Is it stealing?

[jlewisinsyr]

Yes, it's stealing and most contracts even state that you cannot share the services provided outside the residence (WiFi - meaning with those who do not reside or are guests of the residence).

Beyond the stealing bit, sharing WiFi is IMO not the smartest thing in most cases as whoever is the account holder will be the one getting the knock at the door if someone sharing the single is downloading kiddie porn or participating in other illegal internet activity.

 

[MomofKatie]

People sharing one address/residence (like roommates sharing an apartment or house) is fine. People living on the same street and "pirating" cable or wi-fi is not OK and I consider it stealing.

 

[disney1990]

No, I do not believe it is stealing. My daughter, who is away at college, lives in a building that has 4 apts. in it. Since they had wifi, they all agreed to split the cost of their internet service. I don't see a problem.

 

[Acklander]

Yes, it is stealing but I could really care less if you want to share services, especially something that can be shared wirelessly. I'm not going to shed any tears for the ISPs or utilities.

this

 

[Acklander]

Beyond the stealing bit, sharing WiFi is IMO not the smartest thing in most cases as whoever is the account holder will be the one getting the knock at the door if someone sharing the single is downloading kiddie porn or participating in other illegal internet activity.

I don't think they could hold you responsible for someone else downloading kiddie porn on your wi-fi. If that was the case, places like McDonalds or Barnes and Noble wouldn't offer free wi-fi.
A neighbor could be "stealing" your wi-fi without you even knowing it. I would hope that law enforcement would need a little bit more to go on before you got in trouble for it.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I don't think they could hold you responsible for someone else downloading kiddie porn on your wi-fi. If that was the case, places like McDonalds or Barnes and Noble wouldn't offer free wi-fi.
A neighbor could be "stealing" your wi-fi without you even knowing it. I would hope that law enforcement would need a little bit more to go on before you got in trouble for it.

You ultimately won't be charged if there is no evidence of it on your machines, but is it worth the trouble? There is a recent case locally where they were investigating the owner of a wireless network and eventually cleared them of charges but found that a person was using their WiFi. They were dragged through the mud in the process and yes, they were innocent, but you have to ask, is it worth it?

As for large corporations that offer, most often they have their networks setup to block certain sites/ports to avoid this situation.

 

[JoiseyMom]

Sigh, my bil did this. We had the same cable company, and he was annoyed at them for some reason, but was willing to just pay for the box. So he took a cable box from us and paid us for it.

I HATED doing this and DH knew it, but the guilt and crap from mil wasn't worth it. I was SOOOOO happy when we got FIOS!! LOL... BIL is still in same town as us, but his area still doesn't have FIOS.

 

[klj27]

This reminds me of neighbors at our last house. A couple lived across from us and her parents lived two houses down. Every night before trash day the older father would wheel his trash over to his daughter's house to avoid the trash collection fee.

 

[dislal]

ok I never really thought about this as being stealing, but what if two families share garbage pick up.

We share with my mom she is single and has less than a bag a week and we have two or three bags a week which equals the four bags you are allowed so I never thought of this as stealing!

ETA: klj27 we both posted this about the same time.

 

[bicker]

Both broadband Internet service and cable television service are sold on a single-household basis. Therefore, any sharing between two households is a violation of the terms and conditions, and constitutes theft of service.

The practice of sharing cable service is also the a major reason why almost every cable channel is encrypted on almost every cable system, these days, making it much less likely that you'll be able to use your television's tuners and special features like PiP. People who steal cable like this have made things a lot more difficult for everyone else.

People should not be surprised if a similar change catches up with broadband Internet: That the practice of sharing broadband connections may eventually be a major reason why ISPs start imposing bandwidth caps more generally and more invasively, especially now that court decisions have made it clear that that is going to remain permissible.

 

[barkley]

ok I never really thought about this as being stealing, but what if two families share garbage pick up.

We share with my mom she is single and has less than a bag a week and we have two or three bags a week which equals the four bags you are allowed so I never thought of this as stealing!

ETA: klj27 we both posted this about the same time.

i don't this as stealing at all. you have a contract with your garbage company based on them taking a maximum amount of garbage per pick up. where you get that garbage does'nt matter.

we have the smallest size dumpster for our trash pickup vs. using garbage cans, we pay the same amount if the dumpster is empty at pickup vs. full. on some occasions our neighbors will have more garbage than their can holds so we let them put the overage into the dumpster. the garbage company has no problem with it.