A new law effective from October 2007 will legally require all manufacturers of WiFi equipment to force highly encrypted WPA or even WEP keys to prevent unauthorised piggybacking on to a ignorant, or technically inept users AP.
Some people choose to leave their wireless access point open for all to access, but this is nearly always against the ISP’s terms.
In the UK, piggybacking is not felt as illegal, but as immoral to hog another persons’ connection to the net.
The new ‘n’ grade of wireless technology is due to come with much stronger encryption techniques than the easily crackable WEP keys. Let’s hope that it is eh.