[wplug] On the subject of wardriving...

[Bill Moran]

John Harrold <jmh17 at pitt.edu> wrote:

> Sometime in March Bill Moran assaulted the keyboard and produced:
> 
> | Answer me 1 question:
> | 
> | What is the _purpose_ of wardriving?
> 
> Gathering demographic data to determine prospective interest in
> participating in my wifi cooperative :?)

This is gotten very tiresome.  You didn't answer my question, but I
can infer, from your statement, what the correct answer is:

The purpose of wardriving is to collect information, usually statistics.

Therefore, ethically wardriving in and of itself can never be right
or wrong - it's what you do with that information that makes right
or wrong.

In my opinion, if you publish the data you find during wardriving, you're
a bad person.  (not statistics, but the actual specific data).  Most of
the people who will use this data will use it for criminal purposes.  That's
the reality of our world.  If you publish it, you're aiding these criminals.
If you want to bullshit yourself into believing you're not really a bad
person, I don't care.

As far as legality is concerned.  On March 5th, a police officer said
that his interpretation of the new PA computer laws made wardriving
illegal.  If you feel that your legal-fu is such that you know better
than him, I don't care about that either.  But don't clutter up this
list with your assertations of fact, which are in reality just your
opinion.

Fact:  PA law has some pretty specific stuff about computer crimes.
Fact:  Most of this stuff has yet to be tested in court.
Fact:  It is the opinion of an experienced legal expert, who also groks
       binary, that these laws make wardriving illegal.
Fact:  It is the opinion of John Harrold that no law will ever make
       wardriving illegal.

I'm done arguing.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com