Using free wireless at library described as theft

Anchorage Daily News ^ | 2/24/07 | ANDREW WELLNER

[conservative in nyc]

Brian Tanner was sitting in his Acura Integra recently outside the Palmer Library playing online games when a Palmer police pulled up behind him.

The officer asked him what he was doing.

Tanner, 21, was using the library's wireless Internet connection. He was told that his activity constituted theft of services and was told to leave. The next day, Sunday, police spotted him there again.

"It was kind of like, 'Well gee whiz, come on,' " police Lt. Tom Remaley said.

The police officer confiscated Tanner's laptop in order to inspect what he may have been downloading, Remaley said. Remaley on Friday said he hasn't looked inside the computer yet; he's putting together a search warrant application.

Alaska state troopers had chased Tanner off a few times at other locations, Remaley said.

Tanner said that was true. He has a device on his keychain that sniffs out wireless networks. When he found one, he would park in his neighborhood and use his $800 Dell laptop to hop on the Web. But worried neighbors summoned the troopers, who told him to park in a public place.

"I went to the public library because I go there during the day," Tanner said.

Though the library was closed, its wireless was up and running, he said.

Tanner said he was upset that he hasn't gotten his computer back yet. The police have told him he won't until the case is concluded, he said.

Jeanne Novosad, the library system manager, said the wireless connection is normally shut off when the library is closed. But the library was waiting on a technician to install a timer and the connection was left on after hours for several days, she said.

[Poser]

"When you set up a machine to broadcast "Hey! I'm here! Free and open access! Yes you may attach, with no key required!" that's giving permission."

Ridiculous.

You hang you coat on a hook in a restaurant. I guess it's OK for me to take it.

It's wrong. You can take it, but it's wrong. It's not yours.

[ctdonath2]

What part of this don't you understand? If your wireless router is broadcasting "I'm here, you may connect without a key", why construe that as "keep out"? especially when a few clicks changes that to no broadcasting of "I'm here" and establishing a key.

You seem to think posting "Come In" on an unlocked door should be treated like "keep out" on a locked door.

[plan2succeed.org]

I don't see a problem here. Hopefully the library filters the wireless Internet in the first place. The only problem may be that he can't ask librarians for assistance. But he doesn't expect that after hours. Also, the library knows its wireless signal can be picked up outside the library and that it has the responsibility to control it, which it didn't. But wireless signals are all over the place -- I don't see a need to control it, except for internal security reasons. The guy "caught" doing this has done nothing wrong. Am I missing something?

But let's see if the police find inappropriate material on that laptop that used the library's wireless connection and let's see it it came from that library usage. The police may inadvertently uncover a scandal more serious than a kid parked in a car next to a library. So I don't miss this, someone please contact me if this is the case. Thank you.

SafeLibraries.org - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries?

[supercat]

My router cannot give you permission to use my property, just as my gas grill is not giving you permission to use it. It's mine. It's may not be locked but it's not yours.

"Things" can give people permission to do things all the time. If a store has a pile of leaflets which say in large letters "TAKE ONE" and someone takes one, that person could hardly be accused of shoplifting.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It could be verboten under Federal law under some provision having to do with security of computer systems, but if the Alaska police agency involved isn't Federally deputized that matter is out of their bailiwick, as it were.

I haven't heard of anything like this happening on the hard wired World Wide Web, where someone who put their server on the web, without meaning to but also without posting a warning against access, got a crime charged against someone who brought up a web page on their site. The Federal provision would require some sort of warning, if applied to the hard wired Web.

State law could be anything.

[supercat]

Then I guess it's OK for me to tape your phone calls and post them on the Internet.

The telephone circuits are the property of the telephone company, leased to customers for their exclusive use.

Cell phone frequencies are the property of the telcos, and the temporary spectral assignments are effectively leased to customers for their exclusive use.

Cordless phones with landline base stations use public frequencies that are neither owned nor leased by anyone. Anything one can receive by listening in on such phones is fair game.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

But if he were inside the library, downloading Kiddie Porn instead of just gaming in the parking lot, he would've gotten a pass from the ALA. *Rolleyes*

[thackney]

"using another's wireless" ping

[Conan the Librarian]

We actually invite people to use the WiFi if they can get it.

In the parking lot, park, or just on the steps. Internet for everyone!

