Comments on: soaking up a bit of wi-fi could be illegal https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=575 Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:47:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.10 By: liam https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=575&cpage=1#comment-2314 Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:47:58 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=575#comment-2314 I can’t recall exactly where I read it, but I believe I read that in Canada knowingly using someone else’s bandwidth without their permission isn’t kosher. In many ways, this makes sense, many ISPs have a bandwidth fee they can charge if you’re above a certain level of usage, I certainly would not be happy to get hit with a $20 fee because a couple of people happened to want to download their linux distros with my internet.

Not having a laptop, I can’t say this has ever been much of an issue directly for me, although when setting up wireless routers for friends it’s generally a question I ask them: “Do you want to let other people use your internet?”, the answers run the gamut, but when they’re ok with it I typically name the access point something that makes it clear that it’s ok for passerby to use the router.

It seems vaguely wrong (a la walking through a yard without a fence) to just (ab?)use the ignorance of others.

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