Hop on My Bandwidth

HOP ON MY BANDWIDTH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee, Show-Me Institute]
[Commentary] Millions of homes now have wireless Internet networks, and many of them are not protected by passwords. "Piggybacking" occurs when someone -- a next-door neighbor or a stranger parked across the street -- finds an open network and logs on. Should we be worried about this? No, to the contrary, the increasing ubiquity of free wireless Internet access is something to celebrate. There are also perfectly legitimate reasons to borrow access. What's definitely not needed is legislation. People already have the tools they need to control their networks; we just need to do a better job of teaching people how to use them. If Internet service providers object to piggybacking, they already have the option to sue their customers for violating their terms of service, but that's between the provider and its customers. The piggybacker doesn't know whether his host is breaking the provider's terms of service. Personally, I think sharing your connection is just being a good neighbor. Think of it as the 21st century equivalent of lending a cup of sugar.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/opinion/16lee.html
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