[wplug] On the subject of wardriving...

[Drew from Zhrodague]

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

	Agreed! What part of "wardriving does not involve network access" 
do you not understand? Isn't that the basis of why you say this is an 
illegal practice?


> 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.

	I do publish this information, and I am really not a bad person,
and hold no malice towards anyone. I started WiFiMaps.com to show people
*where* Wi-Fi is, and how it's used -- not to show kiddie hackers where to
find security holes. 

	We make sure to stay on the light-side, by not publishing MAC
addresses, not coorelating street addresses, and we allow our users to ban
their MACs from ever being displayed on our website.

	Perhaps you'd be interested to know what the most densely
populated area of the US is in terms of Wi-Fi? We'll be able to tell you
this in a few weeks. Other than wardriving, how could anyone find this 
out?


> 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.

	The esteemed officer is misinformed about wardriving, and I would
enjoy discussing the topic with him/her, as I did with the FBI, and
continue to do with journalists, executives, scientists, and individuals
interested in the topic.


> 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.

Fact:	You are misinformed about wardriving, and refuse to do any 
	research, or listen to more informed people.
Fact:	You have a pre-conceived notion about a technology you do not 
	understand, or care to understand more about.


	Honestly. If you'd like to go out for a wardrive, I can show you 
what it's all about, and how much fun it is. You could also read IEEE 
802.11b specification, to understand how the technology works. Uninformed 
finger-pointing wastes everyone's time.

	So, yeah, I do sit up and make a big stink about this. I could 
similarly say that GNU/Linux is illegal, because it uses stolen code from 
SCO -- and you're all filthy criminals for using it!

--

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