[wplug] Wardriving CNET article

Chris Ott cott at acclamation.com
Fri Dec 23 12:11:21 EST 2005


Robert Griffin wrote:
> 
> However,  I still believe it boils down to a ethical issue.  Let's say 
> my neighbor has a door, but they don't lock it.  Heck, they leave it 
> open. ....

I dunno. As long as you're just borrowing their Internet connection once 
in a while and don't touch anything on their network in any way, I'd be 
inclined to use a different analogy.

Say your house is very close to your neighbor's - like half the houses 
in Pittsburgh. Your neighbor has an unlocked gate, separating the front 
yard from the back. You're in the front yard and need to get to the back 
without going through the house (your shoes are muddy, or something), so 
you use the gate. Even though you need to go through your neighbor's 
yard and, legally, they could probably complain, I find it hard to 
believe anyone actually would complain about that.

> Also, If I left the keys in my car, I'm not 
> inviting someone to take my car down to the store, even if they do no 
> damage and return it.

Interesting that you use the above analogy... Years ago, when my wife 
was living in Philadelphia, she was reasonably sure there was a homeless 
person sleeping her car, at night. As far as I know, she never saw the 
person and never called the police, since no harm was done.

She always left the car unlocked because it wasn't worth much (Chevy 
Corsica) and, if someone broke in, it would cost a lot to replace the 
window.

> Take a garbage collection service for example, I put my garbage out with 
> my neighbor and don't make any previous arangements with them.  I never 
> physically intrude on them, but I'm taking advantage of their money 
> (whatever small and insignificant amount it may be) and ignorance in the 
> situation.

Are you? I'm not sure that's true, if the collection service doesn't 
care about volume. I'll admit you're stealing from the collection 
service, but not from your neighbor.

Of course, that's a pretty good idea... Hmmm...

Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating you jump on your neighbors' 
wireless connections and use them whenever you want. I'm just trying to 
point out the gray areas.

If you really don't want to get your own connection, you may actually 
want to talk to your neighbor. My sister did. She bought a wireless 
router, put it in her neighbor's house, and now they're sharing the 
connection. She's not even paying for part of the connection, because 1) 
she bought the router, 2) her neighbor wanted wireless, too, and 3) my 
sister set it all up for him.

Chris



More information about the wplug mailing list