Theft in a wireless world |
| |
| Authors: | Luc Small |
| |
| Institution: | (1) Philosophy Program, School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, The Australian National University, AD Hope Building (14), Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia |
| |
| Abstract: | I explore philosophically the phenomenon of home wireless networks as used to share broadband Internet connections. Because
such networks are frequently unsecured, third parties can use them to access the Internet. Here I consider carefully whether
this kind of behaviour should be properly called theft. I begin with a brief non-technical introduction to 802.11 wireless
networks. Subsequently, I present a four part argument – appealing to the unsecured nature of the networks discussed, entrenched
software and hardware behaviours, trespass law, and the openness of ‹public park’ spectrum – suggesting that this kind of
behaviour is permissible and should not be construed as theft. Substantively, I conclude that, despite the quite compelling
considerations that these arguments bring to bear, this behaviour is theft. Additionally, I draw attention to significant flaws in the design and implementation of wireless technology (specifically
in the out-of-the-box configuration for wireless access points and in the wireless connectivity of early versions of Windows
XP) that facilitate the intentional and unintentional theft of Internet bandwidth. I suggest some simple mechanisms that could
be incorporated into the technology which would serve to remove the ethical ambiguity in its usage by third parties, including
adding the ability for a network owner to explicitly mark her network as not for public use,␣and changes to default hardware
and software behaviours. I conclude by encouraging increased use of value-sensitive design practices in the development of
future wireless technologies. |
| |
| Keywords: | 802 11 broadband ethics internet morality network theft value WEP wireless WPA |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
