Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/23/michigan_wifi_conviction/
Drive-by Wi-Fi 'thief' heavily fined
Michigan man busted for failing to buy coffee
Posted in Crime, 23rd May 2007 16:22 GMT
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.
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 (http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6546307&nav=menu44_1) local station WOOD Tv.
Although Peterson escaped prison, his punishment still seems harsh, especially considering his "supposed" victim had no problem with what he was doing - other than the fact he didn't patronise her establishment and his crime was prosecuted as a misdemeanour rather than a felony. Donna May, the owner of the Ru-Union Street Cafe, was far from aggrieved at Peterson's supposed theft of Wi-Fi service.
"I didn't know it was really illegal, either," she told WOOD Tv. "If he would have come in [to the coffee shop], it would have been fine." ®