Slashdot Mirror
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."
You were the first person bash George Bush in this article. Congratulations!!!
explain to me again why a geek caught with his hand in the cookie jar should be rewarded with a "get out of jail free" card.
Thats the prob with socially acceptable crimes, everybody blames the victim. Think of it this way: You leave you car doors and windows open unlocked with a laptop in the back downtown. It gets stolen. People will usually say "What did you expect" or "Had it coming" but give me break, the real problem here is somebody stole your gear. You have no obligation in a law abiding society to ever lock anything. Its not a crime. Its a crime for people to steal and misuse items not theirs.
Had this happen to me twice in the real world. Both times the cops and insurance company made me feel as I if I did something wrong. Americans seem to have this ingrain belief that if it isn't locked down, you must want me to steal it. Bullshit.
De Oppresso Liber
No, it's more like placing a $20 bill on your lawn right next to the sidewalk and waiting in a darkened window with a shotgun, just hoping for someone to set foot on your property so you can shoot them.
he can claim ignorance like the lady who burned herself on McDonald's coffee and got a million in settlement.
You mean the lady who had 3rd degree burns over a significant portion of her body, requiring tens of thousands of dollars of medical care, *only* because McDonalds knowingly served coffee at a temperature which violated local health retrictions, despite repeated warnings. That lady? Who only sued after McDonalds refused to pay her medical expenses after injuring her through willful and deliberate disregard for the safety of its customers?
Who they should really sue is the person who left the network unsecured as it is they who agreed to some ULA saying they couldn't share the connection.
Yeah, it's the rape victim's fault for dressing like that, she had it coming! An open door is *not* an invitation, no matter how much you might want what's inside.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
"Or do you think it is someone else's responsibility to make sure no one steals your items?"
As long as I am forced to pay taxes to *protect* me and laws limit my rights to protect my items, then YES, I do expect (read the police who get paid to do this) somebody to protect my items.
"Yes, it sucks that there is a lot of theft in the modern world. It's a terrible thing. But your items are your responsibility, period."
Unless I have the legal right to proect my items to the extent I feel necessary then they are not my responsibility. Unless I have a absolute right to shoot people for breaking my window or kids for tagging my property, it is societies problems. Either give me the rights or quit stealing my money to pay for police that don't do their job.
De Oppresso Liber
Jingoism as it may be, it doesn't change the FACT that I have never once been ripped off, robbed, or seriously threatened outside the US in all my travels and living. It doesn't change the fact that US type crime (read arbitrary violence and theft) rises as countries are *americanized*. Not saying theft and violence doesn't exist outside the US in its own form (honour crimes, hate crimes, etc), just saying the US promotes and glamorizes it in the same way obeseity rates are raising around the world as people adopt american diets.
De Oppresso Liber