Posted on 06/02/2007 1:03:33 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
A Michigan cop, who'd obviously been hit over the head with a billy club one time too many, levied criminal charges against a man who used an open, public Wi-Fi network outside the cafe that was running it.
The dastardly computer criminal, Sam Peterson II, of Cedar Springs, Mich., chose to pay a $400 fine, do 40 hours of community service, and stay on probation six months.
Peterson has no criminal record. He's a 39-year-old toolmaker, volunteer firefighter, and secretary of a bagpipe band.
Peterson had gotten in the habit of checking e-mail on his lunch break in front of the Re-Union Street Cafe in Sparta, Mich. "[I]instead of going inside the shop to use the free Wi-Fi offered to paying customers, he chose to remain in his car and piggyback off the network, which he said didn't require a password," according to the article from Fox News. He did it on lunch breaks for more than a week.
Now, here's where the craziness starts.
Someone in a nearby barbershop saw Peterson's car pull up every day and sit in front of the coffee shop without anybody getting out.
A sane person would have knocked on Peterson's window and said, "Dude, I noticed you come here and sit in your car every day? What's up with that?"
But of course we live in paranoid times.
So the dummy in the barbershop called the cops.
Sparta Police Chief Andrew Milanowski asked Peterson where he got the Internet connection, and Petsron said from the cafe.
Now, the story so far is shocking enough, but it gets even more shocking:
Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker of the attractive local hairdresser, 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.
Here's how that reads to me: They don't care about who's using Wi-Fi in Sparta, Mich. The police chief just didn't like the way Peterson parted his hair, and so he dug and dug and dug until he found something he could charge Peterson with.
Peterson copped a plea. If he'd fought it, he could have faced a sentence of up to five years in jail, and a $10,000 fine.
Sparta, Mich. residents, when you pay your tax bills, I want you to think about how this kind of nonsense is how your government is spending your money.
Laws like the Michigan law are pretty common, and they're just plain bad law.
A reasonable person encountering an open Wi-Fi connection will assume it's open until finding evidence otherwise. But most hacking laws assume the opposite -- you need to be told that you can use the Wi-Fi connection or else the law assumes you're a criminal.
In the real world, landowners are required to post their land as private property before accusing someone else of trespassing. The law correctly recognizes that you can't accuse people of crossing boundaries unless they're told where the boundaries. Laws governing Wi-Fi should be written similarly. If you want to keep trespassers off your network, you should password-protect it.
Only while armed with a deadly weapon.
No, I haven’t; but if the connection is free and this guy drives up everyday; don’t you think someone in the cafe would have noticed him? They probably knew what he was doing.
In other news, several kids were taken to juvenile for water theft after running through a neighbor’s sprinker.
This is pretty much the behavior of a stalker or someone who is up to no good. Calling the police was a reasonable action.
Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker of the attractive local hairdresser, but still felt that a law might have been broken.
Far more likely is Peterson was actually stalking but they didn't have enough proof to charge him with the actual deed.
Have you committed a Wi-Fi crime?
No. And I don't drink out of other people's garden hoses or pick their flowers even if their land is not posted either.
I imagine they should start carrying a warning on all those devices you can get that search for/find open WiFi for you when you’re on the road.
What doesn’t quite wash is the cafe owner who said the guy could sit in there without ever buying anything. I seriously doubt that. No restaurant lets anyone sit in a seat and not ever buy anything, let alone make use of the free WiFi. If she was being truthful, my only guess would be she’s was desperate for business and wanted to look like the place was busier.
If he is a Volly, then his community service is covered. was there a sign that only customers could use the wi-fi? Was there a banner on the access point telling non customers to go away and not trespass? If not I believe he would have won.
Actually, yes.
I was at the horse auctions up in Saratoga. I had to go up to Vt afterwards for business, so I got my laptop out of the trunk of my car to look at maps for the best route to take. (The maps are on my hard drive so I don't use the internet to do this.) While checking the maps, I noticed the little systray icon indicated I was connected. So I checked out FR for the latest news, and looked at my email to see if anyone wrote to me. This is a crime? If the people who have the connection do not want me to do this, they can either hide or encrypt the connection. Maybe it should be against the law to have an open connection thus tempting the unwary to check their email?
ML/NJ
I wonder how one can tell if a public wi fi connection is one where the sponsor does not care if passersby hop on from one that that the sponsor does care? There ar eboth kinds in my experience, but there is no clear way to tell
Perhaps, if the judge/magistrate didn't go to the same schools as the cop and the prosecutor. If he did, probably thinks the same way.
"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.
I think it's more likely he had a bad attitude, and most likely a Ron Paul supporter.
I’m a criminal, too.
I live in a complex and have my own wi-fi connection (with encryption). Just the other day, I noticed that I was “roaming” on other people’s wi-fis — because they didn’t bother to password protect.
There’s a half dozen or so open connections in my range.
if the wi-fi is owned by the coffee shop, they would have had to have pressed charges. right? you need a complainant.
(snicker)
There is the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. What he did may have violated the law, but a simple warning could have sufficed here. The people should have this Chief removed. If crime is so low that the Chief had that much time to waste, then maybe the people don’t need a Chief. A security guard would do.
First, say "Am I under arrest?"
If the answer is "no," say "Am I free to go?"
If the answer is again "no," say "Am I being illegally detained?"
If you are not on your way within thirty seconds, tell them you want to speak to an attorney.
And never, ever, ever admit anything. Period.
Not to mention the fact that he plays the bagpipes. Probably without underpants.
I wouldn’t use someone’s phone without asking, why would I use their internet connection without asking?
He was only using the Wi-Fi that Americans won’t use.
First, say "Am I under arrest?"
If the answer is "no," say "Am I free to go?"
If the answer is again "no," say "Am I being illegally detained?"
If you are not on your way within thirty seconds, tell them you want to speak to an attorney.
And never, ever, ever admit anything. Period.
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