Posted on 06/02/2007 1:03:33 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
Its more like standing outside a restaurant with a live band and listening to the music without going in and paying for dinner. For me, what indicates that this charge is totally wrong, is the fact that the supposed “victim” didn’t have a problem with it. I could maybe understand if the victim was concerned or upset by the action.
If people steal bandwith from ISP providers the theft is costing the ISP customers and/or owners. The use of the service is not cost free.
“The case has surprised locals, including the owner of the barbershop that initially called police, as well as Donna May, owner of the coffee shop.
“He could have just come in the cafe, even if he didn’t have any money, I would let him get on it,” May said. The service is provided free to restaurant customers.”
The owner doesn’t seem to care, so why should anyone else?
I am amazed how few get this. Think of the coffee shop’s access to their ISP as going through a pipe of a certain diameter. The more connections, the more of the bandwidth is typically being used. Too much congestion causes delays due to dropped packets, retransmissions due to packet collisions, etc. It is definitely not free, and certainly can have an impact on legitimate users, especially if the person is downloading files, large emails, songs, etc.
The coffee shop pays for the service, and entices paying customers to use the service for free to attract business. The guy was stealing. It’s really that simple.
Doin' right ain't got no end...
You know people who have their phones on the OUTSIDE of their houses?
Must be a real kick in the pants when it rains, or when the kids leave the cell phone under the lilac bushes, again!
I guess it takes all kinds...
I was talking to a "jukie" the other day and and heard some fascinating anecdotal stuff about the RIAA and the juke box business.
Seems as though one of the guy's competitors was loading up his [the competitor's] boxes with pirated CDs, and the "jukie" reported this to the proper RIAA authorities, and got a big yawn back.
I was surprised, to say the least.
Did anyone even report a theft? In this case did the prosecutor just say he committed a crime against the state or the people of the state of Michgan? Who in the state of Michigan was harmed?
Did the coffee shop have a sign that said free; or only free if you buy something? Is it then really free or is it fales advertising?
You don’t want others using your Wi-Fi? Encrypt it. End of story.
Seems like the law doesn’t have to ask the coffee shop anything. And just how do they know whose WiFi net he’s freeloadin off of?
Just like the law does not need to ask a murder victims next-of-kin if they would like to press charges (or not.) Crime against the state!
Oh please, they ALLOWED people to “come pick their flowers” and they didn’t mind when they found out what he was doing. Dumb analogy.
Oh please, they ALLOWED people to “come pick their flowers” and they didn’t mind when they found out what he was doing. Dumb analogy.
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