Roderick Stewart wrote:

> I think there should be a presumption that someone else's property, be
> it a physical object, access to premises, or access to a service of some
> kind, is NOT offered freely to all and sundry unless there is a clear
> indication that it is.

> The mere absence of active prevention should not
> be taken as such an indication.

In this case, the type of property is often offered freely to all,
without indication.

When a certain type of product is often given away for free, an owner of
the product that decides to not give it away, needs to make it clear
that they are not giving it away, either with a sign, or with some sort
of security.

Analogies are tough on this one. Maybe air and water from a gas station.
Many stations give it away free, even to non-customers. If free use got
out of hand, then the gas station would secure the air and water
station, and require a token to activate it, as some gas stations have
done. But normally the gas station that does give it away to anyone,
does not post a big sign that says "free air and water," they just leave
it available for anyone that wants it, because it's more trouble than
it's worth to secure it. Everyone just knows that unless it's secured,
or unless their is a sign that says "customers only" that it's okay to
use it.

Of the unsecure wireless networks I can pick up from my house, I happen
to know that some of them are offered freely, even there is no
indication in the SSID that they are free, while others are probably
just the result of the laziness of the owner to setup a secure network.