It shouldn't be. ...and certainly not a felony!
Prosecuting this guy using a law against hackers was a severe miscarriage of justice. The judge, jury and prosecutor should all hang their heads in shame.
(Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker...but still felt that a law might have been broken.
“We came back and we looked up the laws and we figured if we found one and thought, ‘Well, let’s run it by the prosecutor’s office and see what they want to do,’” Milanowski said.)
Disgusting officer and prosecutor. There is nothing fair about prosecuting someone using a law that nobody heard of and that was put in place to protect against a different “crime” altogether. It sounds like the locality just needed the guy’s $400. Then the police and prosecutors wonder why they have such a bad reputation, and why people don’t trust them anymore...
The problem is with the Michigan law as written. It makes it a felony to connect to any computer network without "authorization."
752.795 Prohibited conduct.So under this law as it was interpreted in this case it is a felony in Michigan to roam with your cell phone on a different carriers network since you did not get either verbal or written permission from the other carrier to do so!Sec. 5.
A person shall not intentionally and without authorization or by exceeding valid authorization do any of the following:
(a) Access or cause access to be made to a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network to acquire, alter, damage, delete, or destroy property or otherwise use the service of a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network.