New Hampshire's WiFi bill

[Roland Dowdeswell]

On 1052424018 seconds since the Beginning of the UNIX epoch
Russ Housley wrote:
>

>1.	Virtually all current municipal, state and federal statutes make it a=
> crime to knowingly access any computer network without authorization or=
> consent. The analogy used in an article on this subject in Wired was quite=
> good. It stated that just because I leave my front door unlocked does not=
> give you the right to walk in, sit down and watch TV and grab a little=
> something from the fridge.  In other words, unless I gave you permission,=
> you are trespassing.
>
>2.	HB 495 turns this on its head.  The bill says that if operators=92 fail
>=
> to secure their wireless networks they are being negligent and must suffer=
> the consequences.  Hence, those who take advantage of this negligence=

This is untrue.  A lot of people provide free access to their
802.11b base stations and there is no way for me to tell whether
any random base station without a WEP key is authorized or not.
So, the NH law is just stating what constitutes consent in a
reasonable way.  It is not like it takes any effort to set up a
WEP key.

You could make the same argument about my web site.  You are
accessing my computer in an unauthorised fashion by looking at my
web pages that I allow everyone to look at.  The argument here
obviously doesn't hold any water, mainly because it is obvious that
by putting up the website I am intending to allow any one access
to it.  But how do we know?  All NH is doing is providing a means
for people to know whether accessing 802.11b is authorised.

In fact, if you cannot assume that unWEPed 802.11b is a public
service then it is much more difficult for people to set up freely
available 802.11b access since you can't determine if you are
allowed to connect to it before you do in most cases.

The ``front door'' analogy made in the article is obviously a bit
of a stretch, since passing a few packets around on a radio network
isn't exactly like inviting yourself in and drinking all the beer.

--
    Roland Dowdeswell                      http://www.Imrryr.ORG/~elric/

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