Man arrested for stealing broadband
Source = http://itn.co.uk/news/... html
A man who was spotted in the street using his laptop to access an unsecured wireless connection has been arrested.
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Dishonestly obtaining free internet access is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 and a potential breach of the Computer Misuse Act.
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"This arrest should act as a warning to anyone who thinks it is acceptable to illegally use other people's broadband connections.
"To do so potentially breaches the Computer Misuse Act and the Communications Act, so computer users need to be aware that this is unlawful and police will investigate any violation we become aware of."
The article raises an interesting issue to that of internet usage - if we are tapping into someone else's unsecured network, which most wireless modems these days would allocate on 'default', than is it 'piracy'? or rather, 'stealing'?
I found this particular article off of Slashdot, a popular website for random geek/nerd techie news and a variety of other sorts. The comments posted upon this topic consisted of a fierce debate over the validity of the man being charged with theft, against the inherent 'stupidity' of the network owner who isn't smart enough to put an encryption, or at the very least, a basic password on to the connection.
Curiously, several others actually supported this behavior, one even going so far as to proclaim that he would welcome his neighbours to come use his connection so that they don't constantly ring him up to go fix theirs. Considering that the UK/US tele-communication companies can offer next-to-nothing connection, and a vast majority of it with no bandwidth cap, how would it differ from New Zealand?
I personally spend $150 each month for my broadband - $100 for the internet, $50 for the landline. That's pretty good in NZ, considering the fact that it's 30GB of [speed] unrestricted access per month, with max uploads/downloads the whole time. Yet, comparatively, if I'm back in Taiwan I would only have to pay 1/3 of the money for the same connection, with no broadband cap. It begs one to cry out to the forum frequents at Slashdot that their models would only work when it concerns people that don't have an internet cap!
A man who was spotted in the street using his laptop to access an unsecured wireless connection has been arrested.
...
Dishonestly obtaining free internet access is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 and a potential breach of the Computer Misuse Act.
...
"This arrest should act as a warning to anyone who thinks it is acceptable to illegally use other people's broadband connections.
"To do so potentially breaches the Computer Misuse Act and the Communications Act, so computer users need to be aware that this is unlawful and police will investigate any violation we become aware of."
The article raises an interesting issue to that of internet usage - if we are tapping into someone else's unsecured network, which most wireless modems these days would allocate on 'default', than is it 'piracy'? or rather, 'stealing'?
I found this particular article off of Slashdot, a popular website for random geek/nerd techie news and a variety of other sorts. The comments posted upon this topic consisted of a fierce debate over the validity of the man being charged with theft, against the inherent 'stupidity' of the network owner who isn't smart enough to put an encryption, or at the very least, a basic password on to the connection.
Curiously, several others actually supported this behavior, one even going so far as to proclaim that he would welcome his neighbours to come use his connection so that they don't constantly ring him up to go fix theirs. Considering that the UK/US tele-communication companies can offer next-to-nothing connection, and a vast majority of it with no bandwidth cap, how would it differ from New Zealand?
I personally spend $150 each month for my broadband - $100 for the internet, $50 for the landline. That's pretty good in NZ, considering the fact that it's 30GB of [speed] unrestricted access per month, with max uploads/downloads the whole time. Yet, comparatively, if I'm back in Taiwan I would only have to pay 1/3 of the money for the same connection, with no broadband cap. It begs one to cry out to the forum frequents at Slashdot that their models would only work when it concerns people that don't have an internet cap!
posted by Unknown at 12:11 PM
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