Is stealing a dsl connection a bad thing if the neighbors around you leave thier wireless router open?

    Seems like a pretty simple question.  If you're the kind of person that looks at the telephone pole behind your house and thinks that splicing into the cable line is not a crime then we know where you stand. 

    On the other hand, if your that neighbor who one day gets static on his cable tv set but is to afraid to call the cable company because you have a illegal cable box in your house then where do your ethics stand. After hiding the illegal cable box in the trunk of your car, you call the cable company out and when it's discovered that your weak signal wasn't due to the pirate box but due to your neighbor stealing the signal from the telephone junction box you get pissed. 

    Then one day while working in the front yard some dude in a white van pulls up, and as you prepare to kick some ass because you think your going to be abducted that guy asks if your name is so and so.  You say Yes, and relax some.  He pulls out an envelope and tells you that you are being served.  Hands you an envelope and jumps back into his white courier abductor van and speeds away.

    You open the envelope up and guess what, your being sued for file sharing copyrighted material over the internet.   You make some calls and discover that you been steaming the next rough cut of the new Star Wars film.  And Mr Lucas is not happy with you.  Not to mention 20th Century Fox.  So you end up losing your house in the lawsuit, because the only defense you have is "It wasn't me" like an old Eddie Murphy bit.

    It makes a great story.  But I know for a fact that someone I know is reading this on an open unencrypted linksys dsl/cable router.  And not just one, he lives in a condo complex where he can pick up 3 of these open connections if need be.  Does he feel he's breaking the law?  Nope.  He is the LAW.  Nobody is going to tell him what to do. 

    Of course I'm jealous, I'm paying 40 bones a month for my dsl, and he's lifting it for free.  I've already checked my neighborhood and there is a few wireless connections, but they have poor signal strength.   Of course I have a wireless router, but my shit is encrypted and secure. Or so I thought. The other day I had a close call.

    I was checking my DHCP client list on my router when I noticed some leach was snatching my wireless connection.  My laptop was off so I knew it wasn't me.  So I went outside.  Walked out to the sidewalk and started screaming.  "Which mother fucker is stealing from me!!  Stop Leaching and buy your own connection!!  I'll find out who you are!  You're not the LAW, so I'm not going to let you steal from me!!  If you got a problem, email me at my website www.thagierk.com  But for now I'm going to cut you off!!"  I lifted my jug of wine by the small pinky handle and took another swig and proceeded to walk back inside.  Went into my shack (that's a ham radio term) and was just about to block that LAN IP when it occurred to my that my TiVo has a wireless USB card attached to it.  That was the guilty party, it was me.  I quickly poured my Carlo Rossi sauce down the kitchen sink, then walked outside to talk the two police officers that a neighbor snitch had called out.  But being that it was 2am and I was a bit tanked, the cops had no idea what dhcp meant or dsl stealing was.  Said that if someone stole something I should call the police and feel out a report, not go outside and accuse my neighbors of stealing.  What the fuck are the talking about?  So to answer my own questing leaching/biting into another persons wireless connection is NOT A CRIME.

    However, if you see these two clowns walking around your condo complex, double check the encryption off your wireless router.