The WiFi Police
Appleton, WI
Suspicious incident: Police approached a man who was using a laptop computer in his car in the 200 block of E. Brewster Street. The man was using someone else’s insecure wireless Internet connection to download music. Because the man was parked outside of an apartment building, officers could not determine the victim.
Found in the Appleton Post-Crescent
May 31st, 2007 at 8:51 am
The wireless internet connection lacks self confidence.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
What….no victim no crime?
May 31st, 2007 at 2:00 pm
And the crime would be what? My kids piggy back off the neighbor’s wireless all the time. No harm, no foul so long as we don’t hack into their network.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:19 pm
If you don’t encrypt your wireless network, people will use it. I’ve been reading a lot of instances of people being prosecuted for unauthorized use of open wireless networks, but the case law on this was settled YEARS ago with a series of suits against people using scanners to listen to police radio. If the signal isn’t scrambled (or encrypted) it’s fair game for anyone who can pull it in. Considering how ridiculously easy it is to encrypt wifi, nobody’s got any right to cry.