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According to an online report on PCWorld.Com, Sam Peterson II, a habitant of Sparta, Mich., was fined $400 and sentenced to 40 hours of community service for poaching the Wi-Fi connection of a local café.
The defendant regularly parked his car outside the Sparta Re-Union Street Café, from where he used to surf the web, without entering the coffee shop. His frequent visits to the venue raised the eyebrows of the local police chief. On interrogation, Peterson pleaded guilty, and was accused of fraudulent computer access, after checking the Michigan statutes.
However, a local TV station called WOODTV argues that Peterson has been let off easy. Michigan computer access law reportedly states that any unauthorized use of Wi-Fi connection is punishable with up to a $10,000 in fine plus five years in prison.
It is unclear from the report whether the café charges customers for using the Wi-Fi connection or offers it for free. If it’s the former, then an authorization from the service owner is required. On the other hand, if the service is offered for free, then anyone can use the Internet without having to worry about the security restrictions (including someone outside the café.)
The report filed by the Sparta police not only exposes the loopholes in the reliability and security of Wi-Fi connections, but also put the new technology under scrutiny.
Rahul Prabhakar is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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Internet Protocol (IP) | X | | IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more |
802.11 (Wi-Fi) | X | | The IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard is usually referred to as Wi-Fi-Wireless Fidelity or WLAN Wireless Local Area Network. The 802.11 standard has evolved into a number of sub-standards 802.11a/b/g...more |
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