War.....Living???

Hey guys,

As the economy worsens and my pockets continue to drain, I find myself in a dilemma of the moral kind.

We all love the internet, the wonderful things you can learn and find, like dirty pictures of just about anybody, and that crazy home video of some douchebag doing just about anything that’s just a few clicks away; but when you’re strapped for cash, that 50 bucks a month seems like an awful lot just to check my emails and post both genius and madness on this awesome forum.

I don’t know if everyone here is familiar with “War Driving”, but it’s a term used to describe those people who sit in their cars outside of hotels and various other hotspots to steal wireless internet right out of the thin blue sky.

Well, a good friend of mine hooked me up with a wireless receiver and I found that if I hooked it up to my home computer, there were several wireless networks floating around my house and a select few were unprotected networks (fools! ) that I can connect to and therefore use the internet for free.

It’s been working pretty well for a couple weeks now. I’ve even gone ahead and cancelled my subscription from optimum and am now War LIVING.

Therein lies the moral debate: Is this wrong? Is this an offense, karmicly speaking, for which I will have to pay? If it is floating invisibly through the air, should I not just reach out and GRAB it!? Am I really beating the system, and how long will I be riding this silver-lined cloud?

I mean, realistically, I am saving myself $50 a month, which is a big deal when you are as poor as me, so I’m probably NOT gonna stop hijacking free internet from my neighbors, but I’d love to hear your thoughts just the same.

AAaaaaannnndd….begin……

This is a good question because it is out there for the grabbing. When I move into a new place, I HOPE it has internet for me to steal. It's kind of a collective understanding I have with those around me that if they have it, so do it. Conversely, if I'm the last man standing and I have to pony up the $50 a month, I'm not putting a security key on it. It's a give and take. Sometimes you're on the give, but hopefully you're on the take.

What are you taking anyway? Space? Air? If you can't see it, you can't own it.

Even if you're karmically at risk, you should keep it up because we would miss you louise!!

I think you're totally cool. It's not like the old days where people are paying for a certain amount of bandwidth or time, so you're not costing anybody anything.

If your neighbor killed a boar and whatever he doesn't eat is going to go rotten in a couple days anyway, I think he'd invite you to pull up a plate.

I would think twice before setting up an all weekend download spree or anything that could slow your host down (ya parasite!) too much, but you know, that's just me.

this sounds suspiciously like the 80's when people used to get that little box to steal cable with. thank you lord for fraggle rock!!!! it was not wrong then and this "war living" is not wrong now. its always been up to the general public to push limits and break the rules that really don't matter. especially the rules that don't hurt anyone and are only in place to protect intangible "property". this is the same type of reason that solar and wind power have not been made viable because they are items readily available to be "stolen" by people that are one step ahead of the system. the government and those that regulate these types of commodities must realize that when ultimate control is their goal, they must be prepared to be shown just how impossible this is by a clever minority of opportunistic citizens.
oh btw i realize that i used "quotes" three times in this post. see my next post...........

this makes me wonder how many of my neighbors are stealing my internet cause my wireless seems to be the only one available according to my computer and i live in a rather large apartment complex. i can't be the only one with wireless internet.

They're just borrowing it