There was an adorable article in Time magazine last week about Wi-Fi theft. The author, Lev Grossman, admits to being a “Wi-Fi thief” for several years, using his neighbors’ unsecured Wi-Fi without them knowing. He calls it a crime, a direct violation of Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47 of the United States Code.
But is that really theft?
TechDirt argues that when someone leaves an access point open, they are essentially granting permission to anyone to use it. And if you’ve granted permission, how can someone’s access be unauthorized and illegal? Cracking someone’s WEP (people still use WEP around here) and then using that connection, obviously, is a different story.
Bonus points if you have a swashbuckling “I stole teh Wi-Fi!1″ story to share. I tried to crack my neighbor’s WEP a few years ago, which means I was savvy enough to fire up Linux and run AirSnort. Hardcore hacking, in other words.
Would leaving your WiFi unlocked fall under the category of not doing your part to protect your property and therefore having no basis to argue that it was stolen?
Maybe if you leave your car’s or house’s windows and doors unlocked, you might still have a case against a thief, but what if you, say, left your bike in the street in front of your house? My neighbor’s kids leave their crap all over the walk in my apartment complex constantly. If I took that stuff after it had been lying there all night (nowhere near their front door, by the way, but that’s a different rant), would it still be considered theft? Even if it was considered theft, would they have a case?
Or would it be more like that case from years ago where cops rifled through a guy’s trash to find evidence against him, and he tried to argue that they needed a search warrant to do that? In the end the courts (not sure if it went to the Supreme Court, but it went somewhere) ruled that once you put your trash on the curb it becomes public domain, or something to that effect, and you no longer need a search warrant to go through it (and for that matter, I think they basically said that you also can’t tell a street bum not to look through your garbage).
I don’t get it… Wouldn’t that be like leaving your house door open, or leaving your car open? I would hope just because it’s there, and open people wouldn’t just walk in or whatever. I know it’s their fault for leaving it open, but still it’s the whole morality thing… with wifi, I cant really say it’s quite as bad, they really don’t lose anything by being on their network, unless your overrunnig it or something, hacking into their system, and what not… again it’s an issue of morals.
I think the analogy which better fits is this: you have a garden surrounding your house, and a path in the middle of the garden which takes you to the street. If you shut it behind a door, the path would be unavailable, if you leave it open, without any visible door, people might assume you allow them to use it to go from one side of the garden to the opther.
In other terms:
open wifi –> like a garden without walls and door, therefore no case
wep –> like a garden with a door open, therefore yes, there is a case
wpa* –> like a garden with the door shut, therefore there is a case.
Best, alma
It is considered theft because most if not all routers come with the security features turned off by default.
What if your grandma bought a router, hooked it up and everything worked right out of the box so she didn’t bother to do anything else but use her new network? Her neighbors on the other hand found a new wireless connection and took the opportunity to avail themselves of some bandwidth (which is considered a commodity).
If these neighbors start downloading gigabytes of files and the telco starts to prorate the usage on the account, your grandma would be in for some hefty fees.
If grandma can hook up a router she needs to read the instructions to secure it. But its really not if scenarios. IF there is no fee then big deal especially if you get hardwired, Wifi isn’t all that awesome. You need to lock the door on your car, lock the house door, and lock the wifi. If i didn’t have to pay for the internet I sure wouldn’t, especially if I’m out of town or away from my paid connection and some a-hole is going to try and charge me by the minute at McDonald’s or some crap. If you have a problem with it, lock it. It’s not hard. If you don’t then deal with the possibility of leeches, which is fairly low in my town.
Wi-FI is broadcast, so wouldn’t it be a closer analogy to radio?
I see WiFi as an extension of your land and the same laws that apply to trespassing should apply to your WiFi. It is not generally considered trespassing if the owner’s usage is unimpeded, the owner did not make a reasonable attempt to block you (log-on note, encryption, etc), and the owner did not tell you to stay off (verbally or in writing). If you break encryption/password then it should be illegal, you bypassed “reasonable measures” securing it. If your usage is so great that it impedes the owner’s usage then the owner must still investigate to point you out. If you spy on the owner or mess with his settings/etc. then you’re either committing wire fraud or trespassing.
Someone can not legally walk into your home even with an open door or bypass your fence, gate, or no trespassing sign. Those are considered reasonable measures to inform (the home is a separate law). However, without a reasonable measure of negative consent, your lawn is open game for squatting, just like your WiFi.
The “steal your unlocked car” example does not hold due to different laws. You own your car by agreement of the state government via a Title. If there is no record of you possessing that title then you do not own your car, in which case the person who last possessed a title owns it, unless sold to an undisclosed party, then whoever possesses it or a bill of sale owns it.
I don’t think leaving your WiFi open would fall under the duty to protect your property and I don’t know where you live but in PA, criminal trespass is not dependent on the impediment of the owner’s right to usage. Consent is. It is hard to conclude that leaving your wireless settings default to open implies consent to usage. People typically set up their wireless routers for personal usage and not public. Thus if you look at the garden example above, rarely does someone think a created path in a private garden is for the public to use. I know I don’t want random degenerates running through my backyard because I didn’t put a sign up or close a fence door! You own the land, therefore you own the (some of the) air over it. Most people don’t even like the public -I can sit on a packed train and not hear a single conversation between strangers (but that is another story).
Hard to say it is theft either. The elements of larceny include: a taking (obtaining control), carrying away, of tangible personal property, of another by trespass (without consent), and with intent to permanently deprive.
So can intend to permanently deprive someone’s wifi and carry it away? Probably not. This is not to say it wouldn’t be a good idea to sue the bastards for conversion and trespass to land. But then again we are talking only about crimes here right?
I think that it is not like leaving your house unlocked, it is more like leaving you sprinklers on and thus watering your neighbors yard with you water., or like leaving you porch light on and your neighbor being able to see better on his walks. Do not get ridiculous and say that you are leaving your door open and then by a crime of opportunity someone comes in and then steals all of you stuff, that is way more invasive than streaming your broadband connection over the air waves. This is more like your sending a FRS radio signal and someone on that same channel hears you and the conversation you are having. I leave mine open all the time and anyone is welcome to it. WEP or any security is not going to keep someone out of using your wifi, if they really want it. Nor is locking your house or car going to keep them out from stealing your stuff. But both of those are theft and should be prosecuted. If you lock it down and they break in it is theft, if you invite them in (by keeping it open) then it is not theft.
Enjoy.
I seem to have a completely different take on this to you guys even though here in england this is clearly defined in statute law as theft.Look at it this way.Is it ok for someone to set up a camera and project hardcore pornography into public places?no.So how can it be okay for someone to allow their unsecured ,unrestricted intenet access to invade my house where my kids live,or,any public place for that matter without my consent and/or knowledge when we all know the dangers that exist on the web. I should be the only person that decides what internet access my kids have.The default position must be that there is a duty of care for anyone with wireless to either keep the network within the confines of their property or secure its access .This changes the position of not choosing to secure a network to one of making a choice to not secure a network.This choice is saying “I am happy for this network to be accessible”i.e. it is therefore implying consent
I can easily access my neighbour’s open wifi.I wanna inform his/her .how can i do this considering that i dont know where he/she lives?.
plz help me