Forget the Ethicist

When I started writing this entry, I had an annoying little ethical conundrum on my hands. You see, I was typing this entry from my dining room table using a wireless network that can best be described as, well, not mine. It seems one of my neighbours has set up a wireless router but had neglected to enforce MAC address access restriction. Put more simply, he/she had been nice/ignorant enough to share his internet connection with all of his/her neighbours. Eventhough I enjoyed this gesture of goodwill, I felt like I was standing (or sitting, as it were) on shakey ethical ground, so I decided to go see what Randy Cohen (aka the Ethicist) at the NYT had to say about this.
 
I was relieved to learn that Randy believes the use of "free" WIFI access points is okay, concluding his article (NYT registration required) by saying "...you may use but not overuse Wi-Fi hot spots you encounter." Well if the NYT's Ethicist says it's okay, it must be okay, right? Wrong. When I pushed the "Publish Post" button  I was directed to an error message. It turned out my neighbour had somehow become aware of his unwitting generosity and decided to pull the plug on his pseudo-public service. The gig was up; The party was over.
 
So much for trying to reason (read weasel) my way around ethical infractions by using bogus logic, backed by pseudo-ethicists like Randy Cohen.
 
 
Your Favorite (wired) Jerk