I have to agree with Delta Farce on this. If you read up on the laws surrounding "computer trespass" and "computer eavesdropping", they are written to favor the owner of the network - even if he is a complete idiot.

Put another way - if the LMNO Corporation hooks up a T-1 *directly* to their office LAN .... no firewall, no nothing .... do you think it's legal to start poking around on their internal network? Whether you like the answer or not, I can tell you what the legal perspective is -- NO.

Even something as simple as a port scan can be deemed as illegal depending on how you interpret the current laws. Trust me, I work in the ISP industry - we're quite familiar with this stuff.

We could debate forever the semantics of this forever (i.e. "But if they have a web server they're inviting people to access their network in some way") but the laws are clear - they are written to favor the network owners, because some network owners will be idiots and won't know how to secure things. So the law must favor them (the owner) over you (an unwelcome outsider).

Delta is definitely right -- if you're going to play the game, know the rules...

-Toomer