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The “system” was looking at getting easy money? That doesn’t really make sense to me. The “system” is just a system. It is neither good nor evil, it has no will. People make up the system. For the system to work well, the people within the system have to use good sense and good judgment. The prosecutor in this case could have elected not to prosecute, or he could have simply required that a small fine be paid. He went for a larger fine plus community service and probation. You and I obviously think that was too harsh. The prosecutor, who is probably used to prosecuting felony cases where people usually get much worse punishments, probably thought this was a great deal.

I think it’s easy for prosecutors to lose real world perspective. In the “system,” prosecutors and defense attorneys are going to work out almost every felony case without a trial. Defense attorneys are obviously trying to get the best deals they can get for their clients, and prosecutors are trying to settle all their cases, giving in as little as possible. Most prosecutors will try to be fair and reasonable when it comes to silly cases like this one, but they’re so used to this everyday struggle with defense attorneys it’s hard for them to give in too much. That makes them feel like they’ve lost, and of course they hate to lose. Do they really care that much about a measly $400? Not really. They don’t get that money. It’s more about the game I think.

The big system problem in a case like this starts with the legislators who wrote an overly broad law, one that encompasses too much conduct. I guess it probably should be illegal to use someone else’s wireless network without permission. You’re stealing their bandwidth, which can slow things down for them. And of course there is a security issue as well. It’s not hard at all to get on everyone’s computer in an unencrypted network and steal passwords, look at emails, get into private files, etc. People should use WEP encryption at least, but a lot don’t. I don’t have a problem with it being illegal to access a computer network without permission. But should it be a felony to use a network to check your email when that network is unencrypted and shows up in your wireless software as an open network, especially if it’s one provided free as was the case in this instance? I don’t know how you put a price on bandwidth, but certainly what this man “stole” couldn’t have been worth more than a couple of pennies, at most. It shouldn’t be a felony. The legislators need to write a better law, perhaps even making a specific law that pertains to this very type of relatively innocent access. It ought to be a minor misdemeanor at least. Then when prosecutors and defense attorneys are playing their little plea negotiation game the prosecutor won’t feel like he’s got the defendant over the barrel so much and he’ll be a lot more reasonable in cases like these.