[X4U] Re: Wireless "theft"

[Ted Burton]

At 9:58 AM -0400 on 6/17/05, peter spoke about Re: [X4U] Re: Wireless 
"theft" thusly:

>	I question theconcept of wireless "theft."  This does not seem 
>consistent with existing law.   It seems to me the shoe is on the 
>other foot.
>
>If a neighbor's apple tree extends a branch over my yard, the apples 
>from that limb that fall into my yard are mine.  If the rotten 
>apples are causing me harm, I can force him to cut the limb off.

Haven't actually been that far in looking into "neighbor law." Where 
I was a lawyer for most of my career fruit trees were not exactly a 
problem. Where I am now anyone can drop fruit over my fence any time 
they want to -- good eating. Except these neighbors do not have fruit 
trees, and I do.

>If a person sends electronic waves onto my property they should be 
>mine to use.  If someone does not want me using their waves, they 
>need to keep them off of my property.   Seems to me that a good case 
>could be made that the sender of the waves is polluting the air and 
>should be made to stop.  I expect this question to come before the 
>Supreme Court before long.

It does not seem likely to me that a Court would buy the fruit tree 
analogy. WiFi 'borrowing' is the borrowing of the whole, not the 
borrow of a drop-off of a part of the whole. The connecting to their 
WiFi is more like entering their back yard to find a tree that may 
hang over a fence somewhere. It's availability may advertise itself 
over the the fence, but the signals you send and the return you get 
is to and from the box on their land in their building. That's like 
seeing a fruit tree on the other side of the fence, then going over 
the fence to pick the fruit on their land.

It may or may not get to the court.

P.S. WiFi is not 'everywhere.' I use two set-ups, one at home office 
and one at outside office. At both locations there's only our own 
apparent to us with Airport of iStumbler.
-- 

I am a Christian Democrat.
Jesus Christ was a Jew, and a Liberal.