03-11-2005, 10:17 AM
Hi,
Moving away from the mabye faulty metaphor my point is that, stealing WLAN bandwidth most probably costs someone else's money and is morally equivalent to stealing.
Some time ago at a party, someone told a story where she went into an IKEA store, bought a carpet and managed to smuggle out a second carpet "for free" by enveloping it into the one she paid for. Nobody perceived this as "wrong", just the opposite - she was praised for her cleverness! Nobody (including me) pointed out to her that it was simple thievery she had done.
I guess it's because it's stealing from somebody you don't know personally - an impersonal IKEA store, the impersonal music industry, the anonymous WLAN user in your anonymous apartment complex. But it's still wrong in my book, and a slippery slope as well, so I didn't want to let this go without saying something.
-Kylearan
Munkay,Mar 9 2005, 06:51 PM Wrote:On a less silly note; I understand your intentions but I think your metaphor doesn't really fit the situation.If he doesn't steal the car but only takes it for a ride, I think my analogy holds. He's costing the owner money (cost for gas/bandwidth), and might cause annoying inconvenience (the car is gone when owner needs it/bandwidth is used when user needs it).
Moving away from the mabye faulty metaphor my point is that, stealing WLAN bandwidth most probably costs someone else's money and is morally equivalent to stealing.
Quote:Sure it's bad, but in my view there's much worse out there to spend time worrying about.Murder is of course worse than that, but what I'm worrying about is the growing apathy and acceptance of (small) crimes like this in the population. It's not only the fact that people steal bandwidth/music/movies/you name it, it's also very often the case that these people don't see it as "something wrong", but have the attitude that "if people fail to protect their property, it's their fault", together with "it's cool as long as the chances of me being caught are slim" - which I find worrying.
Some time ago at a party, someone told a story where she went into an IKEA store, bought a carpet and managed to smuggle out a second carpet "for free" by enveloping it into the one she paid for. Nobody perceived this as "wrong", just the opposite - she was praised for her cleverness! Nobody (including me) pointed out to her that it was simple thievery she had done.
I guess it's because it's stealing from somebody you don't know personally - an impersonal IKEA store, the impersonal music industry, the anonymous WLAN user in your anonymous apartment complex. But it's still wrong in my book, and a slippery slope as well, so I didn't want to let this go without saying something.
-Kylearan
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider