nothing stolen = No crime.