Michigan Man Fined for Using Coffee Shop's Wi-Fi Network

News Type: Event — Seeded on Thu May 31, 2007 7:42 PM EDT

Article Source: FOXNews.com

technology, laptop, coffee-shop, michigan-law, michigan-man-fined, wi-fi-network-laws

A Michigan man has been fined $400 and given 40 hours of community service for accessing an open wireless Internet connection outside a coffee shop.

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Robert Joseph's Column, All of Newsvine
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{"commentId":748408,"authorDomain":"robertmcg"}

Robert Joseph

I wonder what laws I will break tomorrow without knowing...

I think the government should give us all Free Law Classes so we can protect ourselves from lawful-deprivation of our lives.

Seriously, this is what happens in all sorts of things... 90% of the time it isn't the public's fault... The coffee shop should have password protected it and had people request it when they order.

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2 votes

#1 - Thu May 31, 2007 7:44 PM EDT

{"commentId":871192,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

YOu have got to be kidding!

Oh I better shut up before i got busted for this law.

{"commentId":871192,"threadId":"109173","contentId":"749477","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

1 vote

#2 - Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:21 PM EDT

{"commentId":871269,"authorDomain":"tigerblade"}

tigerblade

Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker of the attractive local hairdresser, but still felt that a law might have been broken.

It's not enough to just interrupt him, we gotta go check to see if there's a law for this. Go screw yourselves... it's free wireless. If they don't want people using it without paying, then... PASSWORD IT. It's simple.

Under the statute, individuals who log on to a Wi-Fi network with the owner's permission, or who see a pop-up screen that says it's a public network, can assume they're authorized to use the network, Hopkins said.

Uh... I don't give a jellyfish's tentacle if someone accesses my network. Not that they will, as it's secured, but in the days when I didn't have it secured (aka in my college house), I had no problem letting people piggyback. If I noticed huge amounts of traffic spiking and knew it wasn't us, then I'd crack down, but... it's the Internet. c'mon now.

Effing people.

{"commentId":871269,"threadId":"109173","contentId":"749477","authorDomain":"tigerblade"}

#3 - Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:52 PM EDT

{"commentId":875448,"authorDomain":"rafterman"}

Bill Rafferty

"It wasn't anything we were looking for, and it wasn't anything that we frankly particularly wanted to get involved in, but it basically fell in our lap and it was a little hard to just look the other way when somebody handed it to us,"

Which is crap. As a prosecutor, they could have gone out and found out a little more information from the owner of the cafe and the barbershop and then made a rational decision. Like not to prosecute this poor guy. It they didn't want to get involved, they could have gotten out of the office and done some work.

{"commentId":875448,"threadId":"109173","contentId":"749477","authorDomain":"rafterman"}

#4 - Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:22 AM EDT

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ROBERT JOSEPH

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Michigan Man Fined for Using Coffee Shop's Wi-Fi Network

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