Virtual Shoplifting?

Via Orin Kerr over at Volokh comes an unusual case of computer crime from a small town in Michigan:

Each day around lunch time, Sam Peterson would drive to the Union Street Café, park his car and--without actually entering the coffee shop--check his e-mail and surf the Net. His ritual raised the suspicions of Police Chief Andrew Milanowski, who approached him and asked what he was doing. Peterson, probably not realizing that his actions constituted a crime, freely admitted what he was doing.

‘I knew that the Union Street had Wi-Fi. I just went down and checked my e-mail and didn't see a problem with that,’ Peterson told a WOOD reporter.

Police, who didn’t initially cite or arrest Peterson but “had a feeling a law was being broken,” did some research and found that Michigan’s “unauthorized access” statute applies to piggybacking on a Wi-Fi network. As Orin points out, Michigan’s statutes appears to be fairly odd, if not unique, in presuming that access is unauthorized. As Orin also points out, such a presumption is most likely unconstitutional. Beyond that, there seems to be a serious question as to whether Peterson’s actions were really criminal. The owner of the café doesn’t appear to think so:

Indeed, neither did Donna May, the owner of the Union Street Café. ‘I didn't know it was really illegal, either,’ she told the TV station. ‘If he would have come in (to the coffee shop), it would have been fine.’

The moral of the story – be wary of where you tap into “free” wi-fi!