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Busted For Using Library Wi-Fi Outside The Library
sevej writes "Keith Shaw, in his weekly column "Wireless Computing Devices" (Network World Fusion), reported on a recent entry in AKMA's Random Thoughts where AKMA was using a public WiFi network outside of a library. A policeman approached him and asked that he only access the Internet from within the Library and hinted that Federal Laws against "signal theft" were applicable. Oh, and btw, we're not talking about a person that looked like your stereotypical 'hacker'; AKMA is an ordained priest."
He didn't. He assumed and even when he knew AKMA wasn't using wifi, he still told him to leave.
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
I'm sure Apple marketing would rather have it differently, but 'Airport' is not a generic name for Wireless Access Points.
Nantucket, which is an island off the coast of Cape Cod. It's mentionned once or twice.
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I know that over here in Holland there's indeed a law for this. If something is published in the ether, everyone able to receive it is allowed to do so.
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Ehr, 'Holland, the country' ? Coz I live there and I'm quite certain that's not the case. If you have a TV antenna here and you're receiving TV signals, you will be asked to pay 'kijk en luistergeld'.
You mean similar to the whole "Walkman" thing?
Did you ever notice that only Sony is allowed to call their walkman's a walkman?
As long as Apple stops other companies from using the name, they lose no rights to the trademark if the rest of the world uses it as a generic name.
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Since when is it in the job description of the Police Department to help carry out statistical surveys for the local library? If the librarians want more statistics, they can simply log more traffic.
BTW, how do you propose keeping all users indoors may help with their statistics? Is it so the librarians can look them over and make notes like "suspicious-looking priest in black with glasses and TiBook" in their little statistical notebooks?
Encrypting wouldn't help much as they would have to give out the key anyway it being a public access point
Yeees. Go on. Keep thinking, you're on to something here. What if it ceases to be a public access point when you turn encryption on? Since the library already had an encrypted AP too, it seems to me this one was intentionally left public and open. Hell, he even had a library card so if they had encrypted the signal and made the AP available for known users only, he would most likely have had access to the key. It would be interesting to see the incident report.
BTW, he's not alone being questioned by police about his horrible crimes and terrorist activities.
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Redirect all traffic from unknown users to a local webserver, which contains a usage agreement. After the user clicks "Accept" add their MAC address to the list of known users, and maybe remove it after 24 hours or so.
That said, why didn't the guy simply walk into the library, sit down at one of their nice tables and use his laptop on the Internet in the Library using the wifi? The cop may not have been right, but there is nothing more dangerous than a cop who is willing to be wrong.
One of the followup articles explained that the library was closed at the time.
Another one said
The Atheneum has just now posted a policy stating that the wifi connection is available only between a half-hour after they open to a half-hour before they close, on days that they're open. The stated reasonn is "for better maintenance and operation." Case closed.
Read it again, he said the library was closed. Otherwise, he would have gone in to finish up.
if this was in the USA, actually thanks to HBO in 1981 it is NOT illegal the officer was completely wrong. the law is very clear on this. It is not illegal to take any signal out of the air. it is however illegal to decrypt a signal. That is why HBO ended up having to scramble their signals. They were sueing provate satellite dish owners and manufacturers for copyright infringement. The US supreme court held that if it was not encrypted, it was indeed public domain.
Secondly, the FCC has detemined certain channels to be public use. the 2.4 gig range used by WI/Fi is among those.
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