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by Doug Thews.
Original Post: Potential Wi-Fi Legal Woes
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I was reading a columng by John C. Dvorak in PC Magazine about how Canada is implementing a law where you can be arrested if you happen to connect to an unencrypted Wi-Fi signal (intentionally or not).
I like his idea better. Leave the law out of it and put it on the owner of the Wi-Fi access point to secure the signal. He is right in saying that the signal should be considered public domain when it reaches outside of the private property where the access point originates. Satellite does this, by requiring an access card - and Wi-Fi should as well.
As Dvorak points out - if the signal is available in my house and my laptop picks it up because the access point happens to be named the same as mine, then why should I be arrested? We need to keep the law away from this absurd situation.
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