I don't lock my car, my house or my wifi. This isn't negligence, I do it on purpose. If somebody steals my car and runs over people with it, THEY are at fault, not me. And if somebody downloads "infringing" material over my internet connection, they are at fault. I really don't understand how this could be otherwise.
Suppose I invited a friend over to my house, and while I was asleep, they taped TV movies onto my VCR. Am I the one at fault because I didn't lock up my VCR? Is there any other place in the law where I am considered at fault when somebody else breaks a law? I'm not talking about "the getaway car", but more like "the guy who parked across the street from the bank and had his car taken by the robbers".
IANAL , but this depends if we are talking about criminal or civil law.
AFAIK in a civil case there would be more onus on you to prove that you didn't know what other people were doing with your stuff.
Also this would be affected by your circumstances, so if you work in tech/IT you might have a job arguing that you didn't know that running an unsecured wireless AP was a bad idea.
> Also this would be affected by your circumstances, so if you work in tech/IT you might have a job arguing that you didn't know that running an unsecured wireless AP was a bad idea.
Pointing to a renowned security expert saying he does the same might help, though:
Suppose I invited a friend over to my house, and while I was asleep, they taped TV movies onto my VCR. Am I the one at fault because I didn't lock up my VCR? Is there any other place in the law where I am considered at fault when somebody else breaks a law? I'm not talking about "the getaway car", but more like "the guy who parked across the street from the bank and had his car taken by the robbers".