License to Wardrive

IF YOU'VE EVER BOOTED UP YOUR LAPTOP, scanned the area for unsecured wireless networks, and hopped onto the Internet on someone else's dime, you're a thief.

Swiping a little connectivity may be a relatively benign crime, and the victim likely won't know he's being victimized. Yet given that cable modem or DSL service contracts usually forbid subscribers from sharing bandwidth with strangers, it's technically illegal. That's the case whether the owner of the wireless network made the conscious decision to open his connection to all comers, or whether he doesn't realize that any passerby with a wireless card can leech off his bandwidth.

But that clear prohibition against stealing a connection can get fuzzy. What if you're only checking to see whether a network is open for all comers, and then you pass that information along to a friend? Or what if you publish the network's location on a website, so that anyone who swings by can log on, perhaps for illicit purposes?

Defining the difference between criminal trespass and mere curiosity is Patrick S. Ryan's goal in his Virginia Journal of Law & Technology article entitled "War, Peace, ... // 87% Remaining