[opendtv] WiFi user charged for not buying coffee
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:32:01 -0400
This is hilarious. But it does finally put a lie to all the hype about
how Internet access is "free." A few years ago, it seemed that some
journalists did not appreciate the idea that mooching off someone else's
wireless link does not make Internet access free at all. It just means
that someone else is paying for you.
Bert
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WiFi user charged for not buying coffee
Gregg Keizer
(06/22/2006 6:32 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=3D189600767
A Vancouver, Wash. coffee shop tired of seeing a 20-year-old man mooch
off their free wireless Internet access called the police, who charged
him with "theft of services." Brewed Awakenings employees dialed 911
after Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground, Wash. piggybacked off the
shop's wireless Internet service for more than three months.
"He doesn't buy anything," Emily Pranger, the shop's manager, told KATU,
a Portland, Ore. television station. "It's not right for him to come and
use it."
Smith allegedly parked his truck in the parking lot to use Brewed
Awakenings' wireless access.
County deputies charged Smith with theft of services after returning to
the parking lot after they told him to stop. The charge, which covers
such crimes as bypassing a utility meter, stealing cable, and leaving a
restaurant without paying, has been used in the past to prosecute
hackers who have accessed a computer or network without paying for it.
"It's something that is borderline creepy," Pranger said to KATU.
The Clark County sheriff's office and its prosecutors are reviewing the
case, the television station's Web site noted.
All material on this site Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights
reserved.
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