Cory: sorry I misunderstood you about WEP. Also, like I said, I don't mean to defend the article. But I'm not sure if I agree with your attitude of "who cares if someone spams with my node?" That's like saying "who cares if someone spams off my open relay?" You should care (a) out of civic responsibility, or whatever the net equivalent is, and (b) because you might end up on blacklists.

I don't see how the right to anonymity is infringed by people securing their access points if they want. Just because I have a phone line, people don't have a right to come into my house and call whoever they want.

As for your question about crypto, Chris: good point about SSL, but not everything you might want to keep private can be done easily over SSL. What if a wireless network is used to transfer patient records internally in a GP's office? Also, the webmail services that the vast majority of people are still using offer SSL as an option, if at all. Of course, this is addressing a different threat to spamming, but people should be aware of the threat of eavesdropping.

 If "it's rare to find a situation where the use of an insecure protocol isn't due to laziness or incompetence", that's going to leave lots of insecure nodes. That's the point - the average home user is concerned with getting things working, and lots of IT depts are lazy or inept. I think people should be warned that there are risks. Just not in a scaremongering way.