There's a story making the rounds about a man in Alaska who was arrested, apparently for sitting in a car outside a library using their wifi after hours. You can find the story in the Alaska Journal and commentary at librarian.net and engadget.com. The story raises questions about appropriate use of public wifi, how that is/should be policed, and the place of libraries in providing public wifi. Got any thoughts? Please do share!
2 Comments
Sparta man fined and sentenced to community service for piggybacking
by Andy on Tue May 22 2007 at 05:02 AM
Extract: "He'll pay a $400 fine and do 40 hours of community service, but it will not go on his record." Article: http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=6546307
I've Done It
by Nathan on Wed Dec 10 2008 at 05:50 PM
Last year, I had to spend some time in Muskegon waiting for my wife who works in Kalamazoo. While waiting I decided to go to the library to kill some time, having my laptop with me and knowing they had wi-fi seemed like an ideal situation for me. I got there about 4:45pm and was promptly kicked out because apparently, they close at 5, which is absolutely ridiculous but that's Muskegon's problem, not mine. Afterwards, still really having no place to go, I simply sat on the steps of the library and continued to do what I was doing online with no problem. An officer did walk by and ask what I was doing, when I explained it, he seemed to accept my response and continued to walk on. I didn't feel I was doing anything illegal, a public library is a service to the community and while not a member of the community directly, I was simply using their service as it was intended - for access to the Internet. Based on the above story, however, it appears as if the police first asked the individual to leave on the previous night - calling it trespassing, which is of course, a whole other crime.
