Am I a Thief?

I've just switched on my Macbook & my email thingy beeped, indicating I had a message. This is unusual as I'm use it on wifi & don't have a conection for the net at home. I've looked in the airport box & it's indicating a few networks plus the one it's seems to have hooked up to - WLAN.

I asked for a bit of help getting this thing to work in the past & someone indicated that if you use a neighbour's connection (if that's what it is - I don't know) you're breaking the law.

Is it a real law though or one of those that you can blatantly ignore (like the one that says you can't sell seats in the House of Lords for donations to your political party)? Does anyone give a monkeys, morally, either?

I don't feel like I'm doing wrong. I didn't even do it - my Mac did & I didn't even ask it to.

If it is a neighbours, can they tell what pages I visit on my machine?

Yes... you are.

Too bad. It's hardly on a level with kicking-in his front door & helping myself to his television so I'm going to carry on.

Can they tell what websites I go on?

Well with that mentallity.... Kicking down his door and stealing his television is "hardly on level" with murdering him... so are you needing a new Television?

Get a job! Have some self respect!

He is paying for his FULL connection... not for some ****** to be hijacking it.

Well said RIDE

I think it is illegal.

Also, is it true if you are doing something illegal while using a neighbors connection, the neighbor is the one held responsible?

I heard or read that somewhere.

dude, if anything you are stealing his bandwith and thus making his loadtimes and download times slower.

get a job

It is ILLEGAL!!!! and "Hitman" knows it is....

It's a Class 3 FELONY (EDIT: In the States)

If it were my connection, and I found you hijacking it (which I would).. I would be sure you were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.. no plea deals...

In court you could use your "Not as bad as Murder" defense.

I hope you get caught.

Hitman said:

Is it a real law though or one of those that you can blatantly ignore. . . .

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It's probably theft, but you should check out the law in the U.K and its penalties. The U.K. may treat the signal as being in the public domain, though I doubt it.

U.S. law can be vastly different, as it is with Canadian law. For instance, I've been accused of theft numerous times for freely downloading music, though it isn't illegal here and the RIAA's threats of punishment and extortion are nothing more than hollow jokes. But the U.S. law is of such gravity that on some U.S. boards the subject cannot even be discussed lest it's considered aiding and abetting criminal behaviour.

Hitman said:

Too bad. It's hardly on a level with kicking-in his front door & helping myself to his television so I'm going to carry on.

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Thank you for explaining to us which laws are important to follow, and which ones aren't.

Can they tell what websites I go on?

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If they want to, yes. How sad that you're more concerned about them seeing which pornography you look at ...

Please someone have the link that I'm thinking of...

There was a guy who figured out someone was stealing his wi-fi, so he routed them through his own box which flipped every image from the net upside down and rendered text backwards. It was an absolutely hilarious article...

EDIT: Found it!

Hitman said:

Too bad. It's hardly on a level with kicking-in his front door & helping myself to his television so I'm going to carry on.

Can they tell what websites I go on?

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try something crazy! Pay for your own internet connection and stop breaking the law.

You could be prosecuted. But if they don't know anything about maintaining their wireless network, then you probably won't get caught. If they're nice people, they will probably just block you off the connection.

Get a job. Get your own internet connection.

surfwax95 said:

Please someone have the link that I'm thinking of...

There was a guy who figured out someone was stealing his wi-fi, so he routed them through his own box which flipped every image from the net upside down and rendered text backwards. It was an absolutely hilarious article...

EDIT: Found it!

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THAT is Fantastic!!!!!! Great find Surfwax!!!

Your Neighbours need to learn about WEP. Personally, I wouldn't like it if some neighbour were l33ting stuff off my connection, slowing down my internet and doing some illegal activity as well.

So I've protected our network with a password. It's actually only my first name, but it's a simple line of defense that works.

Now I am not sure about this or not... but I thought that this issue was still a gray area of the law. My quick google search only turned up articles from a year ago... I am not denying that it might be illegal, i'd be interested to see a link if anyone has one!

If you are hacking into a network, that would no doubt be an illegal activity. But if it's a network that is openly broadcasting it's SSID with no password... that's where it seems to get tricky... Are you violating that user's privacy? Are you logging into a network that you don't have access to? Is it hacking if you don't have to "hack?" Or... are you violating the End User Agreement of the ISP? Heck, is the owner of the network somehow violating this agreement by leaving his network open???

There are a lot of good questions to be asked... If there has been written legislation or something in the works I'm darned curious to know (only b/c I can find strong evidence either way).

It's nothing like kicking in a door and stealing a TV! More like watching through your neighbors window...


Now legality aside... ethically... your being a total mooch. Yeah I've been guilty of hoping onto a network here and there to check mail, etc. But to make it your primary internet connection when you aren't sure if your neighbor would approve or is aware... well, that's kinda a D-bag move, dude.

I kinda find it sad that humankind is now searching to see if laws prohibit this and that instead of an individual referring to its own inner code of moral ethics.

Like if the roles were reversed, would you like your neighbour to leech his internet usage off of you? Maybe just so he can look at his leisure illegal websites (pedophile sites for instance), etc.

There was a guy who figured out someone was stealing his wi-fi, so he routed them through his own box which flipped every image from the net upside down and rendered text backwards. It was an absolutely hilarious article...
EDIT: Found it!

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BWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
That is beautiful!

RIDE said:

Yes... you are.

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Pardon my ignorance but this thread poses an additional question. I realize it is illegal and would not do it, but if my computer "picks up" my neighbors wireless connection, how do I tell my computer to ignore that connection??

Some places consider this "theft of services" and put it on a par with hooking up a line to your neighbors electricity connection for your own use. That said, some people choose to leave their network open so everyone can use it. But since it isn't known what the case is, it'd be nice if you went to your neighbor and told him what was going on. Tell him you noticed your computer connected to his network by itself and that if it's not his intention to provide a free access point, he might want to read up on how to set his network security up.

You could also ask if he would mind you leeching his signal occasionally to check your email or do some web surfing. You might even offer to pay part of the cost of the connection for access. Since you don't know what his position is on people using his access point is, you need to ask. Not doing so does leave you open to legal problems, or you might end up with a ****** off neighbor at your front door ready to give you a beating for stealing his bandwidth.