[Gravityloss]

"You are"? It's just a browser "identification". It's widely known to be approximate, random and unreliable. It's common to try different agents because the web is full of bad pages which try to use it for something inappropriate. That's why user agent switching is a feature in all these browsers in the first place. It's like disabling CSS.

Is it fraud to use a battery charger or electrical plug with an adapter? After all, the particular plug is a way of "identification", even when easily circumvented. How about using aftermarket parts for your car or camera. They are implying by their similarly spaced and shaped connections that they are genuine parts after all... What about console cartridge identification chips?

These are somewhat interesting questions, if the HN crowd could have other opinions between "fraud" and "not fraud".

[TylerE]

A restaurant offers a 25% discount to seniors (65+), but you're only 60. You copy your friend's AARP card, changing the name, and present the cloned card to receive the discount. Is this fraud?

[Gravityloss]

Probably.

It's interesting to think when a hack becomes a fraud or stealing.

[mindslight]

When they get your identifying information and feel like hassling you.

The only immoral thing here is the wifi provider increasing the complexity of the transaction to extract as much money as possible. Should one be required to tell the supermarket their net worth so they can be charged "appropriately" for their food? Anonymity is the basis for a shared existence.

Two parties whose sole interaction consists of sending signals back and forth certainly don't need the outside law to mediate between them - if one party finds the relationship unfavorable, simply stop talking. It's a shame that people have been so brainwashed into thinking it's their responsibility to enforce someone else's desired business rules.

[TylerE]

I find it a bit amusing that someone on this site, where so much of the content is about optimization and business models, is acting so morally offended by the concept of price differentiation.

[mindslight]

So many of the articles are about business model optimization because it's not the primary nature of hackers - they need to be reminded. The major difference is that the businesses here are new and the market and product are uncertain (inherently complex); Internet access, by definition, is a solved commodity.

[TylerE]

Really, it is? How come in 2012, I, who live in decent sized US city (Metro area is about 140k), still pay about $40 for 10Mbit connectivity, barely better than I could get 10 years ago?

[rmc]

It's common to try different agents

No, it's common for highly technical web developers to do this. For 99.99% of the internet population, they do not even know what "user agent string" is or how to change it, or what to put in.