In Michigan, a guy was arrested for accessing a coffee shop’s public wifi signal without paying. He was facing up to 5 years in jail but got off with a $400 fine, community work and 6 months probation. HT: Boing Boing
How many of us have done that? Yes, i see that hand . . .
Guilty.
See this? Already happening in the UK. Watch out – we’ve ALL seen your crawls! 😉
ouch!
It took a guy in Australia to tell me about a story happening in my own state (Michigan). A global village, indeed.
Wait…it just dawned on me. You’re not in Australia and I don’t think you ever were…
You’re in UK, now, right?
It’s too early in the morning for my brain to function.
Surely it is the job of the Cafe owner to secure their own WiFi…
another story…I was working for a computer company and one of our techs went out to troubleshoot an internet problem for a client. When they got there they asked what ISP they were with and they said none… they said well who do you pay for internet, the customer was like “pay, you have to pay for the internet”
It turned out for the last few months they had just been using the neighbors WiFi just thinking the internet was just always there…
That’s a little scary that the local police have nothing else to do with their time… I could see the complaint if it was made by the cafe owner; however, since the WiFi network was public and the cafe owner did not complain I am not following why the police felt any need to be involved. It is too bad the guy took a plea bargain. That will likely encourage the police department…
Lornal, you are right. It is entertaining getting OUR news from someone in Europe. The times they are a’changing…
This story confirms that my decision to move to Michigan was a BAD one, and it’s time to do something about that!