Another AOL Time Warner employee[1] makes an ass of himself in this piece on Newhouse:
"By having an open transmission, it leaves you really vulnerable," [Joe] Digeso [VP of Broadband for Time Warner Cable] said. "If you have a Wi-Fi connection in a public park, what would stop, God forbid, a child pornographer or, God forbid, a terrorist using that network?"
While this reeks of disingenuousness, this does not:
One critic, however, said that's like paying once at an all-you-can eat buffet and sharing your plate with anyone who walks in the door.
How should ISPs enforce the rules without depriving you of (legal) use? I can't help but think that these folks with open Wireless Gateways are going to wind up costing us all freedom with our bandwidth connections. When I say freedom, I mean the freedom to, say, have several computers. As it stands now, we frequently have guests at our home use our wireless connection with their own laptops, and that seems like fair-use to me. I suspect the cable companies will come out saying otherwise.
[1]The other employee is Jamie Kellner, and the quote is towards the end of Tino's entry.