You’re absolutely right! My grand daughter found a place in her house that receives a wi fi signal from next door. Is this theft? It is just leftover bandwidth that will never be used. For that matter, theft is taking something away from another and denying them the use of it. How can that apply here?
Bad, vague or overly-broad law, that's how it applies. As Dickens wrote, "...the law is a ass, a idiot."
As for what is driving legislatures to enact laws of this sort, I'd bet that it has something to do with access to entertainment online. For years, the cable TV providers have tried to stop cable "sharing". The same companies now offer broadband internet access - and they know that they'll never get all those wireless routers locked down. The result is like free cable everywhere within the router's broadcast range. Downloading of recorded TV programs, etc. - by people who aren't paying for the cable/broadband? Unthinkable!
Yep, betcha the lobbyists pushing for these laws at the state level have ties to the cable companies. If they can't stop the broadcasts, they'll try to punish you for taking the free access.
I think some of you need to review the definition for the word steal.
some are;
to take secretly without permission
to accomplish in an unobserved or concealed manner
to sieze gain or win by trickery, skill or daring
They all have to do with you claiming a right to something that you did not pay for or earn with your own blood sweat and tears, in other words something not your property, the property of earned or payed for by another.
Now look at this post;
“You’re absolutely right! My grand daughter found a place in her house that receives a wi fi signal from next door. Is this theft? It is just leftover bandwidth that will never be used. For that matter, theft is taking something away from another and denying them the use of it. How can that apply here?”
Remember an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.
The lies are;
That there is “left over” bandwidth; The truth is that the owner paid for 100% of his bandwidth and thus there is none “left over”.
That taking that bandwith does not deny the owner the use of it; The truth is the owner owns his paid for private property even if he isn’t using it.
See how easy it is to get on the slippery slope socialism/communism where “all things are owned in common”, that one has a right to something not produced or bought as the result of one’s own blood sweat and tears?
That is exactly where the disrespect of private property leads.
I look out at society and see less and less reaspect for private property and all sorts of intellectual contortions to try and justify it and am not too happy about it.
Read Atlas Shrugged.
Your presumption that she is using leftover bandwidth just is not true. There is no such thing as left-over bandwidth. As an avid online gamer, I can tell you with absolutely certainty that anyone piggybacking onto my line can cause me problems and will raise my overall ping rate. Thus, no matter how little of my bandwith you are taking, if you are doing this while I am gaming, you are effecting my signal performance and communication speed. In other words you are raising my ping rate and affecting my game play.
I know this because I run a home network. Furthermore, after a full rebuild of my main home computer, I deliberately left my network open to see if a neighbor was trying to steal my line. Within a few days it was obvious to me that some one was. I then waited until I noticed heavy traffic and pulled the plug on my neighbor. I never determined who it was, but I'm sure they were not happy when their download died mid-stream.
Note, I do not think your daughter is a thief. If your neighbor doesn't protect their wireless signal, that's their problem. I'm in the "don't project it into my airspace" crowd if you don't want me to use it.
What the hell "leftover bandwidth that will never be used"? Personally, I have a 10gb a month free upload/download limit right now (something I'm to change soon because it sucks). If anything more than 10 gb gets used, I pay extra. But even if I had unlimited access, if I'm downloading something and my neighbor is using my signal too, he's affecting my download speed. There is no such thing as "leftover bandwidth that will never be used."
(By the way, my network is WPA2 secured so this is hypothetical).