There are certainly worries about open A.P. abuse. The same cases get cited again and again and again … but fortunately, not everybody out there is a pedophile/music thief/hacker. Most people just need to nab some email now and then and don’t want to pay through the nose for it.

Instead of pegging the ‘theft’ tag on the process, consider it ‘borrowing a cup of wifi from the neighbor’.

Also, WEP and WPA won’t necessarily keep a dedicated person from using an available access point. SMWF, at the least, attempts to connect people at both ends of the equation to help foster the process.

-bhance, sharemywifi.com

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/6565079.stm

It is a theft of service, just as if your neighbor tapped into your gas line or your cable hook-up.

Do not spread urban legends. Especially about the law. You are not qualified to hold an opinion. And your rule about not allowing links (at least to GOV sites)in messages is dumb.

Unencrypted wireless is legal

According to Title 18 (Crimes and criminal
procedure) of the United States Code, Part I
(Crimes), Chapter 119 (Wire and electronic
communications interception and interception of oral
communications) from

2511. (2)(g) It shall not be unlawful under this
chapter

(i) to intercept or access an electronic
communication made through an electronic
communication system that is configured so that such
electronic communication is readily accessible to
the general public;

2510. Definitions
(16) “readily accessible to the general public”
means, with respect to a radio communication, that
such communication is not –

(A) scrambled or encrypted ;

(B) transmitted using modulation techniques whose
essential parameters have been withheld from the
public with the intention of preserving the privacy
of such communication;

(C) carried on a subcarrier or other signal
subsidiary to a radio transmission;

(D) transmitted over a communication system provided
by a common carrier, unless the communication is a
tone only paging system communication; or

(E) transmitted on frequencies allocated under part
25
subpart D
E
or F
of part 74
or part 94 of the
Rules of the Federal Communications Commission
unless, in the
case of a communication transmitted on a frequency
allocated under part 74
that is not exclusively allocated to broadcast
auxiliary services, the communication is a two-way
voice communication by radio; [The unlicensed
spectrum used by Wi-Fi is ruled by
part 15

If my neighbor came to me and said “I’ll split the cost with you if you give me your password” I’d accept in a second. Wifi as a technology is still evolving, but moreover, wifi as a business concept is still very young.