Since legislation affecting the use of Internet-connected computers continues to broaden and increase in complexity. Tech Republic has created a list of the most recent and pending laws and rulings. You can find the list of ten here.

As all of them are interesting in their own right. The 5th one pertaining to State and Federal laws regarding accessing networks jumped out at me. I am going to just highlight it and allow you to read for yourself. It starts out talking about a Michigan man arrested for using Wi-Fi from a cafe reserved for customers. Similar arrests have also been made in Florida, Illinois, Washington, and Alaska. Uhm...I've been guilty of this a couple of times (one of those was actually in Alaska).

Also within this section they mentioned a lawsuit filed against a school district in Pennsylvania by some of their students who alleged that district personnel activated their school issued laptops in their homes to spy using the lap top webcams. Since the school district owned the computers the FBI is currently investigating to see if any laws were broken. Basically, if the district has the right to remotely access the laptops without the permission of the users. Makes that free laptop given to you at college a little sketchier.

That is just a couple examples from one of the highlighted laws. Its a good read, and like having a concealed handgun during traveling...its getting to where we need to know the laws for traveling with our computers also.