Slashdot Mirror
Wireless Hijacker Dealt First UK Punishment
paella_dodger writes "The BBC is reporting on a recent UK court case whereby a man was fined £500, sentenced to 12 months' conditional discharge and had his laptop confiscated for browsing the 'net on his neighbour's wireless Internet conenction. Perhaps I should secure my neighbour's wireless connection for him before Windows automagically connects to it and gets me arrested!"
so, i'm gonna have to stop doing my bittorrent across my neighbours wireless broadband and go back to criminalising myself...
fantastic...
Honestly, I do not blame the UK government for going down on this guy...
Hmm, UK justice is very different from US justice...
" ...the door is unlocked = no encryption, no security."
Man 1: "Knock knock",
Man 2: "Come in",
Man 1: Goes in.
Man 2: Police arrest that man.
Man 1: But I knocked and you said I could come in
Man 2: But that was a misconfiguration, if I wanted you to come in I would have put a "FreeToComeIn" sign on my door.
Wow...cool. I had no idea I was a hacker...will have to add that to the resume. Now to go get a lifetime supply of black t-shirts with obscure *nix jokes on them, throw away my shaver, and stock up on Mt. Dew.
I am, by your definition, a bozo.
When I had the only WAP in my building, no problem. When my neighbours above, below, and on either side all decided to use the same channel for their wireless they were making things worse for everybody.
Mostly, I was only worried about me, of course. I logged on to their unsecured routers and put them on channels likely to cause less interference.
Finally Americans can make sarcastic comments about the police state across the pond. Sure, we're in the same situation but at least someone else is now too.
IN YOUR FACE, UK!!
This method was introduced by Margaret Thatcher to take down crime.
It worked.