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Feed Another Man Arrested For Using Free Cafe WiFi (techdirt.com)

Will it never end? Just months after a guy was arrested in Alaska for using free library WiFi from outside the library, Broadband Reports points us to a man in Michigan getting arrested for using free cafe WiFi from outside the cafe. The story gets more bizarre the further into you read. The police chief saw the guy, and went over to talk to him, thinking it must be wrong, but not knowing of any law that said so. Following that, he went searching for a law, and found an old law about unauthorized access -- which is designed to make hacking illegal. Of course, that's not what the guy was doing, and you could make a pretty compelling argument that the access wasn't unauthorized. After all, the cafe was offering it for free and there was no loss to the cafe for having this guy use it as well. In fact, the cafe owner didn't even know it was illegal either. Once again, this is based on a bunch of people being extremely confused about how open WiFi works. If the WiFi is open, it should not be a crime to use it. Do the police go around arresting people who use the light coming out of a store window to read something? Also, does this mean that police can now arrest you just for using a laptop in your car? As someone who has used a laptop with an EVDO card in parking lots more than a few times, are the police going to accuse me of "stealing" WiFi? The whole situation is pointless. Nothing is being "stolen." Nothing is even being accessed in an unauthorized manner. Even professional ethicists have chimed in to say that there's nothing wrong with WiFi piggybacking. So why was Sam Peterson potentially facing five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine?
Software

Submission + - SNORT prepares for IPO

An anonymous reader writes: Open ource innovator and SNORT creator, Sourcefire, Inc., a leader in network intrusion prevention, announced today the pricing of its initial public offering of 5,770,000 shares of its common stock at $15.00 per share. More inromation on the SNORT IPO can be found over at Linuxlookup.com
Space

Submission + - A decade-long mystery has been solved

justelite writes: "A decade-long mystery has been solved using data from ESA's X-ray observatory XMM-Newton. The brightest member of the so-called 'magnificent seven' has been found to pulsate with a period of seven seconds. The discovery casts some doubt on the recent interpretation that this object is a highly exotic celestial object known as a quark star."
Music

Submission + - Attorneys Fees To Be Awarded Against RIAA

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In an Oklahoma case, Capitol Records v. Debbie Foster, the Court has granted the defendant's motion for attorneys fees to be imposed against the RIAA, holding that Ms. Foster is to receive her "reasonable attorney's fees". Judge Lee R. West, in his 9-page decision(pdf), did not specify the amount to be awarded, held that the RIAA can have "discovery" on the reasonableness issue, and also ruled that Ms. Foster can also later supplement her application for additional fees. Her initial application was for approximately $55,000 in legal fees and disbursements. This is the case in which the ACLU, Public Citizen, EFF, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the ACLU Oklahoma Foundation, all filed an amicus brief on Ms. Foster's behalf, arguing to the judge that a substantial attorneys fee award was needed to discourage the RIAA's "driftnet" litigation strategy."
User Journal

Journal Journal: SAIC slashdotters 2

I'm curious how many fellow SAIC emps read /. Add your count here. Post annonymously if you want.

User Journal

Journal Journal: FP!! and new friends

So, I added a couple ppl to my friends list today. This entry is mostly for their benefit if they wonder why my name suddenly shows up on their list and make their way here... Greetings Maeka and Violet Null. I found your posts intresting and nicely composed. It's kinda rare to find some easily readable stuff here and I want to keep tabs on your future posts.
Thanks.
Hasta,

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