Speaking of Starbucks: a Starbucks owner in a Canadian city that shall remain unnamed, found out that one of the neighboring businesses is operating a wireless hotspot that covers his cafe and decided to turn off his AP. Why pay for internet, when your neighbor does?
It is probably more efficient the way it is than if the victims of bandwidth theft fended off all parasites. However, it would be even more efficient, if the operators of wireless hotspots could charge a few pennies for their service. The necessary communication infrastructure is there. A good micropayment solution is missing. ePointSystem is working on the problem. ;-)