Using someone else’s Wi-Fi
p2p news view / p2pnet: What’s the right thing, the ethical thing, to do if you find an open Wi-Fi connection – your next-door neighbour’s, say?
Should you use it? Or would that be a dastardly?
No worries, offers Jeffrey L. Seglin’s The Right Thing in the New York Times. Go right ahead and tap it.
“Unless it is made clear to users tapping into wireless connections that they must agree to certain conditions before proceeding, they have not breached any ethical mandate by logging on in any way that they legally can,” he says.
“The right thing would be for those who set up wireless connections and want to keep them private to take the time to do so. If you’re a piggybacking user and can identify the individual to whom the connection belongs, it would be courteous but not essential to let that person know that you and presumably others are able to enjoy their wireless largesse.
“But the responsibility for deciding whether others should be able to tap into a given access belongs squarely on the shoulders of those setting up the original connection.”
Also See:
New York Times- If Internet connection is open, feel free to use it, February 26, 2005
February 28th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
seems good
March 1st, 2006 at 12:35 am
It’s almost as if they are saying, “Use someone elses Wi-Fi to download the latest movies and albums, it’s almost impossible to track you down.”
Or alternatively, “Use Wi-Fi, if your IP gets busted then just claim it was someone else using your unsecured connection”. Foolproof
March 1st, 2006 at 10:41 am
Now, if only someone would write an all-on-one program to detect the network, sniff packets, and crack WAP on an Atheros Atheros notebook (built in) Wifi ‘card’…(I think it’s a 5005G or something like that)… :/ My neighbor has a wifi connection, but can’t find any programs that will help crack his WEP
March 1st, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Well, in the UK it would be illegal (unauthorised access to computer system, violates the Computer Misuse Act) so for me it’s moot really.
March 2nd, 2006 at 6:52 am
you’re not accessing a computer system, you’re accessing bandwith, I highly doubt it’s illegal as long as you aren’t cracking security
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Yes, cracking someones wep would probably put you in illegal territory.
June 10th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
you know this is the wife of the man in the story and if ppl dont know the whole story then they should not even think about what ifs…..all that happened was he was sitting on the street in IL with WI plates on the car and the cop said he was a suspious person. They did not see the lap top or the internet until after the pulled up behind him……and the connection was not blocked, when he drove up to the area, it connected by itself..