Gregory K. Ruiz-Ade([EMAIL PROTECTED])@Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 11:04:59AM -0700: > On Mar 11, 2008, at 10:30 AM, Tracy R Reed wrote: > > >Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > >>Legally? Yes. Most of the rulings have gone that way. This > >>is similar > > > >Which is, of course, stupid. If I read my watch by light from > >your window am I stealing? > > > A more accurate analogy, I think, would be if you were listening > to your neighbor's music because both your windows were open, > were you stealing that music? > > Granted, the RIAA would probably say yes...
Issues like this /used/ to be considered part of "netiquette". When you get on someone's network, you aren't just listening to the music with them, or reading by the same light. The only way to make these analogies even close is to imagine that by using their light, the light fades. Or, if you listen to their music, the volume is decreased. If my neighbor sees that 1) I own one car 2) my driveway is more than big enough for 2 cars, and 3) besides I'm not at home right now, he's still being a jerk if he decides to park there. I might be coming home in a U-Haul with some large furniture to load/unload, or I might be on vacation... but when I need it, I /don't/ want to find someone getting in my way. And, I do get grouchy when I have to ask someone to let me use what is obviously mine, not theirs. Maybe it isn't obvious how that person's streaming video is being affected. Maybe it isn't obvious that the person is trying to get some work done quickly over a VPN. It /is/ obvious the bandwidth was paid for and belongs to someone else. Not mine. That's all a civilized human needs to know. Should it be illegal? I don't think so. Is it courteous? Not remotely (really awful pun intended). Don't squat on my wifi, and I won't have my yard sale on /your/ front lawn. (if you have a problem with that, why didn't you put up a large fence with a locked gate?) This has been a public service announcement. :-P Wade Curry syntaxman -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
