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 ...
That site is so far out of date, it's a joke. In fact, every site like that that I've ever checked on is out of date as well.
I can get up to four wireless networks in the neighborhood and mine is the only one secure. I mentioned to my next door neighbor that I could get into his computers and check out his files if I wanted to and that if I could, anyone could. He said, there's not a lot there to look at so he doesn't care. Guess that's a lot of people's attitude.
Because he didn't want a wood shampoo and a charge of resisting arrest?
If they leave the books laying around outside, then yes, you can read the books when the library is closed.
I wonder if his being charged had anything to do with which sites he was accessing?
The parents ought to pay the cops to keep the computer. The boy needs to get a life.
You plant an apple tree, expecting to enjoy all the fruit. It grows until the branches extend over my fence. I wait for the apples to fall and I gather them and eat them. You've lost them. Have I stolen from you?
Better analogy - using a high-powered microphone to listen in to what's going on in your house is an invasion. But if you're shouting so loud the neighbors can hear it, it's not an invasion for them to listen. You are broadcasting to them.
MOST people don't lock down their wireless routers. I blame Linksys and NetGear for making products that are "plug and play" for networking.
Granted, with a few Linux tools, anyone could sniff wireless networks, even SSID-disabled networks, and get on them with a password sniffer (authentication is passed in plain-text).
If you have a home router, at the least change the access password to it. I'd suggest turning off the SSID and turning on WPA-Personal encryption through TKIP. This will keep most prying eyes out, but if someone really wanted to hack into your network, it doesn't take much.
No. Although local law would have to be consulted to see if you could take the apples off the tree or not.
If I put the apples in a bushel basket and a high wind slid the basket into your yard, you'd probably be stealing to take and eat them.
But the difference is the apple fell into your yard, and you can take it and eat it as you see fit.
My signal may be in your house, but when you start sending your ip packets, they are coming through my house.
"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
If you are arguing that you can receive my IP packets and inspect them, you may have a point.
But the issue isn't my wireless broadcasting to your computer, it's your IP packets coming into my house and then through my connection that I'm paying for, and then requesting information across that same connection I am paying for.
BTW, there's probably specific laws covering this in some places now, since it isn't so easy to directly tie it to existing laws.
If the cable company accidentally connects your wire up in their box, in some places you can actually be prosecuted if you DON'T call them and tell them.
Anarcho-tyranny at its worst.
I bet that cop is really proud.
No, but can I read a book I have checked out, after the library is closed?
Can I sit in my car in their parking lot & do it?
How about can I look in their window and read whatever they have displayed after they are closed?
I find using their unsecured internet more akin to reading a poster they have displayed in their window than to reading the books inside the library.
All you have to do is go inside and ask for permission to set your laptop up in their lobby.
I've never been refused.
Roughly two-thirds of all home networks are not secure in anyway. It's also true that anyone that is "determined" can break basic WEP encryption fairly easily.
Consider that the Library doesn't nominally allow use after hours - therefore, his use was using their hardware when it wasn't allowed to be used by the public. Technically they've got him. If the police gripped about it while the library was open I think he would have a leg to stand on. The other issue is that this guy has been going around town doing this and looking suspicious. He has become a nuisance to the cops - (at least the third time they've been called on him..) So they took action.
When the totality of the situation is considered I think the cops were reasonable.
This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's OK to use the wireless network if you pack your laptop computer into the library but it's a crime if you access it from your car outside? It's not like he's trespassing in a private company's parking lot and hopping onto their network, it's the public library! Sounds like the cops don't have much to do if they're pursuing cheesy crap like this.
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