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Man Arrested for Using Open Wireless Network

DaCool42 writes "In Tampa Bay, a man has been arrested for using a wide open WiFi AP. The St. Petersburg Times has the full story. 'It's no different if I went out and bought a Microsoft program and started sharing it with everyone in my apartment. It's theft,' said Kena Lewis, spokeswoman for Bright House Networks in Orlando."

16 of 1,443 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Open doors by Kethinov · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean the free internet I'm getting from my neighbors isn't legal? :(

    --
    You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  2. Re:Open doors by PopeAlien · · Score: 5, Funny

    It remains unclear what Smith was using the Wi-Fi for, to surf, play online video games, send e-mail to his grandmother, or something more nefarious.

    .. or quite possibly.. ALL OF THE ABOVE!

    For safeties sake lets just outlaw the internet.

  3. This guys is a jackass! by ad0le · · Score: 3, Funny

    He could have kept his mouth shut... blamed his "connection" on Windows XP's "auto connect" feature for WiFi devices and sued Microsoft for incured losses..... I'm resisting the urge to say .... Profit!!!

    --
    My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.
  4. Re:Open doors by pwnage · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, no kidding. I commit this crime every time I go over to my girlfriend's apartment! Better get me a lawyer.

    --
    Reminder: Apple owns 1/255th of the internet.
  5. Re:Open doors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No and if you keep clicking on those damn slashdot goatse links I'm seriously going to turn WPA on.
    -your neighbor

  6. Re:Open doors by Klowner · · Score: 4, Funny

    Crap, and all this time I've been walking into people's homes and plugging my laptop directly into their switch.

  7. Re:Open doors by dcam · · Score: 4, Funny

    I recommend banning Acer. Clearly they were the root cause of the problem. They built hardware that was capable of hacking an open access point.

    --
    meh
  8. No different by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 3, Funny
    It's no different if I went out and bought a Microsoft program

    Exactly - I can see it now Man arrested for using Microsoft Software See /. articles on how your Win machine will instantly become part of an intergalactic Beowulf cluster of anal probe gizmotrons on powerup.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  9. Re:Open doors by Mythrix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or it's like this:
    Someone bought a wireless router to share his internet connection at home with the rest of his family, but he didn't bother to setup any security.

    Then someone outside of the house connects to the wireless router to use the internet connection, without the owner of the router knowing or approving this.

    ...wait, what were we talking about again?

  10. Sounds like a familiar story by Paul+Crowley · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not long afterwards, he's turned into a pig and trapped in that land until his daughter can free him and her mother from the sorceress Yubaba...

  11. Re:Open doors by AdmiralWeirdbeard · · Score: 4, Funny

    how about Chevy? They built the car that let him troll around looking for a network. They I mean, they provided the means by which he kept his nefarious activities cloaked (sortof)

    isnt there some kind of patriot act violation there?

    --
    Come read my stupid blagablog. Rants and Giggles
  12. Re:Open doors by galego · · Score: 3, Funny
    For safeties sake lets just outlaw the internet.

    Be careful ... there may be a politician reading this stuff!!

    --

    Que Deus te de em dobro o que me desejas

    [May God give you double that which you wish for me]

  13. Re:Open doors by Thuktun · · Score: 3, Funny

    Be careful ... there may be a politician reading this stuff!!

    Surely you mean that someone must be reading it to them.

  14. Re:Open doors by alta · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think in this case I'd say you left a set of tools sitting in the guy's kitchen, in his way.

    I have exactly the same problem, I have my laptop setup to auto-connect to the best network because it's very convienent while traveling. Then suddenly the guy in the office downstairs gets an AP, puts it on the same channel as mine (dumbass) and leaves it insecure. So I suddenly get connected to his stinking network and all my servers are unavailable. So I went down there, had a talk with him about security and for free, secured his network. 2 weeks later, it's called linksys again and it's insecure. I go down and ask him why "Oh, we had someone else come in, and we couldn't find the codes (he meant wep keys) so we just reset it. Great hu?"

    Yeah, great....

    So now, I have a WAP that I sat as close to his office as possible. It's on the same channel as his, it has an antenna pointing at his office, it's wide ass open, the SSID is linksys (even though it's not a linksys), and it has no connection to the internet. awe......

    --
    Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
  15. Re:Open doors by chillmost · · Score: 4, Funny
    Wow, no kidding. I commit this crime every time I go over to my girlfriend's apartment! Better get me a lawyer.

    No, no. We're not talking about that. We're talking about using open wireless connections.

  16. Re:Open doors by kryzx · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let's ban DNA.
    Clearly that was the root cause of the Chevy, the Acer, and both of the morons involved in this.

    --
    "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."