The analogy is problematic. The neighbor is broadcasting his light out into the neighborhood in a "unidirectional" way and as an incidental loss. It is leaving

The analogy is problematic. The neighbor is broadcasting his light out into the neighborhood in a "unidirectional" way and as an incidental loss. It is leaving his house as a side effect of him lighting his home. It's like body heat. When we enter any building, our body heat, meant to keep our own bodies at an optimal temperature, escapes and fills the room and reduces the cost of heating for the building owner (at least when the weather is cold). That body heat is generated because we eat, and we must pay for food. So do you want to now claim that the building owner is stealing from you? You've given your body heat and light away. Where WiFi is concerned, the usage is two-directional. It's more like having the building owner ask you to run on a treadmill when in his building or asking the neighbor to turn up the light. Stealing WiFi involves incursion into resources belonging to the subscriber. Unlike heat and light, those WiFi signals are not the thing that we benefit from per se, they're just the medium. And eventually, the increase in WiFi consumption will also result in increased costs for the subscriber.