If a retailer displays items on a rack out on the sidewalk, is it ethical to steal them? If I have a utility electrical outlet on the outside wall of my house, intended to power an electrical gardening tool or something, and it isn't locked, is it ethical to run a cord over to it and use it to power your air conditioning?
If I leave my house door unlocked, is it ethical for someone to just walk in and help themselves to my possessions?
Well, those aren't good examples because they aren't proportional to the value of the bandwidth that was "stolen" in this case. If you are tapping into an unsecured wi-fi you aren't going to get very good bandwidth outside of the building, so you are not going to be tranferring gigabytes of info, and therefore you aren't going to impact on their internet bill. I'd liken it to taking a sesame seed that fell off of someone's hamburger bun when they were eating lunch. They paid money for that sesame seed, and technically, it was illegal to steal it off of their table after they left the restaurant, technically you are stealing their food, but who really cares?
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-01-08 06:58 pm (UTC)If I leave my house door unlocked, is it ethical for someone to just walk in and help themselves to my possessions?
Well, those aren't good examples because they aren't proportional to the value of the bandwidth that was "stolen" in this case. If you are tapping into an unsecured wi-fi you aren't going to get very good bandwidth outside of the building, so you are not going to be tranferring gigabytes of info, and therefore you aren't going to impact on their internet bill. I'd liken it to taking a sesame seed that fell off of someone's hamburger bun when they were eating lunch. They paid money for that sesame seed, and technically, it was illegal to steal it off of their table after they left the restaurant, technically you are stealing their food, but who really cares?