A new issue that involves technology is developing and might require legal steps. Internet users are piggybacking onto their neighbors’ wireless service providers. The original subscriber pays a monthly fee for the service, but without security, those located in the area are able to tap into the wireless network. They bog down the speed of the service. Piggybacking is the term applied to the unauthorized tapping into someone else’s wireless Internet connection. Once limited to geeks and hackers, the practice is now common among the ordinary folk who just want free Internet service.

One college student said, “I don’t think it’s stealing. I always find people out there who arent protecting their connection, so I just feel free to go ahead and use it” According to a recent survey, only about 30% of the 4,500 wireless networks onto which the surveyors logged were encrypted.

Another apartment dweller said she leaves her connection wide open because “I’m sticking it to the man. I open up my network, leave it wide open for anyone to jump on.’
One of the users of another’s wireless network said, “I feel sort of bad about it, but I do it anyway. It just seems harmless.” She said that if she gets caught, “I’m a grandmother.
They’re not going to yell at an old lady. I'll just play the dumb card.”
Some neighbors ask those with wireless service if they can pay them in exchange for their occasional use rather than paying a wireless company for full-blown service. But the original subscribers do not really want to run their own Internet service.

Discussion Questions 1, What do you think of the statements of the users?

2. Apply Kant’s theory to this situation to determine what his rule would be.

3. What will happen if enough neighbors piggyback on their neighbors’ wireless access?

4. In 1833, Victorian economist William Forster Lloyd used a hypothetical example in an essay on the effects of unregulated grazing on what was called “the commons” in England—areas available for public use. Although it was in everyone's best interest to keep the commons green and going, overuse caused its destruction. Does this theory apply to Wi-Fi piggybacking? Can you explain your answer?