From: RobertB 

In article ,
 Rich Gauszka  wrote:

> a $400 fine and 40 hours community service seems a bit much for a
> 'crime' that no one knew about
>
> http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9722006-7.html
>
> 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.

It's a *felony*! FIVE YEARS for using wi-fi? Has this ever been challenged
in court? I mean, using $5 worth of wireless service does not merit jail
time. Maybe we should do like they tell the little kids and just learn to
share a bit more.

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