Brewed Awakenings, with its pithy name, artful drinks and wireless Internet service, has found itself unexpectedly percolating on the forefront of high-tech law.
“He doesn’t buy anything,” Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about. “It’s not right for him to come and use it.”
Pranger says 20-year-old Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground sat in the parking lot in his truck for three months, spending hours at a time piggybacking on the coffee shop’s wireless Internet service for free.
When deputies told Smith to knock it off, he came back and is now charged with theft of services.
Ars Technica has this to say about the arrest:
it is so trivial to turn on security for a home (or business) WAP, that there is no reason anyone should leave a WiFi network unprotected unless he or she really wants it to be open to all comers. Perhaps the sensationalized reporting that usually follows cases like this arises out of the fact that most people (media included) don’t really understand how computers in general—and wireless networking in particular—work. Until people are better educated, those tempted by open access points are better off carefully considering whether or not to open up the laptop and start surfing.
John has written about this topic in his PC Magazine column.
Dvorak.org always finds the articles that cheese me off. Good going.
So, this business uses the cops because they don’t know how to limit access? All they need to do is change their password everyday and have it print on the reciept.
Arrrrgh! MY BRAIN HURTS!
Ah the ignorance –
Once a “friend of mine” pulled up outside a “gentleman’s Club” – logged on to their “Corporate” open wifi network. He pulled up a list of their VIP clients – rules for dancers (they were required to were shoes at all times – an interesting rule) – and notes from all the manager meetings. He also was able to pull up their financial reports for 12 months. (That was shocking!).
WHEN are people going to learn to secure their networks!
He did nothing more nefarious than look – but WOW…. wake up small businesses of america!
I have to agree with Eric. I have a favorite coffee shop, here in Santa Fe, for a bunch of reasons — one of which is wi-fi.
There are a couple of folks who obviously stop by and park in the lot to check emails, etc.. I asked the folks who run the shop if they mind? They answered, “Of course not. As long as he’s not taking up table space, why should we be concerned. Our cost is the same.”
In fact, they had an incident involving a report from a cop who spotted a guy parked in their lot in the middle of the night. They told him to leave the guy alone. They leave their wi-fi turned on at night as a service to folks who might not be able to afford — or acquire — decent Web access at home.
Funny how they only want customers to use it, while sites like JiWire list over 100,000 similar sites for people in search of a freebie…
JiWire’s listing for the Brewed Awakenings in Vancouver, WA:
http://tinyurl.com/ep2tb
If this was theft of services, then the broadcast networks are right in claiming skipping of their commercials is theft of “free” TV.
“He doesn’t buy anything,” Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about. “It’s not right for him to come and use it.”
What a cheap bitch!
And ppl still wonder why I date men???
Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about.
Angel’s post reminded me of this…
What the heck is she doing calling “911” about this???
Shouldn’t she be b-slapped just for that??
Why are the police clueless in this situation. They recieved a call from the management, making a theft complaint and made the arrest. The free access comes with buying something. Its like park for free while you eat. If you park and don’t eat, you get a ticket and your car towed. As far as enabling security, what are you going to do, post the password on the receipt.
Better Keep Your Curtains Closed
(June 22, 2006) — One of Monroe County’s (NY) first deputies tasked with fighting cybercrime is now accused of using his skills and police powers to invade a neighbor’s computer and alter information.
A sealed indictment opened Wednesday in County Court charged Investigator R. Michael Hildreth, 44, of Penfield with the felony charge of third-degree computer trespassing and eavesdropping and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.
Hildreth was one of the first deputies assigned full time to a “computer unit” in 1999 to deal with crime in cyberspace.
The indictment alleges that Hildreth misused his official status from May 18 to Oct. 18, 2005, to monitor and alter information on the computer of James E. Missel, who lives next to Hildreth’s home on Northrup Road.
The investigation into Hildreth was started in May 2005 when Missel brought his complaint to the police Internal Affairs Unit.
O’Flynn said he was disappointed in the actions Hildreth is accused of committing but commended Internal Affairs for conducting such a thorough investigation of a fellow deputy.
Democrat & Chronicle / Rochester,NY
I don’t think anybody brought up the fact that the guy was asked to stop. As far as I’m concerned the rest is just details. The cops asked him to stop using the network, he ignored them, and he got arrested. Perhaps the cafe owner is being stupid. Perhaps they intentionally want it to be easy for less-than-savy computer users/customers to get on. Either way the guy was being a dick for continuting to use a resource paid for by the cafe after he was asked not to.
It shouldn’t matter if the police asked him to stop. He was using free radio waves that entered his vehicle. He didn’t trespass. He didn’t “hack” into the LAN. He didn’t interfere with any Federal regulations. He didn’t park illegally. He didn’t increase the cost of doing business for the restaurant. He didn’t do anything to make an employee do any labor. And as far as we can tell, he didn’t commit any obscene gestures. So what was this guy’s crime?
If the coffee shop had music coming from the store and he listened, would he be as guilty? If the shop had a beautiful mural on the side of its building, would he be guilty for enjoying it? If they had a Miss Bikini contest and the change room was visible from the public parking lot then would he be committing any crime for watching that? If they had a TV in the front window and a passerby stopped to watch, would he be guilty for that?
It would be easy to suggest he should fight it, however I’m not the one paying the lawyer to defend the case. This is important enough that a precedent may be set on who owns unencrypted radio waves.
He’s sitting in their parking lot, so they can tell him to leave. Plus he’s using their bandwidth, which means less bandwidth for the other customers. By the way, are there any routers out there that let the local computers have priority over the freeloaders?
#11, If he is sitting in their parking lot then charge him with trespassing. They couldn’t because the parking lot is open to the public. So are the radio waves. He is only using something given freely. If the coffee shop didn’t want him to use their service, they only had to encrypt it. Putting the password on the receipt isn’t such a hard thing to do.
Assuming the parking lot isn’t owned by the city, it’s private property. If the owners wants someone removed for trespassing, they can. No different than being in your yard at home. Now if he were parked in the street, that’s a different matter.
Don’t forget, there are two issues here. One, his tresspassing on their property after being told to leave. The other is use of their wireless connection.
#11: A wireless network is like a radio transmitter and your pc is like a radio. If you are in range, you can receive it.