Using Open WiFi Networks Can Get You into Trouble

[soma357]

" I had a feeling a law was being broken but i didn't know exactly what " say the overweight piggy

[mmaccoutinho]

Why is this a crime if he didn't even try to access any sensible information on the local network? He just used the router to go online, that law needs to be reviewed asap.

[sd906238]

I checked into a hotel in Jackson, WY and I can not get onto the internet for the hotel that I am staying in. But I can get the internet from the hotel across the street and the hotel next door. So I am I guilty of doing something wrong? Geez! There are real criminals out there, go chase them not the hard working honest joe tax payer!

[EvolutionXEngine]

3:10 is that what you would call a Cantenna?(Police Version)

[mcgowanm095]

So as I stated to begin with Sparta Police are fascists, If anyone ever saw the episode of The Andy Griffith Show, "Andy saves Barneys Morale" Where Barney Fife is in charge for the day because Andy has to leave town, Barney starts arresting everyone in town. and By the time Andy returns to Mayberry, chaos is reigning supreme. The problem with Sparta is there's no Andy Taylor to come back here and give us real citizens our happy ending.

[mcgowanm095]

I was mad that he tried to make me leave while my wife was in the store shopping, so I called the non emergency dispatch and tried to complain, I called anonymously because I didn't want some pissed off cop with my address the dispatcher started badgering me to get my name, address and vehicle description,I explained that I wanted to remain anonymous she started to attack me verbally and said that the officer was in the right and they don't need to explain they're motives to me. The citizen.

[mcgowanm095]

Which means she was willing to make up a charge to arrest me. I could have went to jail, fought the charges and been exonerated, but who wants to spend the weekend in jail, I was also told once that I had to leave the parking lot of a 24 hour grocery store, because I was loitering at around 12:30 a.m.. I was talking to a friend that I hadn't seen in years and that raised suspicion for the cop that pulled into the parking lot, nevermind my wife was still in the store picking up groceries...

[mcgowanm095]

A female officer arrived at the scene, at first she tried to scare me off telling me it was illegal for me to take photos there, but I'm quite knowledgeable of the law regarding photography, and I took her to school on the subject, she agreed that I was correct and I did have a legal right to photograph the accident, but she told me if someone in uniform tells me to do something I have to do it, and I was seen out photographing again that night I would be arrested for disorderly conduct...

[mcgowanm095]

The police in Sparta, MI are a bunch of fascist pricks, I was taking photo's of storm damage last year when we were hit hard. A mini van had a tree branch fall on it, and the paramedics were there checking the owner out and told me to leave. I'm a photographer that's how I make my living, and did nothing illegal, I said no, he threatened to call the cops, I told him to go ahead. I waited for the police to show up (which wasted time I could have been shooting other things)... read next comment.

[UVClay]

Computer illiterate people make me laugh.

[Ropedogg93]

what the fuck this is fucking stupid fucking lock your wifi you piece of shit

[u2bmetub]

FUCK THE POLICE.

[SuperUSA2012]

Fuck this should not be illegal , that's crazy if you still someone's credit card number or personal imformation punish some body, Just for using internet signal should not be illegal

[SuperUSA2012]

This shit is ridiculous should not be a Crime,don't punish people Just for getting internet signal

[u2bmetub]

Fuck the fascist "law", fuck the government, fuck the criminal establishment. It's time for revolution.

[chucknorris687]

He was caught red handed though if it was say a neighborhood I doubt this would have happened, because although they can get your MAC address and track what your doing on their router they can't prove it is you doing it. IDK though does anyone know if they can go house to house checking your MAC addresses?

[w3tua]

@chucknorris687 The MAC address can be changed/faked very easily in Windows or Linux.

[mjs1231]

that cop just broke the law 450 times by accessing all those peoples wireless connections. YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK, realize it now. from law enforcement, from the judiciary, from the gov, the health system, the credit system.

YOUR UNDER ATTACK. WAKE UP.

[waypasthadenough]

"The police can only go so far in protecting you. You're gonna have to protect yourself also."

What a concept. The SCOTUS has ruled more than once that the cops aren't there to 'protect' anyone.

Don't understand? Follow my links, start with the quotes page.

[chrisdude1001]

my satalite picks up like 30

haha

suckers

[mzh3000]

my router has a 28 key passcode but everyone on my block is elderly and probably doesn`t know how to even use an electronic oven timer i mean imagin grampa next door hacking my wireless!!!

i don`t think it`s gona happen

[OchrismongrelO]

That's retarded.

It's part 15 regulated radio waves, which means unlicensed. Therefore, if it's public, it's no problem.

Second, as it's radio wave related, it'd fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC, not state or local government.

[opendevs]

Arrest me for turning on the radio. Geee.

[EinstenNJ]

Isn't this issue about what qualifies as "unauthorized" access? It sounds to me like if you don't secure your Wi-Fi and it's spraying signal out into the street you're AUTHORIZING people to use it!

[noblescott]

buuut it is legal buddy, they just said, the airwaves are free to everyone

[inachu]

It should only be considered unlawful if the person is using the wifi and bypassed the password protection.

[inachu]

It is not unlawful if the wifi was open with no restrction which means it was configured to be free for anyone to use to begin with. The cop needs to be with a woman.

[bluebutdude1]

this law is wrong

so if you go in your fine but if your in your car your not also the owner of the wifi can say if its ok or not he should not have been charged!!!!

[bluebutdude1]

sparta michigan!

SPARTA!!! hahah

[farfennoogen]

o.m.g.....does this cop have nothing else to do ???

I mean really ??? Someone got shot or stabbed during all that hard work that cop did relating to investigation on using a wifi signal ... this is whats wrong with america folks!!!!! idiots...

