The Ethics of Stealing Wireless Bandwidth?

sjwoo asks: "So I was over at a friend's apartment yesterday, in an attempt to fix up her computer (goodbye, buggy Windows ME, hello somewhat less buggy Windows XP). I had most of the updates already on CD, so the only one that caused me grief was a new driver for her HP printer, which was 22MB. Her Internet connectivity was provided by AOL dialup, and because we had to be in class, I had to do what I could to hurry things along. I found an unprotected (i.e., no WEP, no MAC-address protection) WLAN and sucked down that file at over 200Kb/sec. Was I wrong to steal?"

"At home over my cable modem, downloading this file would have taken a couple of eyeblinks, but as I clicked on the download over her AOL connection, I saw that the ETA turned from 45 minutes to 68 minutes to 94 minutes! I had less than 10 minutes, so I did what a few of you might do: I turned on my wireless laptop and looked around the apartment building in search of a connection.

Later, I considered the ethical aspects of my action. I kinda felt a little guilty for tapping into this guy's connection. Surely it's possible that he wanted to have an open network to provide strangers in brief need of broadband connectivity, but most likely, he's just some person who doesn't quite know what he's doing."

Comments

Re:Legality vs. Common Sense

[Crazy Ukrainian]

The problem with the open door analogy, is that if someone steals things from your house or car, you no longer have them. Downloading through someone else's network does not cost them anything. Sure, if they were for some reason using all their bandwidth at that point you might cause a bit of lag, but then again, if they were using that much bandwidth, you wouldn't get a 200kb/s download. The only complication is if, like ewhenn said, their bandwidth usage is metered. In that case its wrong unless you pay them whatever miniscule ammount it cost.

Re:Simply put.

[benh57]

But you don't know that it was theft. In fact, since there are many FREE access points, open to ALL on purpose, one could reasonably argue in a court of law that since he didn't take the (two clicks!) necessary to protect his network, it was a reasonable assumption to assume the AP was one of those free access points. I would equate it more to picking up a flyer from a stack of coupon flyers left sitting on top of a news rack, or a diner counter. That could have been a stack of flyers just copied by someone at Kinkos, and left 'unlocked' out there in the open accidentally. (stealing!). Or, more likely, they were left there as a free promo for people to pick up.

Re:Dear slashdot

[anon mouse-cow-aard]

only if you went to the bathroom during commercials, but that's another story.

Re:Dunno....

[clifyt]

The same thing could be said of a pay phone...or going to a REAL airport as these things are becoming popular diversions while waiting on a plane (while flying late last year, I pulled out the iBook only to see 2 seperate networks available that I could access my email for free).

The point is that we shouldn't have to worry about every little probably that can arrise by criminals. Should I install bulletproof glass on all my windows? If I don't, am I liable for anyone in my house that gets shot in a drive by shooting? Its rediculous that criminals can get away with so much, but when it involves computers and they are hauled away, Slashdoties get all up in arms about the punishment not fitting the crime. Bullshit...if you misuse someone elses property, there is not maximum punishment large enough.

There are enough anonymous places to do this stuff from these days...maybe I should just put up my X10 Cam (err...older model...I stopped buying from them once they went all nutty a few years ago with the spam) out and capture the license plates of everyone that uses it...but if I did that, I'm sure someone would post a note about it saying I was oppressin' them or something.

clif

A better question is ..

[Glonoinha]

Actually I would say a better question is 'what are the odds of me getting caught?' And the answer is 'very slim.'

In my 'hood someone had their Linksys WiFi (I will get around to explaining how I knew in a minute) up without WEP enabled, just plugged it in and let it go ... I found it when a friend of mine was at my place, looking for a cable connection for his laptop to check email. It was a new IBM with built in 802.11b and it asked if I wanted to use the ambient signal it found, first clue. I went out the next day and bought a 802.11b card for my laptop and sure enough, signal. Weak signal, but still. (I bought a base station also so I could use it without the moral implications and in case it went away...)

I got to dinking around with his system, recognized by the IP address it assigned me that it wasn't an SMC unit, probably a Linky so I tried to connect to the console using the default password and Voila! it worked.

I was at a neighborhood gathering the other day when I asked 'anybody know who Alex or Erin are?' (the hub was broadcasting the name alexerin) and one guy says 'That's my daughter, why?' I let him know I was tappin' it from time to time (his network, not his daughter) - and explained to him how to lock it up. He had no clue.

Next day it was WEP enabled. Maybe I shoulda kept my mouth shut, I got better reception from his AP than from mine in certain places in my house / back yard.

It's only airwaves -- and unlicensed ones, at that

[Deagol]

If some satellite company goofed and beamed unencrypted HBO over the northern hemisphere for 24 hours, would they have a legal case to sue people who tuned in? Of course not!

So, if you're broadcasting your access singnal, unlicensed and unencrypted into another residence, I say all bets are off.

Re:Which is why there should be a standard.

[vsync64]

If a network is unlocked/unprotected how do we know whether someone is being generous or being ignorant?

That's their business. If they don't take the trivial step of setting a password (which is clearly recommended in even the most dumbed-down wireless kits I have seen) why should I assume that their policy is anything different than what they've deliberately implemented technologically.

If something similar to what I suggest becomes common/standard then one can easily check if a network has been explicitly made open for public use and what the terms are, and whether there are other interesting and accessible local services/devices/people.

The http://here/ is an interesting idea. Easily getting information about ToS, local interests, etc, would be nice. But using something like that to say "please stay off my network" is quite simply asinine and redundant.

I note that your idea isn't likely to be implemented be the technological ignoramuses of the world, either.