It’s not illegal (or shouldn’t be if the coffee shop didn’t try to protect itself) It’s not even rude, that’s the way the ball bounces. All he had to do was go in and buy the smallest cup of coffee or a cough drop or bagel or something and he’d be ok. Did the shop have a Terms of Service on their signal? That’s fairly easy to do with open source software.
Original Article: The Internet Patrol: Man Charged with Theft of Services for Using Free Wifi at Coffee Shop in for a Brewed Awakening