[KingCoopa69]

Cuz sparta is a tiny ass town and they have nothing else to do

[DS1221]

First of all, THE Wirless router is from coffe shops, and it is owned by coffe shop. Second why they didnt secure it? lawl, what bunch of dorks.

[srlagarto]

The sign says free internet for *customers only*. That sign makes it clear that it's only free for customers and he wasn't authorized. He was there every day.

Still, I don't like the way this happened. First, the officer who approached him admitted he didn't know if he was breaking a law and just "had a feeling.' That right there is wrong.

Second, the coffee shop's owner didn't call the police. An arrest should only happen if the owner asked him to stop and he still did it.

[mandukid]

these cops got nothing to do

[Shyness2000]

Accessing an unsecure wifi access point is like accessing and viewing this webpage without the permission of the owner of youtube which is not illegal. I believe it should be the owner's responsiblity to secure their access point if they do not want anybody using the internet off of it.

[Shyness2000]

and another thing is if this coffee shop wants to only open it's wifi internet to its customers only, then put a password or a passphrase on it and only give out the password if they buy something. They should of done that instead of calling the police and making an issue out of it. I know Sertinos Cafe in my area has a password on the wifi so that way people will have to come in and get the password (which they can require that person to buy something)

[x20ibmthinkpad]

What about buisnesses and homes that broadcast unprotected wifi into your house, then they are the ones invading. If I am going to have to share my house and body with radio frequency then I should be allowed to get something out of it.

It's only fair, i didn't put the wap up, Ididn't choose to have broadcasting signals in my place, and it isn't my fault if my computers auto connect to every unsecured access point.

Those are just a few points that could be argued.

[appleipsp]

what the hell if they dont want you joining then put security on it

[Idontplayaround]

haha who doesn't do this?

[CyrusDawes]

Free is free. There is no crime in taking something that is free and unlocked.

Fuck that lady at the coffee shop. It'd be good PR to have the authorities let him go with a warning. I'm not saying fuck cops, but fuck that piece of shit. Where's the justice scale. You can murder someone and it's not an exact sentence.

If he was stealing...Since when did we start cutting off hands for stealing?

[thecoast47]

I agree if it is free and unlocked then... why not? If you actually wanted to do something about this then put a fucking password on your wireless router! You cant call that stealing if nobody is protecting the wireless network.

[bluebutdude1]

yup!

[sumoman25]

the funny thing is that this guy went to A COFEE SHOP THAT SAID FREE WIFI lol FREE WIFI ring a bell? i still think that my fucking neighbors should be prosecuted though, we checked our dhcp tables and they had over 50 things on our network (no joke)stealling our internet -.- and yes, it had a wpa2enterprise key on it

[x20ibmthinkpad]

They must be running a business on it. =)

[Shyness2000]

If you have a key on it and they broke into it, then it should be illegal since you done your part to protect it and they can be arrested. They should of saw that it's a secure wifi and should have not hacked into it.

[lkcching]

oh for crying out loud..this is so stupid...going actually prosecute someone for using an open wifi signal...u leave ur network unsecured..u shouldnt be surprise if people log on to it.

[peroslowned]

if my sister comes home we use someone elses wifi on her laptop...if people are so dumb that they dont secure their connection, they deserve it.

[edwardnr17]

lol WUUUT! i been using my Neigbhours WiFi Connection for my wii, why he isnt Calling the cops? easy, Just asking him if its ok. AND btw, it's the coffie shop's fault their Internet Connection isn't Protected. Lol..

[NineTailsDemonFox]

He couldn't be arrested in the first place anyways since he didn't commit a crime. It wasn't locked access, and you didn't need to pay for the service. Review the law.

[Marinecorps862]

That lady that owns the place is a fucking wack job she is in jail now for faking her identity. She said that she was like 5 diffrent people on her taxes. Thats sparta for ya.

[Marinecorps862]

Ha ha ha the worst part is, is that SPARTA BLOWS ASS and that place is for sale now so if anyone wants to buy it you can make people pay for your wifi. and if the guy was smart he should not of done that everyday or if he would of went up the road to all the houses he would never of got caught but still its fucking dumb that the pig looked up the law. he should be arresting the pot heads at the high school. Fucking sparta cops can suck my balls.

[helislon]

haha, thats just too stupid for words! Shouldn't the police be chasing criminals, not some innocent freeloaders like me???

[bayman510]

this is SPARTA michigan

[ghostexodus]

thats stupid. Screw the governemnt, that lady just needed some extra cash. It was an easy fix. Hell ill hack into my cities police station and whipe their shit out just for stupid crap like that. Screw these new laws. She shouldn't have been stupid enough to keep it unencrypted. That should be her fault.

[Filipino2Step]

wait is open Wifi networks illegal?

[xXxlllManHacklllxXx]

idiot people with open networks...

[ps3Glen]

haha i have my own but its in New Zealand

[radioguy95]

Funny, I know MI has some really F'D laws, but then they wonder why our jails are so overflowing??? F$#K The Justice System! Oh well, all the more reason why the US is now a communist country.

[czesiek512]

THIS IS SPAAAAAAAAARTAAAAAAAAAAAA

[8zamboj8m]

which is bullshit since they have the option to deny access if they wanted. there was no law broken.

[bbb63]

The sad thing is the wifi is free if he would of gone in the shop. That is why you have to be a little smarter than this man. You should have a DVD ready to go or word open why you are using the wifi. So if someone asks what you are doing you can show them you are playing a dvd.

[KB1KOI]

Westchester County Requiring Encryption. THATS BULLSHIT. Wi-Fi Router Owner should have the right to have a Open Network if they please.

[johnmonk66]

he did not access a "computer system", he did not break a law.

[waterman1122130]

woah... thats why i only use wi-fi with permission