"Stealing" My Neighbor's Wireless Internet Connection

[alasdairm]

no matter what the laws are...

i laughed

i guess if somebody accidentally leaves their door open, their stuff now belongs to me? i can take it with impunity?

alasdair

 

[DarthMom]

i think a more fair analogy would be if they were watering their lawn and it was landing on your lawn, and you benefitted.

 

[StagnantReaction]

i think a more fair analogy would be if they were watering their lawn and it was landing on your lawn, and you benefitted.

"Some of you seem to be mistaking WiFi for one-way radio."

 

[DarthMom]

yeah, but obviously, there is a bit of common sense involved. don't be downloading a bunch of shit....basic net surfing isn't going to cause much of a slow down if at all. i have no guilt in the surfing i do when i have piggybacked off anothers wifi.

 

[plurMONSTER]

Stealing is stealing. I'm not telling you not to do it, but I am telling you that it's illegal.

 

[SA]

Stealing is stealing. I'm not telling you not to do it, but I am telling you that it's illegal.

While stealing physical possessions may be illegal, I have not seen a law against using unsecured wireless internet that is not yours. I am not trying to debate whether it is stealing or not. I am simply stating that I have honestly not seen any such law. As far as I am aware, while some ISPs may have rules against this sort of thing, the host state, province, or country may not. As such, it would then be up to the ISP or an affected primary owner of the account to pursue any reimbursement in civil court. Or am I on the wrong track here. Grey areas can have such a wide variety of interpretations.

 

[thujone]

how can such a simple issue turn into such a crazy debate? In fact, this discussion is ridiculous. All this about how "stealing is illegal." So... when did drug use become legal? I guess we're all just fuckin criminals here! "stealing" is a bullshit term for something like this, especially when the signal is being broadcast into the "thief's" RIGHTFUL HOME. It's insane to say the OP is stealing, and if anyone suggests that she is then she can simply claim ignorance, as most software is set to automatically detect and connect to open wireless connections. Morally, this situation is the fault of the router's owner for buying a product that affects his/her neighbours and simply not caring enough to read the manual.

Rather than your neighbour leaving his/her door open and you wondering whether this means all their shit is up for grabs, this situation is more akin to your neighbour throwing balls into your backyard and expecting you not to use them.

 

[michael]

...especially when the signal is being broadcast into the "thief's" RIGHTFUL HOME.

and where is she broadcasting her signal back to? who owns the router and bandwidth being used? since she is broadcasting a signal back do you believe that anyone who can receive that signal should be able to do whatever they want with it?

It's insane to say the OP is stealing,

no, it really isn't. you may not agree with it, but that doesn't make you insane (necessarily), either.

 

[doesntmatter]

i laughed

i guess if somebody accidentally leaves their door open, their stuff now belongs to me? i can take it with impunity?

alasdair

no, i chose my wording for a reason. you are in your own house, they are outputting something that enters your house. the responsible thing to do would be to go over to your neighbor and fill them in on whats going on and what they can do about it if they do indeed care.



but to better illustrate the idea i was trying to illustrate.

this is a stretch

say they were to rewire a line from their house, to one socket in your home which has a lamp plugged into. anytime you turn that lamp on, you are using the energy that they are paying for. now they know full well that they rewired the line to your house. they also know that if you choose to plug something into that line, then it will be using their energy. to me it seems that if you leave the line up, then you are allowing them to use the energy. if you don't want them to, then take the line down.

i just don't see the act of picking up an unencrypted signal and using it to be stealing.

P.S.

i'm not sure about the laws in some states, but i think i did come across something awhile back saying that the laws were changing, and war driving was considered iffy as far a legality goes.

 

[GoddessLSD-XTC]

I don't know where the signal is comming from.
There's a big apartment building accross the street.
It hasn't let me hook up lately.
Someone in my neighborhood named his network, "kylelikestosniffbitches".
When I move to the front house I'm gonna get cable and wireless and let ppl hook up to it.
I used to know a homeless guy who would park his van hear a hot connection.
We have some free "hot spots" around town
Last night there was a strong signal (never saw before) that said "Free Access"

 

[StagnantReaction]

While stealing physical possessions may be illegal, I have not seen a law against using unsecured wireless internet that is not yours. I am not trying to debate whether it is stealing or not. I am simply stating that I have honestly not seen any such law. As far as I am aware, while some ISPs may have rules against this sort of thing, the host state, province, or country may not. As such, it would then be up to the ISP or an affected primary owner of the account to pursue any reimbursement in civil court. Or am I on the wrong track here. Grey areas can have such a wide variety of interpretations.