[conservative in nyc]

The Anchorage Daily News has a follow-up article on the subject:
Impounded laptop leaves surfer less linked (Andrew Welner; 3/1/07)

From the article:

Brian Tanner said he has significantly curtailed his Internet use since police impounded his laptop computer after spotting him using an unsecured wireless network outside the Palmer Library last week.

He shares a home computer with his parents, but when he needs lots of time online these days he often checks his e-mail and surfs the Web on public computers – at the Palmer Public Library.

“I couldn’t log on this weekend because they’re closed,” Tanner said Tuesday.

Police talked to Tanner, 21, Feb. 18, after spotting him in the library parking lot after hours. They’d chased him away the day before and advised him that what he was doing could constitute theft of services.

When they spotted him a second time, they impounded his laptop to search and see what he’d been downloading. Palmer Library director Pat Kilmain said Tanner broke no library rules that day. During the day, anyone in the library can use the wireless service for free. At night, the wireless signal is usually turned off.

Tanner happened across it during a brief period of a few days when it was left on while technicians installed a timer. Since then it’s been turned off at night.

“We haven’t seen fit to need rules since we don’t ordinarily have it turned on,” Kilmain said.

Still, though she said it’s not something strictly enforced, “it’s a city ordinance that you’re not supposed to be in the parking lot after hours.”
--Snip--

That makes a little more sense. More at the link.

[carolinalivin]

Whenever I hear someone talk about raising taxes for police, I point out stories like this and the swat teams breaking down doors and shooting some old man on a warrant to search for marijuana. It is clear that the public agencies still have too much money.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

That makes a little more sense.

It would make more sense if the cop had said that he wasn't supposed to be parked in the parking lot and wrote him a ticket. But instead the cop told him he was illegally stealing the signal and confiscated his laptop.

[conservative in nyc]

I didn't say it makes a lot more sense, just a little more sense. I'm not sure that being in a parking lot after hours in violation of a city ordinance should lead to getting your property confiscated, though.

One other claim from later in the article is that Tanner might have been a bandwidth hog, which would cost the city money. But there is no evidence that the city's pretty large bandwidth limits were exceeded as a result of Tanner's after-hours surfing.

[TheBattman]

See the line item tax on your phone bill - (they don't call it a tax) - Universal Service Fund...

[Right Wing Assault]

I wonder if they allow patrons to read borrowed books when the library is closed.

[Right Wing Assault]

American Library Association position is that porn is to be accessible online ONLY to children

No, they like anyone to look at porn in the libraries.

[steve-b]

Scanners are explicitly prohibited in federal law from operating at cell phone frequencies. Scanners sold must block access to those frequencies.
What does this have to do with internet frequencies?

Er... because you can use wireless internet to find out which wire to clip in your scanner to re-enable mobile phone frequencies.

Not that it's worth doing; other people's random conversations are BORING. Or so I've been told....

[RebelTex]

"The loss of the concept of right and wrong is a bad thing."

There's right and there's wrong, and then there's legal and illegal.  You can argue all day about which is the correct choice, but IMHO, ANY unsecured wireless network is just plain STUPID and SUICIDAL.

I'm glad the police checked this guy out.  What would your position be if this guy's name was not Tanner but was Mohammed or Aachmed?  Would you still be focused on whether his activity was legal or illegal or if it was right or wrong?

Free WiFi sounds great, but it just makes the job of tracking and finding terrorists that much harder, if not impossible.  Pay for your network connections and make sure they are secure.  There's a war going on and 'Loose Lips Sink Ships" - so can free WiFi.

(And that's not even considering the viruses, trojan horses, and hackers out there.)

[aruanan]

Depends on why he was using it instead of a connection that could be tied back to him.

No, it doesn't. Libraries have wireless for anyone with a laptop who wants to use it.

[PAR35]

Libraries have wireless for anyone with a laptop who wants to use it.

Not most. I just grabbed the Philly policies since that was one of the first that popped up:

"You may not use the Site to: (i) perform any activity which is or may be, directly or indirectly, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;..."

http://www.library.phila.gov/policies/flptou.htm

See also

http://www.library.phila.gov/policies/ps90.htm

So what you are using it for may be relevant.

And if he was using it, instead of a connection that can be traced back to him for an illicit purpose, his best defense is going to be whether the search of the computer was legal.

The story so far seems to be that he was using it for completely legitimate gaming, in which case he should get the machine back with a big apology.