Michael Yellin wrote: > According to the Cabin analogy, if it is left open, can I use anything I > want. Can I use the TV and your electricity (assuming the place has > electricity) What about eating the food and using the supplies.
I think I might have introduced this "cabin analogy" in another discussion, and I'm sorry I don't have any hard references for it. It seems that in the old Scandinavian (and possibly Anglo-Saxon) tradition, the dishonor was not in committing the crime, but in hiding from your guilt. If you openly admitted to the crime and paid your fines, all was ok. (The word "steal" is related to "stealth", to do something in hiding.) The Old Norse and Icelandic sagas are full of anecdotes like this, e.g. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Njal/ If I was the hiker, lost and frozen, I guess I would eat the food in the cabin, and leave a note with my phone number and some cash. That seems like the most practical solution to me. That doesn't mean I have the right to walk into any cabin at any time and eat what I want, or that the people who forget to lock their cabins are morons. All it means is that there is a balance between respect and need. -- Lars Aronsson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/