CNN is reporting on people in London being arrested for using an open wireless network. I’m not sure about London, but in every major city in the US it’s hard not to be in range of at least 2 wireless networks at any given time.
Can this really be considered a crime? These people are not super hackers trying to exploit people, they’re just checking their email or Google searching. While it’s not going to keep out the black hats, the simple security measures built in to every SOHO wireless router (MAC filtering and WEP) would prevent these people from entering the network.
Say you’re standing next to me at a bus stop. It starts to rain so I pull out an umbrella. You’re standing next to me, so my umbrella is preventing you from getting wet. You haven’t stolen anything from me, and it can hardly be said that you’ve ‘hijacked’ my umbrella. If I really wanted to I could just take two steps away and let you get wet. Even if you’re a criminal and I’m giving shelter to a known felon under my umbrella, you still haven’t committed a crime against me.
Someone leaving their network connection open has just opened a big umbrella in the rain and anyone nearby now has access to use it. If they don’t want to share, they just need to take the very simple precautions to prevent others from using it.