> …illegal… Barring access controls (like secured-wifi or a 'captive-portal' requiring authentication), I doubt this is illegal, at least in the US. Lots of p

> …illegal… Barring access controls (like secured-wifi or a 'captive-portal' requiring authentication), I doubt this is illegal, at least in the US. Lots of people and businesses leave their wifi open specifically to share with anyone within range. The few pennies of marginal cost are outweighed by the desire to be generous, or by actual goodwill earned from neighbors and passers-by. And there may be no marginal cost at all! On typical unmetered broadband-plans, until the link is saturated, bandwidth is a "marginally-free" resource that expires worthless every second if it's not used. So it should be used! An extra person hopping on is (until saturation) as close to a "free lunch" as you'll find in economics. It's the sort of ultra-efficient practice that law and culture should encourage, not stigmatize.