(no subject)

[John Noble]

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9722006-7.html?tag=tb
May 22, 2007 5:45 PM PDT
Michigan man dodges prison in theft of Wi-Fi
Posted by Steven Musil
A Michigan man who used a coffee shop's unsecured Wi-Fi to check his
e-mail from his car could have faced up to five years in prison,
according to local TV station WOOD. But it seems few in the village
of Sparta, Mich., were aware that using an unsecured Wi-Fi connection
without the owner's permission--a practice known as piggybacking--was
a felony.
Each day around lunch time, Sam Peterson would drive to the Union
Street Cafe, park his car and--without actually entering the coffee
shop--check his e-mail and surf the Net. His ritual raised the
suspicions of Police Chief Andrew Milanowski, who approached him and
asked what he was doing. Peterson, probably not realizing that his
actions constituted a crime, freely admitted what he was doing.
"I knew that the Union Street had Wi-Fi. I just went down and checked
my e-mail and didn't see a problem with that," Peterson told a WOOD
reporter.
Milanowski didn't immediately cite or arrest Peterson, mostly because
he wasn't certain a crime had been committed. "I had a feeling a law
was being broken," the chief said. Milanowski did some research and
found Michigan's "Fraudulent access to computers, computer systems,
and computer networks" law, a felony punishable by five years in
prison and a $10,000 fine.
Milanowski, who eventually swore out a warrant for Peterson, doesn't
believe Milanowski knew he was breaking the law. "In my opinion,
probably not. Most people probably don't."
Indeed, neither did Donna May, the owner of the Union Street Cafe. "I
didn't know it was really illegal, either," she told the TV station.
"If he would have come in (to the coffee shop), it would have been
fine."
But apparently prosecutors were more than aware of the 1979 law,
which was revised in 2000 to include protections for Wi-Fi networks.
"This is the first time that we've actually charged it," Kent County
Assistant Prosecutor Lynn Hopkins said, adding that "we'd been hoping
to dodge this bullet for a while."
However, Peterson won't be going to prison for piggybacking. Because
he has no prior record, Peterson will have to pay a $400 fine, do 40
hours of community service and enroll in the county's diversion
program.

Maybe the guy just didn't want to pay for a lawyer, but you have to
believe this was a beatable rap. Here's the law:

752.795 Prohibited conduct.
Sec. 5.
A person shall not intentionally and without authorization or by
exceeding valid authorization do any of the following:
(a) Access or cause access to be made to a computer program,
computer, computer system, or computer network to acquire, alter,
damage, delete, or destroy property or otherwise use the service of a
computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network.
(b) Insert or attach or knowingly create the opportunity for an
unknowing and unwanted insertion or attachment of a set of
instructions or a computer program into a computer program, computer,
computer system, or computer network, that is intended to acquire,
alter, damage, delete, disrupt, or destroy property or otherwise use
the services of a computer program, computer, computer system, or
computer network. This subdivision does not prohibit conduct
protected under section 5 of article I of the state constitution of
1963 or under the first amendment of the constitution of the United
States.

Two questions:

1. I don't use a laptop, so I don't know what you have to do to
intentionally access an unsecured wi-fi hotspot. Generally, how would
you know whether or not your access was "authorized," i.e. whether
the network proprietor intended to share the bandwidth or was a
"victim" of his own stupidity? If you see a car parked, with the
doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition, you don't presume that
it was left there for your joy-ride. But people do, in fact, run
wireless networks without access restrictions, intending that they be
used by anyone and everyone. In the story reported by CNET, the only
thing Peterson apparently had to do was go inside and buy a cup of
coffee, but even the owner of the coffee shop didn't seem to know
what she was authorizing and on what terms.

2. Subsection b is presumably addressed to spyware, but read
literally, doesn't it apply to the AirPort software that comes with a
Mac, and presumably a Windows analog, that allows you to set your
preferences to "automatically join" an open network?

John Noble


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