Is it possible to steal Wi-Fi signals? Brief analysis of the crime of theft and its possibility of encompassing Wireless Fidelity signals

Abstract

The author addresses the question of whether the act of “theft” of other people’s Wireless Fidelity or Wifi signals can be considered a crime as established in article 185 of the Peruvian Penal Code. Based on a conception of the legal good protected by this crime as patrimonial freedom, that is, the ability to dispose of one’s own property, he argues that the Wifi signal can be subject to protection according to the aforementioned criminal type. However, it maintains that its punishability should not be automatic in all cases, but should depend on the ability to quantify the harm caused to the taxpayer. In situations where said damage cannot be valued, it advocates the application of the principle of insignificance to exclude the punishability of the acts in question.