Dave Howorth wrote:
Per wrote:
what about your/your employers liability wrt possible criminal use of your wifi? A freeloader downloading child-pornography,
The person doing it would be committing an offence but would the company (as long as they didn't know about it)?
No, there would be no 'Mens Rea' on the companies part unless there was evidence of conspiracy between the company and the person doing it (such as evidence that the company was a knowing facilitator or access for that purpose). I am not away of any 'strict liability' statutes covering open wireless in the US. A relatively similar example where strict liability would apply would be a situation where a parent negligently allowed a child access to a gun and then the child kills them self or someone else. Here the parent would obviously be an "unknowing facilitator" but would still be strictly liable for the death or injury under a number of state laws covering the securing of firearms. (not in all 50 states, but somewhere around 1/2) So in the case of the company and the wireless, it would take a statutory change that requires the securing of open wireless connection before liability could apply because securing open wireless connections certainly isn't a creature of common-law. Cheers David! -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org