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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."

10 of 1,443 comments (clear)

  1. perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    fr057 P155??

  2. someone woke up on the wrong side of freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    now now, go back and pray to your bush shrine that he will forgive you for your horrible anti american thoughts

  3. YOU DID IT! by FIRST+BUSH+BASH! · · Score: 0, Troll

    You were the first person bash George Bush in this article. Congratulations!!!

  4. Re:Yeah... by westlake · · Score: 1, Troll
    So let's arrest the people who do that, too. Hell, let's give the death penalty for all crimes, even the smallest misdemeanors!

    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.

  5. Re:I Had A Client Doing This by GISGEOLOGYGEEK · · Score: -1, Troll

    NO warrant is needed in the USA. The manager simply has to use the word 'terrorist!' and every cop around will jump at the chance to violate the guy's rights, and stop him from allowing his 'terrorist' neighbours from being able to access the wireless connection.

    Its called the Patriot Act. Perhaps you've heard of it?

    This is just one of the ways it takes away rights guaranteed to you under the constitution, yet strangly your country's judges don't have the balls to strike down the law the way it would have been in every other democratic first world country. Strangely you fucked up americans are allowing your government to renew the theft of your rights as the date of expiration comes to pass on it.

    I guess all those thousands who died to gain independance and create a free country for you over the last 200+ years died for nothing.

    --
    George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
  6. Re:A poor analogy by Eol1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    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
  7. Re:Entrapment by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 0, Troll

    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.

  8. Re:Open doors by lgw · · Score: 1, Troll

    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.
  9. Re:A poor analogy by Eol1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    "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
  10. Re:A poor analogy by Eol1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    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