Posted on 02/24/2007 6:58:29 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Yep, after explaining the marvel of 8-track recordings to the judge, make sure he understands wireless technology!!!!!!
He was using it to run an online game...his parents don't let him use the home computer after 9p.m. (sheesh! he's 21, FGS!)
Your computer does not invade their house to look for the network. Their network invades your house and is picked up by your computer. Reception is not broadcasted. The network is. If you broadcast something with no access control, you are giving it away.
We've got our Airport Base Station configured for WPA encryption with a password. I can see 3 other networks from our house. I someone broke into our network, that would be stealing. But if we didn't require a password, we'd be giving it away.
Seems to me the only thing they could charge him with would be trespassing since they had told him to leave the day before.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Correct. If the Library knowingly allows free public wireless access, it's no crime. If they don't, it's theft.
When my oldest daughter was in elementary school, a guy used to park on a motorcycle at the back of the school on the other side of the playground. I thought it was odd, because all the parents pick up their kids at the front of the building. I noticed that when different groups of kids would walk by, he'd roll along beside them in low gear and talk to them. It wasn't illegal, but seemed awfully odd. The third day I saw him, I jotted down his license plate and called the police and told them what he was doing.
I don't know what the police did, but I never saw him again.
This kid may not have been doing anything, but if you park in a place where there's not a logical reason for you to be, especially for extended times, the cops are going to ask questions.
Right. If my neighbor doesn't want me to use his wireless, then he ought to put in a password.
This is a serious issue to me. We have a newly elected 26 year old RAT county commissioner who stated on the stand under oath at a election residency hearing in county superior court, (kid lied about where he lived to carpetbag an easy seat), that he had been "piggy-backing" his neighbors wifi signal for 6 months.
He had been challenged after a P.I. followed him for 3 weeks and he never once went to his "apartment" and a utility company representative testified the power usage the kid did not live there. Additionally, after admitting theft of broadband on the stand, he stated he registered to vote at his former high school teachers home with no intention of living there so he could meet the residency regulations. ('06 Berkeley Graduate) Our illustrious RAT county prosecutor won't file charges.
More of these cases we see the better chance the WA State Attorney General will act on the complaint that has been filed.
Absolutely.
Can a one-armed man ride a motorcycle?
He should have told the cops he was viewing online gay porn. They would have left him alone, lest they be accused of homophobia...
I do that all the time. I've spent more time in parking lots with a laptop than I'm comfortable admitting.
If you don't secure your network, consider your bandwidth mine.
You think you can break in and read the books when the library is closed?
I just picked your response to disagree with.
If I leave my bicycle sitting on the curb in front of my house, and you get on it and ride around for an hour and bring it back, you stole it and can be arrested.
The fact that my internet is accessable to you doesn't give you the right to use it. I pay money for my internet access, and when you use it you are using up bandwidth I paid for.
I do agree that the public library, if it allows users to access the wifi, should not be considered stealing.
But I should not have to inconvenience myself with passwords and keys in order to legally keep you out of my stuff.
Of course, I should use those things to protect myself, just as I wouldn't put my bike on the street or leave my house unlocked.
But if I leave my house unlocked, and you come in and sit in my den and watch my TV, you are still breaking and entering.
Wrong.
You can lock your bike up. You can password protect your internet wireless connection.
That's what I think the problem is. And if the library doesn't want anyone outside their building using their wireless service then they should quit spraying it outside their building.
Well said
You can read any of the material that is legible from the street. Even when they're closed.
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