Jason Kottke talks about stealing bandwidth on a recent trip like it’s no big issue. Is it a big issue? To me, stealing someone’s bandwidth is just as much stealing as anything else. You intentionally deprive them of the bandwidth and, once used, you can’t give that back. You don’t know how that bandwidth is billed, either.

The closest analogy I can think of is seeing that someone has left their front door ajar, going into their house unnoticed and helping yourself to water from the tap. Is that such a big crime? Probably not, but how would you feel about someone sneaking into your house and doing that?

I should imagine the attitude would be different if the shoe was on the other foot. (what a weird expression that is).

Footnote: I’m not judging Kottke for his actions – I just think it raises an interesting issue.
Further footnote: re-reading Kottke’s post, I’m not certain whether the open network was left open intentionally or not. Either way, as I said, I’m not judging anyone here…