Legal Status Of Accessing Internet Over An Unsecured Wifi Network?

[fxm88]

Hello. Does anyone know the legal status of accessing the Internet via someon else's unsecured wireless access point (i.e. open wi-fi) in Thailand? It appears to be legal in some places, illegal in others, but in most places its just a grey area of the law. No ethical discussions please, we can find plenty of that elsewhere -- I'm just looking for the facts. Thanks!

[george]

Do you steal water and electricity from your neighbours as well?

[sbk]

Snap!

[Maestro]

Does anyone know the legal status of accessing the Internet via someon else's unsecured wireless access point (i.e. open wi-fi) in Thailand?

If the wireless access point gets shut down while you are in the middle of an important transaction and as a result you suffer a great financial loss, you have no legal right to claim compensation from the owner or operator of the access point. The same is true if the owner/operator hacks into your computer and causes you any damage or financial loss.

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Maestro

[astral]

Do you steal water and electricity from your neighbours as well?

The Thais do.

I have seen cables from the house straight to the pole outside, no meter.

Water pipes connected without a meter.

If you leave your door open you must expect people to just wander in.

Always secure your wireless network, to protect your bandwidth and own computer.

[solo siam]

Do you steal water and electricity from your neighbours as well?

If it was going through my house and bouncing through my head I would do.

If its just a one off thing, I'm sure its OK - If you are going to be using it a lot it may be worth talking to the network owner and coming to some arrangement.

[lomatopo]

My completely uninformed guess would be that for unlicensed (100 milliwatt or less transmission power; i.e. most residential/consumer WiFi Access Point and Bluetooth technology) WiFi and BlueTooth networks it would not be illegal to transmit and recieve WiFi signals between any AP and any endpoint. This pretty much happens automatically, and what's "in the air, and unlicensed" is generally free for open access.

Once you use that connection to transition to the other person's ethernet and then broadband networks you are certainly getting into gray, and, in my opinion, black/white areas. I can't say for sure that there are criminal/civil/privacy statutes specifically covering WiFi here in Thailand (I imagine there are not) but I think anyone would consider it illegal to consume another person's broadband bandwidth (anything begining at the customer/service provider interface), i.e. stealing bandwidth for which they pay. It is the same as tapping in to their cable/satellite TV, electricity, fixed telephone line, water supply with the intention of consuming services without paying for them, so to the extent that there are statutes covering the theft of "utility services", I imagine these could easily be interpreted to cover broadband bandwidth.

[chingching]

It is the same as tapping in to their cable/satellite TV, electricity, fixed telephone line, water supply with the intention of consuming services without paying for them,

I would say it is most certainly not the same thing. With electric or water you would have to physically tap into their line. What if his neighbor was shooting water into his house with a house? Would he be obligated to return ALL the water. What if he used some of the water to clean up the mess? Would he have to pay the neighbor for the water used? The neighbor has to take some responsibility for his own security and privacy. Obviously the neighbor would not run electrical outlets or phone jacks beyond the boundaries of his property, if he sends radio signals beyond that line, I think it becomes public property. What if the neighbor never puts shades or blinds on his windows? Could he then be mad at passers-by that look in?

I think you're morally on high ground. If you cause him some "damage" it might be a good wake-up call for him, before some body with malicious intent tapped into his wi-fi.

[lomatopo]

I would say it is most certainly not the same thing. With electric or water you would have to physically tap into their line.

It was my subtle observation that once you have accessed the "network side" (the interface between the WiFi and local ethernet and/or the interface between ethernet and broadband (e. g. ADSL), you will have "physically tapped in to their line" with the intent of stealing bandwidth. Up until such time everything seems both legal and ethical, to me anyway.

Additional questions...

Would it be OK for you to manipulate the other person's network equipment, by using the default username and password to access the device's management software (i.e. forward ports)?

Would it be OK for you to access information stored on the other person's network/PC's?

Is it acceptable to download files from the other person's PC over the WiFi connection?

Could you tell other people about this network access? Could you charge them a one-time or recurring fee to access this other network?

[Crushdepth]

A complication with hooking into an unsecured network is that you don't know whether the owners mind or not. Some people do leave their WIFI open as a public service, although most are simply ignorant, lazy, stupid, or some combination of the above. Whether it is actually legal or not in Thailand I don't know, however you are definitely exposing yourself to (a small) risk if you are seen to be damaging or abusing it, intentionally or otherwise.

Additional questions...

Would it be OK for you to manipulate the other person's network equipment, by using the default username and password to access the device's management software (i.e. forward ports)?

Absolutely not. If the device has a password restriction on it, even if its a default, then you must assume that the owner has made (an admittedly lame) attempt to secure it. The presence of a password indicates that the owner does not welcome visitors.

Would it be OK for you to access information stored on the other person's network/PC's?

Absolutely not. Ever heard of invading privacy?

Is it acceptable to download files from the other person's PC over the WiFi connection?

Absolutely not. Apart from being a blatant invasion of privacy, this is data theft, ie. stealing, and is almost certainly illegal.

Could you tell other people about this network access? Could you charge them a one-time or recurring fee to access this other network?

Tell them, yes. Charge them...are you out of your mind? Charging people to use someone *else's* network which is open (intentionally or not) to casual use anyway?

One other thing you might want to consider is how the owner will react if you are caught screwing around with their network, downloading their private files and messing around with their equipment. Frankly, if I caught you doing this to my network I would make you wish that you hadn't.

[lomatopo]

Crushdepth, for the record my "additonal questions", which were both rhetorical and facetious, were directed to chingching, trying to highlight that once you've used WiFi to access network equipment lodged in someone else's property, with the intent to steal bandwidth from them, that this is the same as physically tapping into their water/electric/tv/telephone utilities, with the intent to steal those services. I was trying to determine what chingching might find acceptable; stealing bandwidth, manipulating equipment, accessing private data and stealing data.

[fxm88]

While all this speculation and analogy may be interesting -- it's not like it's been hashed over a million times in a thousand other forums or anything -- does anyone have any facts specific to the law in Thailand (or at least a reference to support your analogy)?

[Crushdepth]

Sorry I didn't reread the thread

Yes, the data theft is criminal. The rest I don't know but good luck to you if you want to test it in court.