Is PiggyBacking Illegal?

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Regardless of the the point of view each of us holds on this matter, there will ALWAYS be those that exploit a situation if the opportunity exists. Just my 2 cents worth! :(
 
Spike said:
...but why would you want to steal BBQ smoke?
Oh thats easy....some fool would steal my BBQ smoke to bottle and sell it
as food spice. :haha:

1.This is getting like the esoteric question:
If a branch falls from a tree in the deep forest and no one or nothing is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

2.So, to co-inside with that statement:
If they don't know you are stealing/piggybackin thier bandwidth and you don't get caught by a third party, is it still wrong?

my answers:
1.No, IMO-sound waves are not heard until there is an ear drum present.
2.Yes, Since I have to shave in the mirror with my eyes open, I will at least
know it's wrong for me.


P.S. could some one throw me a floaty? I think I fell into the deep end... :eek:
I think we scared "GeekWannaBe" all the way back to So. Fla?
 
I think in reality, there isn't a perfect analogy for this. Its sort of its own unique situation. BBQ smoke is a physical (visual, and whatever the word is for smell) thing. RF frequency you can't see or smell or hear or touch or taste, and it doesn't vary (much at least) on wind.

So its it own thing. To sum it up, I think its not cool to use someone elses bandwidth without them knowing.
 
There are some areas in the country were anti-smoking Nazis complain about smelling smoke from their neighbor's house. The point is, if you emit items from your house and it bothers your neighbors, they can complain or use it depending upon the local laws.

Personally, if I have a neighbor whose property falls on mine (be it a physical item, RF frequency, or whatever) I will use it if I feel the need. So if you're going to be on my property, or leave your stuff on my property, be forewarned.

So, if you don't like people using your WIFI band-width - secure it!
If you don't like your neighbor having greener grass than yours, stop sprinkling his lawn when you water yours!
 
Tedster said:
There are some areas in the country were anti-smoking Nazis complain about smelling smoke from their neighbor's house. The point is, if you emit items from your house and it bothers your neighbors, they can complain or use it depending upon the local laws.

Personally, if I have a neighbor whose property falls on mine (be it a physical item, RF frequency, or whatever) I will use it if I feel the need. So if you're going to be on my property, or leave your stuff on my property, be forewarned.

So, if you don't like people using your WIFI band-width - secure it!
If you don't like your neighbor having greener grass than yours, stop sprinkling his lawn when you water yours!
Forwarned is forearmed
:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:

Hey can I please have my shovel back?
 
SOcRatEs said:
1.This is getting like the esoteric question:
If a branch falls from a tree in the deep forest and no one or nothing is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
No, it makes sound waves, which are vibrations, they are only turned into "sound" when they are picked up by your ears, which then send the signal to your brain.
(That's what i think anyway :) )

Back to the topic.
Having a look on wikipedia I found this article about using open wifi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warchalking

and a search on google gave me this:
http://www.warchalking.org.uk/
 
I still believe this is just the same as "hot linking" where you are stealing bandwidth from one because they happen to have a picture or something that you want to link to. Hot Linking is actually illegal. How is this that much differnet when instead of just using the bandwidth to display a picture some where else on the internet you are using it to browse the internet or hack into someones computer.
 
I also believe it's wrong, but I doubt anyone will mind if all you are doing is checking for emails, or the like.
 
SOcRatEs said:
Forwarned is forearmed
:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:

Hey can I please have my shovel back?
um, it's a nice shovel, I don't know how it wound up in my yard!
 
Well, uh, I was tryin ta fan the bbq smoke from da other nayhbour and
this wifi siginal hit me da head and well, I asked myself what could it be?
so I tryed to fan it too and well it sort of slipped, yeah yeah thats right,
it slipped outta my hands and and rickashayed off my front door, it flipped
way up in the sky and bounced off a cloud, yeah yeah thats it thats it,
it bounced off a cloud and landed on your roof, it slid down and ended
up right in the middle of your yard, yeah yeah thats it. It's my story and I'm stickin to it.
You know Tedster, the funniest thing is, I was standing right there,
and it didn't make no sound at all, none not one bang or whimpering sigh....go figger! :confused:





PS Oh Yeah, didn't I borrow that shovel from you 3 months ago? :haha:
 
Well I'm starting to see that piggybacking may only still be taking place in homes, other places seem to have secured their networks.

I was out of town this weekend. At the hotel, if I wanted to use their internet access it cost money to plug in. When I went to check what signals were available they were secured.

At the airport 2 wifi signals were available. When you go to click on them, one being the airports, you can look up flight info and other airport related info, but you are only in their "intranet" or whatever you want to call it. To go out to the internet you had to pay $8.00

The other option was Tmobile's wifi network, they also required you to purchase access to go outside and surf the intrernet.

Finally, there were internet kiosks available at a per minute charge.

I had no need to goto the internet, I was just killing time, and it was more of an experiment related to this thread.

I never personally did piggyback since I have my own network, but I never saw this as an offense because the signal invaded your home and you weren't hacking looking for a loophole, but just clicking, "network available" , "OK".

But now I see a lot of people do think this is just plain wrong and it's a form of indirect stealing. It has been an enlightening conversation.
 
If I remember right(I was a kid,) in the 70's alot of people had those big satilite dishes and picked up cable TV. The cable tv channels had a problem with that, but the law was made if it's in the air it can be picked up. The cable tv channes started scrambling signals.
 
there was also a case where a man was powering his home through magnetic induction off power lines. He didn't physically hook up power, but he did pick up strong magentic field lines next to the large transmission lines close to his poroperty. Using the faraday effect, he was able to convert the magnatism back into power.
He lost the suit from the power company who said he was stealing.
 
Tedster said:
there was also a case where a man was powering his home through magnetic induction off power lines. He didn't physically hook up power, but he did pick up strong magentic field lines next to the large transmission lines close to his poroperty. Using the faraday effect, he was able to convert the magnatism back into power.
He lost the suit from the power company who said he was stealing.
I not sure if that really is stealing if he is just converting the magnetic energy coming off the power lines into something that he could use. But all the same I say hand it to him for putting something like that together and actually getting it to work :).
 
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