Moral Dilemma of the day.

[chaotic_nipple]

Is it "Theft" to use someone's unsecured wireless network without their permission? Morally, I mean, not legally. Second moral dilemma: Is it "theft" if the owner copies any passwords, credit card numbers, and interesting porn that send over _his_ network? Personally, I'd have to say "No, not really" "Kinda sorta" "Well, you were pretty much asking for it, so quit whining" to both questions, which is why it's the height of stupidity to either run or use an unsecured network, IMO.

Comments

[dracphelan.livejournal.com]

Is it "Theft" to use someone's unsecured wireless network without their permission? No. It is trespassing. This the same as you sneaking into someone's house through an unlocked door and making free phone calls on their phone.

Is it "theft" if the owner copies any passwords, credit card numbers, and interesting porn that send over _his_ network? Yes it is. It is the same as someone letting another person use their phone and recording any financial information from the phone calls.

Now, I have a heavily secured network at home (encrypted, hardware firewall and software firewalls on all of the computers). I also agree that it is stupid to run an unsecured network and pass private info on an unsecured network.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more along the lines of using the freeloader's animal porn surfing habits to blackmail him, but that would probably be technically illegal too.

[blue-chicory.livejournal.com]

You're all talking about the moral issues of technology, and I can't even get my camera to talk to my computer. Dumb lists of software, I have no idea of which I need or what I need to have already and I just want to show pictures of garden and I can't until I manage to figure this out. I'm going to go repair my fence and deal with this later. I can actually use wire and zip ties, screw all this other crap. *Stomps out*

[dracphelan.livejournal.com]

Have you tried just plugging it in? Many cameras will show up as a drive in windows and Apple OS without any additional software.

[blue-chicory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for once I did try the obvious first. I'll just call customer service tomorrow. I feel a lot better after going to my garden, I may not be all that great with some stuff, but I just brought home a couple buckets of veggies. Someone said last week that they didn't want to go in the garden for fear the beans would pull them down and use them for fertilizer :)

[corwynofamber.livejournal.com]

That is hard question to answer. First of all, morals tend to be circumstantial, cultural, and ephemeral. So, judging it on a moral level is just hard.

[entropy156.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's more akin to a hobo hitching a ride on a freight train. It's really not theft because you haven't deprived the person of anything.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

The hobo's extra weight does marginally increase the fuel required to move the train. The bandwidth used by the freeloader will slow down the legitimate users of the network a whole lot more than the hobo will slow down the train.

[entropy156.livejournal.com]

True...but if at no point do those "wronged" notice the difference then, effectively, there is no difference and they can not be said to have been deprived of anything.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

So, if I take a dollar from your wallet every day, and you never actually notice it, I can keep taking those dollars indefinitely, without it ever actually becoming theft? :-)

[entropy156.livejournal.com]

Nope...because I've been deprived of that dollar. I had it and now I no longer do. The same cannot be said about the internet connectivity. Oh...and I'd shoot you. ;-)