I find no joy in saying it, but I bet that would get you some unwelcome attention - trademark infringement, defamation, tortious interference - from one of those companies. :(
While that's a wonderfully dystopian view, I'd expect that wouldn't happen unless you attempted to use such SSIDs in a commercial context.
for your "wager" to be successful, I should expect to be sued over saying stuff like "Old McDonald had a quarter pounder Henway" or "Starbuck made the same inferior coffee for Ahab every day."
I'll await cease and desist letters from McDonald's and Starbucks.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office[0]:
Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of
a trademark or service mark on or in connection
with goods and/or services in a manner that is
likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake
about the source of the goods and/or services.
Do you like making lawyers (on both sides) rich? Or tying up courts so they can't hear cases with more merit? Because even if you win, those are the outcomes. Vexatious litigation is a real thing, and practically impossible to prosecute. It can happen to you. The real world doesn't care about your notions of abstract justice, and it's not dystopian to recognize that. If anything, it's your utopian view that's "wonderful" (i.e. appealing but unrealistic) here.
That's a ridiculous statement on its face.
I didn't realize that I could receive my hamburger or cup of coffee via WiFi.
Certainly, if I surreptitiously set up a WiFi network next to an establishment providing WiFi with an SSID that purports to be from that establishment, there's definitely a problem.
But trademark infringement probably isn't even in the top five in the list of problematic issues.
But GP wasn't even suggesting something like that. Rather, he was suggesting using such SSIDs in unlikely places, in a likely futile gesture, to confound Google's douchebaggery.
As such, I wholeheartedly disagree with you.
Not about frivolous lawsuits, they are a pox on society.
Rather, I disagree that a poor choice of WiFi SSIDs in the context of GPs example (creating such SSIDs in one's moving car to confound Google) could result in a lawsuit from the likes of Starbuck's or McDonald's.
I'd go even further and say that doing so from a stationary site (e.g., one's home), even if that site is in relatively close proximity to such a retail establishment, isn't very likely either.
In fact, a cursory search[0] doesn't show any trademark litigation associated with using SSIDs. The first result is, in fact, your post, with no other relevant results.
[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=SSID+trademark+infringement
Edit: Fixed typo.
Even if there is, I doubt anyone will go after that unless the "attacker" involves some serious crime with that combined.
Attacking innocent people with rogue SSIDs would be definitely wrong, but if done only to trick Google it would be a fun experiment - and they deserve it (maybe not for this particular change but as a company in general).
What would be the legality of that (as long as the intention is not to attack the public)?
Though if I put a thing like that in my window, you'd have to rummage through 20 - 50 flats to find the source of that SSID to identify the creator. With zero legal reason to search my flat over my neighbours flat and vice versa. And also, there is no actual interruption of radio services, so there is no reason to bring in more precise measuring equipment. And I might even have enough time to toss that pi off of the balcony if all else fails.
There was an SSID in my building called "Free Palestine." A couple years later, someone created another one called "The Shin Bet."[0]
I found that to be both disturbing and amusing. After the Muslim grad students on the third floor moved back to Australia, "Free Palestine" disappeared, and when the orthodox Jews moved out of the fourth floor, "The Shin Bet" went away too.
Now it's mostly boring, and while I may be doxxing myself (if you can see this SSID, reply here as we almost certainly live in the same building) but I still have the SSID GranMal (an ironic reference to this[1]).
Moral: Looking at SSIDs can be fun!
Thanks!
While it may not be the source of your neighbor's SSID, It's certainly possible (maybe even likely) that it's a reference to this song[0].
https://reason.com/volokh/2018/04/29/libel-by-wifi-network-n...
Sure, it was defamation rather than copyright, but it certainly puts the lie to a certain other commenter who seems to think that if he personally can't find it on Google then it must not exist.
Thanks!