Freeze, WiFi Thief!

by Jordan Yerman | May 23, 2007 at 09:55 am

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Though the maximum penalty for piggybacking someone else's WiFi connection seems unusually stiff (even the lesser penalty that this offender recieved seems a bit harsh), one must question the community-mindedness of someone who sees "[no] problem" with pulling up and clandestinely using an business' network without buying a cup of coffee. The real question here is if he would have spent $400 on coffee as of the time he was busted.

A Michigan man who parked outside a local Wi-Fi cafe every day to check his email has been fined $400 and sentenced to 40 hours' community service.

Sam Peterson can consider himself unfortunate since if he'd simply popped into the Re-Union Street Cafe in Sparta, Michigan, for a coffee while checking his email he'd have avoided punishment. Peterson was collared for fraudulent access to a computer network after his presence outside the cafe drew the attention of local police chief Andrew Milanowski.

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Peterson admitted he was surfing the web using the cafe's unsecured Wi-Fi network. He didn't realise piggybacking on the network might be an offence so it must have come as a surprise when he was summoned to court, charged with offences punishable by a maximum five years' imprisonment.

"I knew that the Union Street had Wi-Fi. I just went down and checked my email and didn't see a problem with that," Peterson told local station WOOD Tv.