It appears that there is some interesting legislation afoot in Maryland. From the Herald-Mail “Purposely surfing the Internet on someone else’s wireless connection, without permission, would be a crime under a bill Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr. presented Tuesday.”
This is an odd one because, if I remember correctly, XP is a bit of a promiscuous wench when in comes to associating with any open wireless connection. For example, in my neighbourhood in Toronto if I were to search for a wireless connection I find no less than 20 connections. Of that group 5 or six are wide open. I’m a little torn here as I can understand not wanting other folks on my wireless access but, I can always enable the security features (and I have). If someone were to access and surf the interweb after that point then yes, that would be theft. But, if you leave your access wide open aren’t you just asking for trouble?
Myers, R-Washington/Allegany, said his bill is meant to clarify intentional theft vs. accidental use.
He told the House Judiciary Committee that one of his neighbors, after buying a new laptop computer, got onto the Internet, thinking it was through a cable TV hookup.
Actually, the connection was through Myers’ home wireless Internet system.
He said he didn’t want unintentional use like that to be prosecuted the same as computer hacking.
According to the bill, intentional unauthorized access to another person’s computer, network, database or software is a misdemeanor. The penalty is up to three years imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000.
Hmm, this would a difficult one to prove. The fine is so low as to not be worth prosecuting. Although, the three year jail sentence has some teeth.
Thoughts?
