Man arrested for using free Wi-Fi

Uh oh...

I'd better stop telling my favorite airline that their airplane is going to its destination anyway...and there's a seat open...so I figure it'd be okay if I flew for free.

I can't believe they're going to prosecute...on the other hand, the guy could have been downloading huge files, one after the other, and slowing down the network for the coffee shop's paying customers...right...?

 

I'm surprised viewing a laptop in his car would give the police probable cause to question him in the first place. I wonder if the guy had an attorney?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ May 23 2007, 01:48 PM) [snapback]448376[/snapback]</div>

Unfortunately in todays atmosphere of extreme paranoia, it probably is... Imagine you're walking down the street and see some guy just sitting there in their car... you might wonder what they're doing. Now, imagine that you're a cop sitting there looking for speeders - you see the guy pull up and park, then not get out of his car. After a while, you get curious/suspicious, so you walk over to ask if he needs help, see the laptop, and the rest goes from there.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ May 23 2007, 11:40 AM) [snapback]448363[/snapback]</div>

I did this last year while on jury duty so I could check email (actually Priuschat) while on the many extended breaks trials take. Guess it's time to go turn myself in to the authorities

 

It all starts with the guy sitting in his car using the wifi at a coffee shop with a sign that says "Free WiFi"

Next thing you know, cops will be prosecuting people who break across our nations border in the middle of the night, live here 10 years, have 10 kids, use our hospital emergency rooms, flood our gradeschools and use fake social security cards on official paperwork.

 

What if the shop sells whole beans and he brews his own coffee at home, isn't he a customer of the shop?

What if he was checking his email before entering to buy a sandwich?

What happens when you walk outside with your wifi device still connected to their network?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Army5339 @ May 23 2007, 01:41 PM) [snapback]448366[/snapback]</div>

I didn't see anything in the article indicating a sign was posted stating what you mentioned in your first paragraph. If I did, could you point it out?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ May 23 2007, 08:51 AM) [snapback]448380[/snapback]</div>

Curious/suspicious of what?

The area I live is secluded and we have a fair amount of break-ins. Anytime I see someone just waiting in their car I call the police and report the license number. I have been told by the police that having a license number and a call will give them a reason to approach the vehicle and even ask for driver's license. Without the call by neighbors they have no reason to approach the car.

 

Does this mean that people who broadcast unsecured Wi-Fi are accomplices?

 

I got a good suggestion for MI cops. Put down all your radar/laser gun and start stake out on every free WIFI spot. Here is a good start Free WIFI spot in MI.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Army5339 @ May 23 2007, 01:46 PM) [snapback]448372[/snapback]</div>

Not the same thing at all. Using water and phone lines (assuming you make long distance calls) will cost the owner more than if you didn't. This is more like someone opening the door to the coffee shop, and passers-by all smell the delicious fresh coffee, and the cops bust them all for "stealing" the odors that wafted out on the streets.

Nobody is coming into your house. But if you put a couch in your front yard with a sign on it saying "free couch", don't call the cops when you find your couch is mysteriously gone.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ May 23 2007, 02:08 PM) [snapback]448390[/snapback]</div>

Let's see...I bought a pound of Starbucks coffee about three months ago...that makes me a customer, right...?

I bought a diet Coke at Burger King a few weeks back...can I still get a free refill?

"Customer" generally means an *active* customer, not someone who may have patronized the establishment some time ago/is "considering" patronizing the establishment/"will soon be" patronizing the establishment.

They guy should have checked his eMail after buying a sandwich (in response to your scenarios, above)...and if he was a current customer, he should/could have shown a receipt.

If he had never done what he did, then he wouldn't now find himself being prosecuted for it...and, in the process, making such a big deal of it all. Now, probably what will happen is that the coffee shop will encrypt its network and charge folks to use it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ May 23 2007, 02:19 PM) [snapback]448410[/snapback]</div>

The cop observed him doing this regularly, everyday, for some time. I suppose the cop could have thought he was using the free wireless to conduct illegal activities (fraud, child porn, child endangerment), researched the wireless law, found that was in itself enough for an arrest, and then charged him with that so as to take the laptop into evidence and give it a look. This hypothesis gives the cop more curiousity than presented in the article, but is about the only reason I could think of to bother busting someone for this.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MegansPrius @ May 23 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]448431[/snapback]</div>

As you suggested, there HAS to be more to it.

Maybe the guy did this every day for weeks, or the coffee shop noticed that its network was reeeeeeaaaaalllllyyy slow every time his car was out front, or something else, over and above the "but I was only checking my eMail" excuse.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ May 23 2007, 09:57 AM) [snapback]448428[/snapback]</div>

Sorry I did that incorrectly, you have to read my response in your quotes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ May 23 2007, 03:52 PM) [snapback]448426[/snapback]</div>

Local calls don't add to my phone bill, neither does additional usage of my cable tv. But stealing either one of them is against the law. Those services cost money.

If I had a sign that read, "Free Couch, ask owner", and you went inside the house and took the couch without asking, you could most assuredly be arrested for theft and breaking and entering. Even if the door was open and unlocked. If an sandwich store has a sign that reads, "Free Ice Cream for customers!", it does not mean you can go to the back of the store, and take 20 gallons of ice cream from the freezer. Nor do you have any right to use their phone to make a free local call.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Betelgeuse @ May 23 2007, 02:47 PM) [snapback]448374[/snapback]</div>

The video of the coffee shop shows a sign on the front of the shop.

Again, believing you have some inate right to stuff that you did not pay for is a mental illness. The intenet access was not his, and he did not have permission to use it. Anymore than if he had somehow, without their permission, used their phone lines to make local calls instead of paying for the service on his own.

Stealing.....is wrong.

 

Should the punishment for everything illegal be based on some touchy feely "well, this seems about right..." relativistic scale, where we just search our collective consciousnesses and come to an emotional verdict, based on how we're feeling today...?

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Also, just 'cause everyone speeds down the freeway doesn't mean that a cop can't ---for whatever reason--- single your car out of the fast lane flow and pull you over. I feel like the main response to the argument, "using the coffee shop's network is illegal" is, "yeah, but everyone is doing it, and it's not really so bad..." which doesn't really cut it for me.

Wrong is...wrong. And I for one don't rely exclusively on the law to come to this conclusion.

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As I said earlier, just 'cause an airliner is flying to Hawai'i and there happens to be a vacant seat...doesn't mean that I can go for free. It's a service which has a market value, irrespective of whether it's free or not to the provider.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Army5339 @ May 23 2007, 03:34 PM) [snapback]448460[/snapback]</div>

Did you ASK to use this board? Did you ask the owners of the various servers between your computer and the one the board is on if you could use it? Did you ask the owner of the server the board is on if you could use it? If not, you're STEALING from them! Quick! Better throw your computer out the window RIGHT NOW!

 

So if I don’t have my home wifi secured I can call the police and they will conduct a door to door search and arrest all those that might be using my internet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ May 23 2007, 11:33 AM) [snapback]448359[/snapback]</div>

The requisite intent for this crime is to use the free wi-fi.

Sam Peterson clearly stated: "I knew that the Union Street had Wi-Fi. I just went down and checked my e-mail and didn't see a problem with that."

In California, that is sufficient proof. The prosecutor need not prove that Peterson knew that the act was illegal or that he was breaking the law. You may want to look up CALJIC 3.30:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tom 6850 @ May 23 2007, 11:46 AM) [snapback]448371[/snapback]</div>

According to the article, Peterson was placed in a diversion program. That means that once he completes performing his community service hours and pays the fine the case will be dismissed and Peterson will have a clean record.