[Mr. Know It All]

My understanding of FCC regulaions is that ANYTHING broadcast through the air-waves in the USA is fair game.

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this. Under U.S. law, the airwaves don't belong to anyone. The FCC can license bandwidth for commercial use. WiFi operates in an unlicensed slot which is why you don't need a permit to set it up.

Many posters have raised "private property" claims, but the coffee shop's WiFi wasn't really on private property, but public property. If a neighbor sets up a cordless phone or another WiFi that interferes with the coffee shop's network, this also negatively impacts their "service," but because it's all on unregulated network, there's nothing the coffee shop can do.

It looks to me like this coffee shop is trying to claim public property as private. I am not a lawyer, but this state law seems to be a violation of federal law.

[Loyolas Mattman]

That’s part of the problem - the coffee shop isn’t doing anything.

The police and prosecutor are trying to stand in the shoes of the coffee shop and protect the alleged right to the property right to the signal as if it was their own...

Yes, that’s right, the state saying how private property should be used...

[ColdWater]

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this. Under U.S. law, the airwaves don't belong to anyone.

But the shop owns the hardware that the guy is using to send and receive information over.

[BlazingArizona]

It looks to me like this coffee shop is trying to claim public property as private.

That's what's weird about this case: the coffee shop is making so such claim and is not pressing charges. It just happened that the cop who responded to someone else's report of a car parked near the shop is one of those people who when he farts, only dogs can hear it. We have all known these types.