Every time I see a court ruling on this matter (in the US), it's been deemed illegal to some extent.

Why is there 3 pages to this thread? People need to fucking listen for once.

no, i chose my wording for a reason. you are in your own house, they are outputting something that enters your house. the responsible thing to do would be to go over to your neighbor and fill them in on whats going on and what they can do about it if they do indeed care.

My hardwired cable line briefly enters my neighbor's lawn to get to the cable box. Would it be acceptable for my neighbor to uproot the line and tap it for his own pleasure?

 

[Alfajagdflieger]

^^ I only "borrow" (I prefer the term borrow over steal) my neighbors wireless to browse porn... hahaha

 

[doesntmatter]

Every time I see a court ruling on this matter (in the US), it's been deemed illegal to some extent.

Why is there 3 pages to this thread? People need to fucking listen for once.



My hardwired cable line briefly enters my neighbor's lawn to get to the cable box. Would it be acceptable for my neighbor to uproot the line and tap it for his own pleasure?

again, i'm talking about something that invades the house. not something out on the street or in your yard.

no, that would not be acceptable.

however if your cable were to run through one window of their house and out another to get to your house, then yes, it would be acceptable.

when you know something is going into a neighbors house, you give them the right to do whatever they want with it IMO.

now that is not the law. and i agree that it probably carries a slight warning or fine.

if you try and access their computer, the penalties and fines start to get serious.

 

[michael]

again, i'm talking about something that invades the house

as i said before:

and where is she broadcasting her signal back to? who owns the router and bandwidth being used? since she is broadcasting a signal back do you believe that anyone who can receive that signal should be able to do whatever they want with it?

is she not as guilty of 'invading' their house as well, in addition to using their resources without permission?



to be honest i think many of the people saying this is no big deal would be seriously upset if it happened to them - whether or not they believe they'd be protected from it happening.

 

[doesntmatter]

^^^

indeed. it does go both ways. the original user is also entitled to do whatever they want with the signal that is being directed back into their house.

i would be upset if someone was using my wifi without my permission, i'd then take steps to stop this from happening. not expect everyone else to stop.

 

[xxanxxtwo]

I would not be upset myself, If I didn't protect it then so be it.

 

[Coolio]

It's not just about speed. Many have to pay for bandwidth over a certain pre-assigned limit.

Where do you live? Because in the USA it's basically unheard of to not offer unlimited bandwidth usage for cable/DSL/T1 access.

 

[SA]

Unlimited bandwidth used to be the norm in Canada, Coolio. Recently, in the last couple of years or so, some ISPs have begun to cap bandwidth. Bell Sympatico, for instance, has a 60GB bandwidth cap on its regular (performance) package and a 2GB cap on its light (essential) package. Cogeco cable broadband is 60/10 for the same. Rogers has a 60GB cap on all packages... and so on. People who have grandfathered (old) accounts with Bell still have unlimited.

 

[Coolio]

I think a lot of these "stealing wireless" threads have an argument that is divided along geographical lines. In parts of Europe, Canada and Australia you can only get these horrible bandwidth cap broadband packages, or you have some other kind of contract where you're actually paying for bandwidth usage. It makes sense to think of bandwidth as a valuable resource for people who live in these countries.

For many Americans it makes absolutely no sense, because bandwidth where they live is unlimited and ubiquitous.

While water might be a valuable resource to someone in a desert, I have an unlimited supply of free water. Nobody around here would be offended if you "stole" their water somehow.

 

[GoddessLSD-XTC]

Update: My neighbor must have blocked me. I went to a friends house yesterday and hooked up with one of her neighbors when my dialup connection failed for the first time in years! wtf is goin' on?!

Plan to get Direct TV, which offers high bandwidth. My favorite TV show is going off NBC to Direct TV Channel 101: PASSIONS (a silly stoner soap opera with witches and LSD moments) . . . it's the only thing but the news I watch.