wardriving a crime in Florida?

[Jack]

--- Don Erickson wrote:

> On Mon, 11 Jul 2005, Jeremy Fowler wrote:
> 
> > Somebody else paid for the bandwidth, and if you
> don't 
> > have permission to use it, you're stealing it.
> 
> ...
> 
> I frankly don't see why wifi networks that advertise
> their existence and 
> give out free IPs are viewed ANY differently than
> any other internet 
> service that allows access.  The only explanation
> that I can think of is 
> that it all happens within one legal jurisdiction
> with wifi.  Sort of like 
> looking under the lamppost for the missing keys.
I have a what if. Let's roll the clock forward say 10
years. Let's say now that wifi has become ubuiquitous,
and that 60% of homes have wifi (probably not an
unrealistic scenario). The density of wifi now would
be so dense that one home might be getting a
connection from a home several houses down, and that
house is in fact getting it's connection from several
blocks away, etc. Now we are talking about being able
to track the original source of the internt
connection, which might very well be on the other end
of the metropolitan region. In a place like New York
or Dallas we could be talking a range of a 100 miles
or more. So in the scenario put forward by Jeremy all
the homes are filled with criminals. Or perhaps wifi
illiterate people. And we all know that ignorance is
no exceuse for breaking the law (actually that is more
of an Urban Legend than an absolute truth, but that's
another can or worms). Of course if wifi ever gets
that kind of foothold, there'll be all kinds of new
laws to prevent people from forming "local internets"
and thus competing with ISPs/cable companies/Ma Bell.

Personally, I feel that wifi should come locked down
and that anyone who wants to have wifi in their house
needs to know enough to configure it. There are
responsibilities that come along with anything useful
in life. Computers are no different. If you are a
reckless driver you will lose your license. If you
leave a wifi open and some cracker uploads a worm that
takes down the internet you should lose your right to
have a computer. Plain and simple.
Computers are important enough today that people need
to be responsible for knowing how to use them and care
for them. Just like with: guns, planes, cars,
children, etc.

Brian JD


		
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