I saw this news article today. To summarize the story, this man was charged with stealing a WiFi signal (technically unauthorized access to a computer network.)
As many of us have learned it is pretty easy to drive into a residential area and find a open wireless signal we can use to check the nearest caches or email. Now I think ethically we'd all seek out coffee shops or libraries that were set up for our use... but its hard to turn down an open signal if you find one when you want it... even if that signal may not have been meant for our use.
In my opinion it is all the fault of the owner for not setting up security on his router. It is very easy to do, and it elimintates the problem. Now you could argue that its like leaving your car parked on the street unlocked with the keys in it... it is still theft if you take it. To me I guess I think there should be a level of personal accountability... if I have a wireless router it should be my responsibility to make sure that if I don't want others to use it they can't. That way it would only be a crime if you tried to hack a closed connection. It seems easy enough... maybe I'm way off base.
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