Okay, so you’re away from home or the office, you turn on your laptop, and you are greeted with an announcement that there is an accessible (unsecured) wireless connection in the neighbourhood.
Do you (a) connect immediately and check your email, assuming that the connection belongs to a benevolent cafe or local philanthropist, or (b) decline the opportunity, conscious of theft laws and security implications?
Well, in what it believed to the the first case of its kind in the UK, Gregory Straszkiewicz has been found guilty and fined £500 for dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service (i.e. using someone else’s wireless broadband connection).
Having said that, he did make it rather obvious by (reportedly) walking around his neighbourhood with his laptop actively looking for available connections.
Still, it makes you think twice.
Read about it on Digital-Lifestyles.info and ZDNet UK.
0 Responses to “£500 for piggybacking someone else's wireless connection”