Man Arrested for Wireless Piggybacking

As reported by KATU in Portland, Oregon, a man was arrested for parking outside a coffee shop in nearby Vancouver, Washington, and using their open wireless AP — for three straight months. '"He doesn't buy anything," Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about. "It's not right for him to come and use it."' Turns out the guy was a registered sex-offender as well.

I'm not sure who is dumber there; the cafe admin or the guy leeching wireless...

If they were smart they would hand out tickets to paying customers, still free but at least helps prevent such simple abuse.

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Jeremy

Marlborough WiFi Project

I dare say, if you're network is open, why do people not have a right to use it? Most if not all routers can be secured in about 5 minutes (normally less!), so is there really an excuse to not secure your network?

Put a WEP on it and then give paying customers the WEP key with their coffee .

Of course being a sex-offender he was probably looking up some pr0n, which would probably give reason to be arrested.

Still "We have the right to refuse (Wi-Fi) service to anyone"

That's what I think, if the network is open then it means use our network. If they wanted to limit use to customers then give away vouchers with purchases and use nocat or some sort of hotspot software.

Seeing how radio communications matters are regulated at the federal level, does local law enforcement have jurisdiction over this case?

deny his MAC address. That'd require figuring out which is his. If he's the only person online at some time it would be obvious.

Then he goes and buys an(other) card... oh well, can't beat it.

=e

I completely agree that if the network is open then it only means thats its free for everyone to use or the owner is dumb enough that he/she deserved it. You can not compare it to an open property with their doors wide open (people cant come in even if the door is open). We are talking about signals here. I wonder what is the reason of the arrest...or how come they can arrest him for parking in a parking space.

I wonder whats the arresting officer arrested the man for...illegal parking?

They probably arrested him for loitering. Since a coffee shop is an owned business, its management has the right to deny service (including signal service) to anyone they feel is not being a proper customer. Since he was in their parking lot, it's still their property, even if the signal may or may not include the actual area of the business itself.