incrediBILL - 10:56 pm on Jun 19, 2010 (gmt 0)

Yeah, the same argument could be used for why it should be legal to listen in on, record, use a mobile phone conversation, because AFAIK it's unencrypted too

Sorry, but mobile phones are encrypted.

However, GSM has been hacked [darkreading.com], which is another reason I only use CDMA networks such as Sprint and Verizon.

If you don't lock your front door I get to rob you and you have no room to complain? Hooray!

Broadcasting insecure plain text has no locks.

With your methapor, not only isn't the door locked, but all the furniture was tossed out on the lawn with a sign "TAKE ME - I'M FREE"

The double standards of the 'got what they deserved' argument are astounding

Not really.

Open wifi has always been a bad idea and this issue is just waking people up to the fact that their passwords are floating around in plain text.

You certainly wouldn't walk around with a t-shirt that says "MY ATM CODE IS 6432" so why would you broadcast your passwords in plain text?

Think about this, instead of "sniffing" data from those open networks someone drives by and downloads ripped MP3s, movies and worse.

What excuse would the owner of the open wifi have then?

IMO, Germany got it right when the German count ruled open wifi effectively illegal [techdirt.com].