You cannot "take advantage" of someone else's connection anymore than you can "piggyback" your TV transmission on somebody else's TV transmission, legally speaking, because it can be done physically. You would be causing "interference" to their connection.
dragging your TV out to the front yard for pay-for-view is a matter of the license you sign for the view, same as showing it inside to invited guests I guess.
The other way to look at it is that you can reach over the counter and take money form an open cash register and even though nobody says "don't do that" or even if you don't say "this is a robbery" you will be treated as a thief in court and the gain/loss ratio for gambling a judge or jury would see your point "nobody told me not to and I could so I did" is well above a "reasonable risk factor."
don't be a crook.
rmj
> How is using radio waves that are intruding into you purchased property > different than me paying for moving my giant screen tv out into the > front yard and showing the world pay-for-view movies that I purchased. > None. I paid for the service, which is using bandwidth on the cable > system, and I am not charging others to watch the movie. But I am also > not preventing other from watching.