Have you ever “borrowed” access to someone else’s Wi-Fi network? Industry estimates are that up to 32% of people who use computers have tried to get on a wireless network that was not theirs, at one time or another. In and of itself, this is a minor infraction, more a commentary on the general decline of civility and good manners in our society than anything else.
Yet, in the case of a defendant named Richard Stanley, his choice to use someone else’s Wi-Fi without permission has given rise to an interesting series of Fourth Amendment legal issues as his prosecution for possession of child pornography proceeds forward in federal court in Pittsburgh.