Alaskan Gamer Arrested For Stealing Library's Wi-Fi
Let's get something straight: getting a high-speed internet connection and a wireless router costs... what? Around the same as two full tanks of gas these days? So wouldn't you think that someone would just shell out a piddling amount of cash each month rather than trudge out into the freezing Alaska winter in order to steal a local library's signal so he could play World of Warcraft from the safety of his car:
Cops couldn't leave well enough alone when they rolled up on 21 year-old Brian Tanner jammin' on some WoW-type action in a library parking lot. Tanner's lappy was confiscated and he now faces possible criminal charges for illegally accessing WiFi at the Palmer, Alaska library after hours.
Seriously... why would the frozen parking lot of a library be a better locale to play WoW instead of one's house?
Gamer busted for "borrowing" library WiFi after hours [Engadget]
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Miscellany on 26 February 2007
· Comments (10)
Other stuff like this: alaska, gamer, library, stealing, wi-fi, WoW
The real issue here is: Why doesn't the library have free wi-fi?! "Getting a high-speed internet connection and a wireless router costs... what? Around the same as two full tanks of gas these days?"
blindcreator: i think you're reading the article wrong. The library has free WiFi - that's why the guy was going there to play WoW. The 'two full tanks of gas' comment is in reference to the guy who actually sat in his car to play WoW, ie, why didn't he just PAY for it at his own place instead of constantly driving to the library to sit in the parking lot with his laptop.
OK, let me get this straight, they'll arrest some guy in Alaska for accessing wi-fi at the library, but they won't do anything about the homeless people smearing blood and feces on the wall at the Seattle Library. Thanks.
Not to mention he would probably need to keep the car running, lest he freeze to death.
i dont see what the problem with this is.
hmmmm never knew it was illegal to pick up and use someone else's wi-fi connection... i just thought it was bad manners.
This is why we secure our networks. I don't know how it ever got to be the case that an open network is anything other than an invitation.
I guess the issue is that it was "after hours", but that's still absurd.
(It's a shame to let all that bandwidth go to waste for all those hours that the library is closed!)
I wonder if they would have cared if he lived next door to the library and was accessing it from his house?
The whole issue does seem to be because it was "after hours." They should have just turned their Wi-Fi connection off if they didn't want people using it. :\
And it being Alaska, I'm thinking that if he can get broadband at home AT ALL, it's nowhere near "the same as two full tanks of gas these days." One of my clients lives 8 miles out of town and has to use awful satellite Internet with like 8 second ping times.... and I live in New York.
Mind you, I think sitting in your car playing WoW does violate public lewdness laws.