Originally posted by sigma: If I find said item in my bag and can reasonably assume that my wife put it there for me to find, did I 'steal' it?
If I find an open connection, I can reasonably assume that the paying user put it out there for others to find it. Otherwise, they would have clicked on the little button making it a secure connection.
That would be a fine argument if the only person you are stealing from was the person whose connection you were using. But the real person you're stealing from, the actual one whom its' costing money, is the service provider whom gets a double-whammy -- less revenue from a paying customer, and more costs on the customer that is paying due to higher bandwith usage. Whether a person offers it to you or not doesn't make it "not-stealing" since it's not theirs to freely give out anymore than your cable TV signal is yours to give out to whomever wants it.
