Burn out? Or just a lazy day?

[catrinka]

I wouldn't use someone else's connection on a regular basis. I now have my own set up and am back up and running at full strength and can wiggle around all I want.

[TomS]

Though I personally can scarcely play a radio, I have many musician friends. I feel there is a BIG difference in pirating music, and borrowing a bit of bandwidth from a neighbor. Copyrighted material usually involves a persons livelyhood, if you manage a decent wireless connection off someone elses account it is costing them nothing. As others have said, just my thoughts.

It costs your neighbor in performance. Bandwidth is finite. As more freeloaders tap into that connection, less bandwidth remains available for your neighbor.

[Larwyn]

Though I personally can scarcely play a radio, I have many musician friends. I feel there is a BIG difference in pirating music, and borrowing a bit of bandwidth from a neighbor. Copyrighted material usually involves a persons livelyhood, if you manage a decent wireless connection off someone elses account it is costing them nothing. As others have said, just my thoughts.

It costs your neighbor in performance. Bandwidth is finite. As more freeloaders tap into that connection, less bandwidth remains available for your neighbor.

Tom,
No wiereless here for miles, but I do share my DSL with a neghbor. The loss of performance does not bother me nor my neighbor. Yet I do not share my paycheck with that neighbor. Guess it's just a matter of how you see it.

[asianflava]

A friend of mine put it this way, "If they don't know enough to secure their Wi-Fi, then they probably wouldn't notice the drop in bandwidth." He has his own Wi-Fi (secured) but when he was troubleshooting a problem, his laptop found 4 connections in his neighborhood.

[Arne]

When I travel and the (stock) market is open, I try to do a nightly download... well, the information is available after 7.30, but I often do it the next morning.... I go to libraries and coffee shops (Panera is one).

I turn on my laptop and tell it to find the wi-fi signal. I usually get at least two other signals besides the lib/coffee shop I'm in..... there seem to be a lot out there.

I did buy a wi-fi signal finder. It is useless for driving down the road looking for a signal, but good for finding the best place in the library, etc. for the best signal. I also use it on sun/mon at closed libraries to see if they have left their wi-fi on...(most do)... so I can use my laptop in the car outside the library.

note: I have found there is no relationship between the size of the town and whether the library has wifi. My small town in VT with 1,500 people has it... Glens Falls, NY, with 30,000 people does not.... but I always start at the library because even if they do not have wifi, they usually can tell me where to find it..

[davel]

I have to agree with Rocky, If they don't have the things secured they wouldn't notice the drop. It's too easy to set security on these things. Wifi is great, it's even popping up free at fast food places now. One day we'll be wireless coast to coast.

[An Ol Timer]

A lot of the posts have it all wrong as it is not the neighbor or the sloppy setup guy that is the victim here, but rather the supplier of the connection. It is called theft of services, I believe, and I bet that not one of you would be willing to start any kind of a business and then allow just anyone to come along and take your product for free. There are instances where it is legal and these connections have been set up ti operate this way, but it sure isn't the neighbor.

[SteveH]

It's seems that today people pick and choose what laws they want to obey and what ones they choose to overlook.

Ol Timer,

I agree with you 100%. Had a "discussion" with a young man just the other day that could not see the harm in down loading music off the internet. He kept saying "the internet should be free". Couldn't understand that someone produced that music he was stealing and should be paid for it's use.

Though I personally can scarcely play a radio, I have many musician friends. I feel there is a BIG difference in pirating music, and borrowing a bit of bandwidth from a neighbor. Copyrighted material usually involves a persons livelyhood, if you manage a decent wireless connection off someone elses account it is costing them nothing. As others have said, just my thoughts.

Larwyn,

Yes, there is a difference, one is theft of copy writed material, and one is theft of services. But the one thing that is the same is that they both are theft.

I'm shure everyone will continue to do what they want as long as they are not caught, but I chose to not be a thief.

[davel]

Larwyn wrote:

Though I personally can scarcely play a radio, I have many musician friends. I feel there is a BIG difference in pirating music, and borrowing a bit of bandwidth from a neighbor. Copyrighted material usually involves a persons livelyhood, if you manage a decent wireless connection off someone elses account it is costing them nothing. As others have said, just my thoughts.

Other than bandwidth usage, another issue that I haven't seen here is that the person with the connection is liable for any illegal activity that the person stealing the service might perform. If the person getting free access is downloading copyrighted material, it is the owner of the connection that is liable for prosecution if that person happens to be tracked doing this.

Theft is theft no matter how socially acceptable it is.

[WoodSmith]

This was discussed on NPR a few weeks back, found the interview with "The Ethicist" here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4604352

Interesting stuff.

[davel]

Glen that was really interesting. But seems to me that using others bandwidth without their knowledge wouldn't be very ethical.

[TomS]

Larwyn wrote:
Other than bandwidth usage, another issue that I haven't seen here is that the person with the connection is liable for any illegal activity that the person stealing the service might perform. If the person getting free access is downloading copyrighted material, it is the owner of the connection that is liable for prosecution if that person happens to be tracked doing this.

Imagine this scary scenario. Some pedaphile cruising through your neighborhood finds your unsecured Wi-Fi connection. He log on and starts trades child pornorgraphy with an undercover cop. The cops track the IP address back through your ISP to your house. Two days later, the cops show up at your dooor with a search warrant.

I don't think the owner of the connection could be sucessfully prosecuted for the illegal actions of someone who accessed that connection without permission. But, you'll have to endure a lot grief before it's all over.