[ale] wireless at Starbucks

[Jim Kinney]

On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 11:26 PM, Sean <drifter at oppositelock.org> wrote:

> On Sunday 08 June 2008 10:20:23 pm Jim Kinney wrote:
> > My wireless router is completely unlocked. I was the first person in my
> > neighborhood to have wireless (and ISDN and DSL, and...) and I set it up
> > so anyone nearby could sit outside with their laptop and the the
> > Intertubes. Why? Because I can.
>
> Ah, yes. You can.
> But if your neighbor starts downloading kiddie pr0n using your unlocked
> wireless, the cops are going to come looking for you and not him. It is
> your computers they will carry away (absolutely all of them). It is you
> they will harass for weeks and weeks, not him. The cops are absolutely nutz
> on this issue and seem to go around like the proverbial bull in the china
> shop hunting for the preverts. On this issue you are absolutely guilty
> until you can prove yourself innocent.


Actually I already had a run-in with this issue. A machine got hacked in my
labs at Emory and was then used as a kiddie porn relay site. I found out the
situation, unplugged the NIC (forceably!) and alerted the authorities
(locals, Emory, GBI and FBI). No one wanted anything to do with it. No one
wanted the hard drives with incriminating evidence that could be use to
track down the source of the stuff. Another blow against my utopian vision
of what this place was promised to be when I was in school.

I have absolutely no concern whatsoever about some neighborhood freeloader
using my free wireless to download kiddie pr0n. They can do the same at
Starbucks. It's not the intermediate points the police chase but the final
download spot and the source. If the cops have the smarts to tell that
someone is downloading that stuff from the Internet side and can trace it
back to my gateway
1. I'd be damned impressed with their new found 'puter skilz
2. I'd still not give a crap because my proxy logs show the trail to a
non-local machine MAC
3. I'd still be able to show that if it is a neighbor, what WAP they
normally use based on MAC and thus they have login credentials elsewhere
tying a user to a machine.

I stubbornly refuse to let my life be ruled by the fear that others want to
promulgate in the name of saving our children, patriotism, religion or any
other structured brain-washing pile of horse poo.


But I appreciate your concern. :-)


>
> Sean
>
>
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>



-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
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