Man punished for using open Wi-Fi network

Boing Boing is reporting on a man who faced up to 5 years in jail for sitting outside a cafe in Michigan, using an open wifi access point.  The "39-year-old toolmaker, volunteer firefighter and secretary of a bagpipe band, wanted to use his 30-minute lunch hour to check e-mails for his bagpipe group."

Crime in this Michigan town must be pretty low is law-enforcement is arresting people for stuff like this.  While I'm for prosecuting people for using open access points to break the law like malicious hacking and child porn (the targets of laws like this), this is ridiculous.

Beware all you roaming missionaries on speaking tours!  Checking your mail at that unencrypted hotspot may land you in the slammer.

 

FoxNews story here.