Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (
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"William Warren" <william_warren_nonoise@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:BUxmd.619816$8_6.101379@attbi_s04...
> Walter Roberson wrote:
>> In article <chqkp015433qd4jgqvfebt52lngahkjpsr@4ax.com>,
>> Peter Wilkins <wilkinsp_nospam@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>> :Seems to me the law is an ass in this situation and needs updating to
>> :take account of modern technology. I reckon that if anyone opens up a
>> :WiFi system and doesn't protect it (which is pretty easy to do, as
>> :even I can do it) then they shouldn't have any complaint if someone
>> :else uses it.
>>
>> My spouse doesn't use a steering wheel lock on the car. Does that mean we
>> "shouldn't have any complaint" if someone puts a jimmy down the window
>> and steals the car?
>
> Of course not: a car is too valuable for anyone to assume they can use it
> without permission. Everyone knows, or should know, that it's so.
>
> A WiFi hotspot, however, can be used without damage or inconvenience
> suffered by its owner, and I think there's a societal paradyme shift going
> on, in which bandwidth is becoming inexpensive enough that it's not worth
> the cost to deny it to others.
As an aside, that's "paradigm", not "paradyme".
One thing that people frequently omit from these discussions is the question
of who owns the bandwidth. There is a tendency to think the hotspot owns all
the resources. In fact, the thing you want - the bandwidth provided by the
ISP - does not belong to the hotspot at all. It's a service provided by an
ISP under contract. People providing free wifi access to their home cable or
DSL are almost always violating their EUAs. Technically, a case can be made
that they are abetting theft of service. In practice, the provider will
simply terminate the service if it's abused.
I belong to a volunteer wifi group that helps businesses install and
provision wifi for free use. We council all venues to get business-class
cable or DSL service. Local service providers agree that this class of
service grants the client the right to make the service available to the
public.
Bandwidth is certainly becoming cheaper and more widely available, but that
fact is unrelated to ethical or legal questions about your right to use an
unsecured hotspot.
>
> The costs of wireless, like that of PC's (drive through any town on trash
> day: you'll see at least one PC that was worth over $1,000 less than half
> a decade ago) is declining, and I think it will reach the point where
> sharing it with others is simply a polite thing to do, like taking a turn
> providing coffee for the after-meeting social at your house of worship.
You certainly have a right to share your personal network resources via
wifi. But not services provided by someone else, unless they agree to it.
>
> I may be wrong, and am probably overly optimistic, but that's life. If you
> don't think your connection should be shared, then don't. Even WEP,
> although flawed, is an effective "Keep Off" sign, and can be implemented
> quickly: please, however, don't assume that others agree with you.
I think most people here agree that anyone who has a clue and doesn't want
to be an open hotspot should at least be using WEP.
>
> We guard what we value: money, privacy, the respect of others. If
> everybody benefits from sharing wireless, and it costs little or nothing
> to do so, and our privacy can be assured, then I think average Internet
> users will lose respect for those who hoard.
There's no free lunch. If every home connection becomes a portal for dozens
of end users, then two things happen:
1. Cable/DSL load rises much more rapidly then planned, requiring additional
buildout.
2. The subscriber base to pay for it grows far more slowly then planned.
The net result is that subscriber rates increase. I don't mind at all if
someone else volunteers to pay more to subsidize free internet access, but
if this free access raises my rates, it amounts to an unfair tax.
>
> FWIW. YMMV.
>
> William
>
> (Filter noise from my address for direct replies.)
lace and are freely accessible to anyone with a CB transceiver to
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