[funsec] Borrow a neighbor's WiFi connection and go to jail?

[coderman]

On 3/8/06, Gary Funck <gary at intrepid.com> wrote:
> ..
> Hmmm, consider the following: if I leave the front door to my house
> unlocked and ajar, is that an open invitation for you to come
> inside to get out of the rain?

this is a strawman; you have an expectation of privacy with a door
present, regardless of whether it is locked or not. (although an open
door does raise some legal hair splitting questions.  for example,
open houses do this to indicate you are welcome to come inside and
look around; you could not be charged with tresspassing in such a
manner unless you were explicitly told to vacate the premisis and not
return by an authority for the location)

open wireless is more like having sex on your front porch and
expecting no one else to look. :P


>  Wouldn't you still be trespassing?

yes (if you opened the unlocked door and went inside), but this isn't
relevant to the open wifi issue.


> Do the laws really make a distinction between encrypted and
> open wireless?  Or is that more of a practical distinction?

yes, open wireless == no effort to ensure privacy or exclude access. 
encryption, even if trivially broken (like your unlocked door) implies
an effort to keep your network private, and violating that privacy is
tantamount to breaking and entering in a digital sense.