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The Ethics of Leaching Free WiFi
In a post about my using my neighbor's WiFi Sue posted a comment:
Maybe you could help your neighbor pay for the free access you are enjoying; or do you buy into the "he is leaving unsecured, so it is not stealing" canard? It which case, would you be cool about your neighbor ransacking your home for a few choice items if you ever accidentally left your door unlocked?
My neighbor are noisy, rude and I have no moral problems what so ever with leaching off their Wifi. They should close their damn door if they are going to turn up their TV loud or yell at their damn kids so I don't have to hear it.
I am not taking anything. I can not see what they are doing on the net. I can not see their files and my use of their Wifi does not affect them at all. It is not theft. The ISP does not charge per minute or by megabyte so I am not affecting them financially at all.
It is the moral equivalent of glancing at the headlines of a newspaper in the vending machine without actually buying one. Did I steal any information? Did they intend for me to see that by having the paper behind a window? Did I take the limited supply if information from the person that will eventually buy that paper? Is the paper defective because it contains less information by my viewing of the headlines? No. Of course not. So why would using someone else's Wifi be any different.
I remember reading about NYTimes's Ethicist tackled the issue of using open WiFi nodes on Boing Boing.net.
The person who opened up access to you is unlikely even to know, let alone mind, that you've used it. If he does object, there's easy recourse: nearly all wireless setups offer password protection. And while the failure to lock a door may indicate carelessness, not consent, in this case it does suggest indifference. Godwin does warn of the tragedy of the commons, however, which here means you have an obligation not to use too much bandwidth -- by downloading massive music files, for example, which would inconvenience other users.
Jake at June 30, 2005 
Nerd
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Comments
I know my neighbor uses my network, and I do monitor the traffic and to be honest, I could care less. What's amusing is that they've never said anything about it - they probably assume that I don't know. So unless they're sucking my bandwidth and hurting my online gameing I'll allow it.
Posted by: Ben Northern at June 30, 2005 11:32 PM
I know my neighbor uses my network, and I do monitor the traffic and to be honest, I could care less. What's amusing is that they've never said anything about it - they probably assume that I don't know. So unless they're sucking my bandwidth and hurting my online gameing I'll allow it.
Posted by: Ben Northern at June 30, 2005 11:32 PM
Yeah, I don't see anything wrong with it, since bandwidth unused is bandwidth wasted, and I'm assuming that 99% of the time it makes absolutely no differene at all in their download speeds, and if they're concerned about the 1% difference, they can turn on WEP and keep you out - which they haven't done, so they obviously don't care. More power to ya.
Speaking of which, it looks like a municipal wifi may be doomed if people don't use it (e.g. in Florida recently - costing thousands a month for 27 people to use). If I could open my wifi without risking the security of my LAN, I would probably do it, but I don't want people seeing my files, and enabling filesharing to some computers but not all is more trouble than I'm willing to go to.
Posted by: Justin Baeder at July 1, 2005 12:40 PM
Check this story out.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/04/State/Wi_Fi_cloaks_a_new_br.shtml
Posted by: Geoff Taylor at July 6, 2005 12:54 AM
Yeah I know about that article it is mostly FUD
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at July 6, 2005 8:00 AM
I posted recently in my blog about my neighbor's wifi/cable connection. I can packed sniff any unencrypted data coming from their network -- including e-mail and passwords. I have no need or desire to look at their stuff, but they are essentially wide open and vulnerable to anyone who wants it. Even if they did secure the router with a WEP/WPA key, I could still access it as long as they don't change the router's password.
Posted by: phoric at July 6, 2005 6:32 PM
One way of looking at it is that I am in my home and they are blasting their wireless networking signals with out my permission into my place. My iBook will connect to an unsecured Wifi network by default as the way that Apple designed it. They should keep their Wifi out of my place or encrypt it if they care about it.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at July 7, 2005 5:43 PM
I keep my wifi open SPECIFICALLY so other people can use it.
I don't hate my neighbors 1/10th as much as I hate PacBell. They're assholes :)
Posted by: fuzzywzhe at February 10, 2006 1:22 AM
This is not a cut and dry issue,were you justified in using your fatehers nieghbours connection, frankly no. should you be penilised for your actions? again no, why should you.
enjoy the shades of gray my friend.
Posted by: genron at March 25, 2006 2:07 PM
"penilised"? That sounds quite naughty. If they cared about people using the connection they should have took the 1 minute of work to set up a WEP password.
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.8bitjoystick.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 25, 2006 5:48 PM
