Patrick’s Rants

A man was arrested for sitting in front of a coffee shop using their wireless internet access. The police aren’t sure if he broke any laws¹… although “trespass after warning” might fit if he was physically on private property. The biggest problem with this story is that the coffee shop offered free wireless access to people in the shop without using any methods to limit the access to those in the shop - such as a random password, security keys that changed periodically or other method. The network was just as open to this guy sitting in his truck as it was to someone sipping away at their latté. If they didn’t want him accessing the network they could have made some simple changes to their access point and he would have found a different shop to sit in front of.

1. Don’t let the fact that he is a registered sex offender cloud your judgement - it’s not an issue
2. Original Story