Employment law experts warn after Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, was fined 500 and given a 12 months conditional discharge this week for using a wireless broadband connection with his laptop.

He was charged with dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service.

Neil Gouldson, head of employment at national law firm Rowe Cohen, said:

"Employers must make sure that employees with company laptops know that piggybacking a wireless network that householders are using is illegal and that they can be prosecuted under sections 125 and 126 of the Communications Act 2003. Allowing employees to access illegal material by using a laptop for purposes other than work leaves businesses open to all sorts of risks. HR departments must draw up strict policies on the use of laptops and issue guidelines to staff on what is and what is not acceptable."

[This conviction is problematic for several reasons: (1) in many cases it is not obvious which WLAN your notebook connects to. Ordinary users can not be expected to be able to tell (2) it is often difficult to tell whether a network is left open as an invitation, e.g. if it is run by a community group providing free connectivity. This kind of prosecution could ruin that type of very positive initiatives (3) the rule should be that unsecured WLANs are let open on purpose as an invitation. The provider is not normally penalised in any way by others using their WLAN connection. Open WLAN connectivity is win-win and it is the way things move. If WLAN operators want to shut out external users they should carry the onus of securing their connections.

In this case the person in question actively looked for an open connection so (1) above doesn't apply. In any event this is not a behaviour that should be criminalised, and this is a very harsh sentence. --Ed.]

Related links: (Open in a new window.)
www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/uk_war_driver_fined/
www.rowecohen.com

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