Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Michigan man arrested for using cafe's free WiFi from his car

A Michigan man is being prosecuted for using a cafe's free WiFi... from his car. Sam Peterson was arrested under a Michigan law barring access to anyone else's network without authorization, according to Michigan TV station WOOD. Since the cafe's WiFi network was reserved for customers, and Peterson never came into the cafe, he was essentially piggybacking off of the open network without authorization.
[snip]
Coincidentally, the cafe owner that Peterson was leeching WiFi off of didn't even realize that what Peterson was doing was a crime at the time. Neither did the police officer. "I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn't know exactly what," Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski told the TV station.


The article goes on to detail several arrests made in Florida, Alaska, Illinois and Washington. The point is to be aware of local laws, and whether you want to share your wireless connection openly, or not.
Michigan man arrested for using cafe's free WiFi from his car
--MissM

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