The Grumpy Geek

A Michigan man was arrested by police for accessing a coffee shop’s
public Wi-Fi hotspot. He was charged with a felony and faced up to 5
years in jail, but he took an offer of “paying a $400 fine, doing 40
hours of community service and staying on probation for six months.”

I am a bit disturbed by this story. While a person surreptitiously piggybacking on a neighbors connections is certainly unethical and most likely illegal, this is different. This coffee shop is operating a wifi hot-spot essentially for the public. There are systems (some free) designed for such operations that allow a shop owner to give an access password which is usually input on a gateway page when a user opens a web browser. In this case it was left completely open which to me could imply “public” status.

While the shop owner didn’t even have a problem with the man’s use of the connection, a cop took it upon himself to research whether he could find something to charge the guy with and eventually did charge him with a felony. Now I don’t argue that the cop had probable cause to question the guy due to the reports from the barber shop but to go back and start looking for something to get him with seems excessive as does the charge that the prosecutor chose.

Link (via BoingBoing)