| reply to grandpinaple
TIME TO PLAY:
"Whos fault is it"
a popular game amongst American lawyers. This is the BBR Forum version so we are without the normal playing field consisting of a lavish all wood panelling hollywood set, lots of suits, a stuffy black robe, bibles, bailiffs, etc and so forth.
The dilemma: I bought a brand new STIHL brand chainsaw. I figured i didn't have one so i probably needed one because i hear the guy in the apt below me has one. I didn't even know what it looked like until i got it out of the box. Now Ive accidentally cut off my wife head with it. Its time to play: WHO'S FAULT IS IT?
every one at home in our voting audience, grab your buzzers, is it A: Stihl Inc for making this unsafe device. B: Stihl Inc. for not including "WARNING: you might cut your wife head off" notice. or C: My wife for standing there?
Hmmmm
The Airspace and the electromagnetic spectrum specifically the small bands that are utilized by wireless networking devices are theoretically governed (not owned) by the FCC. They have decreed you are responsible for what to transmit and or receive.
It is illegal for me to RECEIVE cell phone conversations not intended for me whether they cross my property or not.
It is illegal for me to TRANSMIT anything in the 20-20000 Hz range in most municipalities if it can be detected leaving my residence after 10 o'clock or my car at any time. We can easily define these legal violations of signal.
But what if my neighbor's music is enjoyable. Is it theft of services if i sit on my back porch and enjoy the soft melodies of Queensryche or Metallica serenely wafting in from the next door window. I didn't pay for those waves. I also didn't pay for the album. I guess that's not a service I'm stealing. ok what about the electricity it takes to power it.
How about me working on my car using the light from the neighbors flood light that spills in to my back yard. Is that stealing. What if the flood light is motion sensitive, and, had I not been continuously setting it off, it would not have been on. Is it stealing then. What if it was a normal light but he never had it on so i quietly turned it on without his knowledge and used the light, is it stealing then?
WHO CARES?
Don't steal! that's the bottom line.
You know if your stealing. they used to say if you have to hide it it's wrong. NOT TRUE. I masturbate. I hide it. Its not wrong. Stealing is wrong. If you abuse the common courtesy of others your a turd. The guy at work that eats three of the dozen doughnuts that were brought for everyone is a jerk, not a thief just not a very courteous person. The guy who takes the last six out to his car to take home and feed his pet savanna monitor named Ruprickt is a thief. unless he did so at the end of the day after everyone had all the doughnuts they wanted. But what if the janitor counted on those doughnuts to feed his grandmothers forty seven cats, otherwise they might eat the old lady while he is at work. then the first guy is sort of a thief, after all the janitor is no more entitled to those doughnuts than any body.
Ok now I've hopefully shown how much time we can waste arguing and not getting to Albuquerque. Lets agree on a few things.
A. Stealing is wrong - we all do it from time to time.
B. Downloading copyrighted material without....is stealing (refer to A) - many of us do it or have done it.
C. If the purpose of your borrowing bandwidth is for B than your stealing. plain and simple.
D. I have borrowed bandwidth. All the activities I did on such borrowed time were legal. I knew the neighbor but never told him. I have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life. I think i can handle it.
E. If you have the resources to purchase and use technology, especially complicated radio transmitting equipment you have a responsibility to learn how to protect yourself and others from the many hidden dangers (or hire someone to do it)
F. Lock your S**T up!
G. Devil's Advocate: I had a neighbor who left his network unsecured and kind of waited like a Venus fly trap for unsuspecting leaches to connect, then slowly closed his sinister cyber-jaws on them. So to all my fellow leaches beware.
AND Lastly,
H. If you don't want to share your band width with the whole class, then keep it at home!
My network is not secure but I'm not complaining about being exploited. In fact I got the damn thing set up so wide open its like a flashing NEON sign saying OPEN, and it still took four hours for my friend to get his laptop to connect (I blame poor upbringing). If leaches become a problem than Ill turn on the MAC filter again. Until then I'm just returning the service to those who may be in the situation I was when i had to leach. But hey, if you don't want people to steal your 'precious' than you do something about it. I definitely don't want you telling me at what level my security should be set. Just like i don't want you telling me to put bars on my windows. If you wanna live in a jail go right ahead. In this country you are free to make your network so secure no-one could crack it. but you also have the right to STFU and let me operate at the level of security I feel comfortable with. Many people seem so preoccupied with finding the next thing to worry about and making sure we all stress about it. you can give yourself a coronary worrying, but don't give me one!
WOW did I type all that? OK I'll shut up now. |
| When I first set up my wireless network with my LinkSys router, I called their techs for some assistance getting our laptop connected to the secure system. The tech's answer? Unsecure it.
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