'Legal' WiFi hacking?

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Dutch Court Rules WiFi Hacking Is Now Legal
By Loek Essers, webwereld.nl-    Mar 18, 2011 6:05 pm

Breaking in to an encrypted router and using the WiFi connection is
not an criminal offence, a Dutch court ruled. WiFi hackers can not be
prosecuted for breaching router security.

A court in The Hague ruled earlier this month that it is legal to
break WiFi security to use the internet connection. The court also
decided that piggybacking on open WiFi networks in bars and hotels can
not be prosecuted. In many countries both actions are illegal and
often can be fined.

The ruling is linked to a case of a student who threatened to shoot
down everyone at the Maerlant College in The Hague, a high school. He
posted a threat on the internet message board 4chan.org using a WiFi
connection that he broke into. The student was convicted for posting
the message and sentenced to 20 hours of community service, but he was
acquitted of the WiFi hacking charges.

The Judge reasoned that the student didn't gain access to the computer
connected to the router, but only used the routers internet
connection. Under Dutch law breaking in to a computer is forbidden.

A computer in The Netherlands is defined as a machine that is used for
three things: the storage, processing and transmission of data. A
router can therefore not be described as a computer because it is only
used to transfer or process data and not for storing bits and bytes.
Hacking a device that is no computer by law is not illegal, and can
not be prosecuted, the court concluded.

If a secure WiFi connection is hacked or an open network is used for
WiFi leeching, the action could be tried under civil law, said
criminal lawyer Mathieu van Linde of Blokzijl Advocaten . The ruling
led to some controversy in The Netherlands. Van Linde found the
verdict "remarkable". He reckoned that most people from The
Netherlands assume hacking a WiFi network is illegal. He also added
that the law used by the court in this case was formed in the early
nineties, and could be outdated, since it was not intended to cover
WiFi networks.

The Dutch attorney general decided to appeal the verdict. Within two
years the case will be reviewed by the High Court of The Netherlands
that will decide if a router can be defined as a computer under Dutch
law.

Hacking or even 'piggybacking' on an open WiFi connection is illegal
in a wide variety of nations. In some states in the US unauthorized
access of a network is an criminal offense, in other states
piggybacking can be fined. WiFi leechers in the UK can be fined or
arrested, depending on the intentions of the leecher.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/222589/dutch_court_rules_wifi_hacking_is_now_legal.html

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