On 19 Jun 2007 at 15:13:47 +0300, Ilmari Karonen nospam@vyznev.net wrote:

For an analogy, imagine you wanted to get into a building and, for some reason, didn't want to use the door. So you try to climb in through a window, but it's barred, with a sign saying: "Entering the building through windows is forbidden!" So you try another window, and it too is barred with a similar sign. You try a couple more, and they're all barred. Then finally, you find a window that's ajar and has no sign. Would you conclude:

a) that entering through *this* window is perfectly acceptable, or b) that the signs you saw previously in fact apply to *all* the windows, but someone simply forgot to bar this one?

It seems more analogous to where a place is open to the public 24 hours a day -- say, a big-city subway station where the system runs around the clock. However, certain of the entrances are closed during certain hours due to higher possibility of their being used by muggers, vandals, or other criminals, and lesser use by legitimate subway passengers, at those times. So, at a certain station, the west entrance (which emerges on a poorly-lit street in a somewhat seedy neighborhood) has a sign that says "This entrance closed from 6 PM to 6 AM; use east entrance." The east entrance, a block away on a well-lit, higher-traffic street at the edge of a nicer neighborhood, is always open. They both go into the same station.

Now, one night they forget to lock the west entrance, and that happens to be when you attempt to come by trying to get into the station (to take a train... not to vandalize or mug!). You are aware from past experience that entrances of this sort are often closed at night, but are not necessarily positive about exactly which entrances this applies to or what time they close, and have certainly not gone and looked up all the applicable city ordinances and transit authority policies. However, being too lazy to walk around to the other side of the station, you see if you can "get lucky" by going to that entrance and trying the door. Fortunately, you find it open (despite the sign), and you go in, and use the transit system in a perfectly law-abiding way (other than using a "closed" entrance); you pay your proper fare, don't spit on the platform, don't paint graffiti, and so on. A transit cop happens to notice you coming in (he's not specifically following you or targeting that entrance, but just happens to be looking that way during a routine patrol), and, seeing that you don't appear to be engaging in any criminal activity, he ignores you (but goes and locks the door behind you, since it's supposed to be locked at that hour).

Now, have you done anything wrong here? If you were later to be running for office in that city, should the cop who saw you suddenly decide to make a public fuss about how you're breaking public transit ordinances?