Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm afraid I disagree. The fact that someone leaves the front door of their house standing open doesn't make it legal for other people to go into that house and use the owner's possessions without their permission. No more does the fact that a WiFi network is unsecured make it legal to use it without permission.
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I don't argue that. However, as the owner, it is your responsibility to close your front door, and no one else's. Also, if you had something in your house that was illegal for someone else to possess... say, a firearm, or in the case of a minor, a bottle of alcohol... and that someone came in and took them, you could be liable for allowing them to easily gain access to something they were not supposed to have, even as they were breaking the law by taking them.
In the U.S., it would be analogous to an adult buying alcohol and giving some to a minor: The adult was not wrong in buying the booze, but in giving it to a minor, the minor broke the law (by drinking it) and the adult broke the law. In cases where minors have drunken booze from their parents' cupboard, the parents have been held liable for making booze available to minors (a prosecution rarely pursued, except in cases of injury, property damage or worse).
I see securing your own network as a matter of protecting yourself from liability, with the understanding that failing to secure could leave you open to prosecution as an unwitting accessory of sorts to the crime.