There is a story in the NY Times (sub required) detailing how AOL/Time Warner is sending nasty cease and desist letters to people who hook up their broadband internet connections to wireless networks and let the public use it for free.

Here's another article. Here's the web page of a guy who got busted. Here's another one.

Personally, I think the idea of having free, public access points distributed this way is a great idea. Of course, the media companies and ISP's get all upset over it. They call it theft and bring up the spectre of criminals using this for nefarious purposes. Bullshit! All they care about is money it seems. Really, if you have a publicly available access point outside somewhere, are you going to spend the whole day out there surfing the net? I doubt it. Most likely, it'll be a quick, easy way for somebody to check their e-mail or what have you while they're in the neighbourhood. Not a big bandwith-sucker.

Anyway, I can't see them being too successful at putting a stop to this. Only people who publicize their sites on the net are likely to get busted. People keeping a lower profile will be more successful and proliferate. IMNSFHO, of course.