[wplug] On the subject of wardriving...

[Drew from Zhrodague]

> 2) I, personally, am not criticising the practice of "find and report
>    problems", as long as it doesn't come down to _actual_ extortion.
>    However, I recommend against that practice because it's too easily
>    the beginning of a lawsuit.  If you don't like it, jump down the
>    throats of lawyers and lawmakers ... not the members of this list.

	We like it just fine. I am the founder of WiFiMaps.com, and though
we publish maps of *where* people have installed Wi-Fi devices, we
explicitly say in our FAQ (somewhere) that our maps are not to be used as
a lead-sheet.


> 4) We're all confused on wardriving.  It's a very controversial subject.
>    That's why we're discussing it.

	I am not confused about the legalities of wardriving -- this is 
why I pipe-up, and specify where I stand.

	Wardriving is a controversial subject, only when the concepts are 
misunderstood. What makes wardriving legal, is the non-violation of laws: 
wardriving is a passive listening to the airwaves, to broadcasted beacons 
from the access-points. These beacons are intended to be received by all.

	Stumbling across a network is wardriving, anything more (like 
trying to pass any sort of traffic at all, or monitoring the airwaves) is 
no longer wardriving, and can be categorized as breaking-in, hacking, 
cracking, or whatever scary buzz-word is hot this week.


-- 

Drew from Zhrodague		http://www.WiFiMaps.com
drew at zhrodague.net		Location Based WiFi