A $150,000 speeding ticket and a WiFi fine in Finland
This can not be right? But it is. Perhaps a little bit off topic but for sure very interesting. In Finland fines are issued according to your salary. The more you make, the more you pay. Fair? Exceeding the speedlimit by 22 km/h will cost you 6 days of income. If you are a high rolling executive, as in this case, that may come up to $150k.
Another Finish guy got a fine worth 8 days of income because he was internetting using his neighbors WiFi connection. The poor guy, a computer programmer by the way, said he had no clue he was using that connection. Piggybacking on the neighbor’s WiFi does not sound like a big deal but is illegal. How does it get detected if you just enjoy the ride? In 2007 a man in Cedar Springs, Mich., was fined $400 for mooching off somebody else’s wi-fi–a police officer spotted him laptop-surfing in a parked car. Apparently that violates Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47 of the United States Code, which covers anybody who “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access.” If we see the Cedar Spring case as the equivalent of a Finnish 8 day fine this man makes $50 a day. It’s (again) all about the money.
http://www.globalmotors.net/finnish-millionaire-gets-111888-euro-speeding-ticket/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelessfaqs/f/legal_free_wifi.htm
http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/3634573/__Boete_voor_surfen_op_netwerk_buren__.html?p=14,2
