Windows...

Don't forget, that windows will, by default, automatically search for available wireless networks. When it finds one that it can connect to, it will automatically connect to it.

So, before you know it, a "standard user" has just "hijacked" somebody else's wireless access, usually without knowing it.

Where does the original offence happen? When windows starts the communication with other devices, when it automatically establishes a connection on your behalf or when you attempt to access your e-mail a website not realising that you're using some other network other than the one you expected (which might be switched off, or down for some other reason).

While you could take the ridiculous standpoint that users must know what their system is doing, with the abstract mess that is windows (in particular its "security") and the general fear of "knowing anything", this is akin to expecting all drivers to know the operation of their car, from basic combustion engine principles to the actions of the EMU (engine management unit).

You can, of course, take the analogies too far - so am I "stealing light or electricity" if I stand in front of a house at night and read a book by the light of the house's security light (that, like many of these annoying lights, turns on when I walk on the *public* footpath past the front of their house)?

Now, intentionally accessing an open (i.e., unsecured for *whatever* reason) wireless access point and port scanning the computers that are also associated with it, attempting to access them or to use the connection to send or access illegal content, now that's an entirely different matter.