Locking your Wireless router – Bad Manners ?

There is a lot of talk around the need to protect your wireless network with mushrooming of wireless equipment in every household. There is a legal angle, where it says – you can be “prosecuted” if an incident involving your wireless network happens resulting in criminal / civilian liabilities. Then there is a cost angle, the consequence of going over your allocated bandwidth comes to the mind of of budget consumers, who somehow manage to have a connection for their use.
But, the question here is something to do with your community and your humanitarian approach. Would you be willing to help out someone in dire need of accessing information over the internet without knocking on your door ? Will this help seem trivial to the bad consequences of someone deliberately using your open networks for nefarious activities which could possibly lead to visit from the local law enforcement agencies ?
There are some of the questions which seem to understand what extent you are willing to help your fellow beings while still maintaining sure that you do not end up being indicted for crimes which you were not part of but happened over your internet highway. Also, it throws light on which one is more dangerous :

1. Running an open access network and claiming to be non-party to activities occurring over it.
2. Running a closed network which if hacked and results in unlawful activities, leaving no ground to come clean out of it.

For some, though, leaving their wireless router open to outside use is a philosophical decision, a way of returning the favor for the times they've hopped onto someone else's network to check email or download directions while away from home .

So the next time you setup a wireless router or hop on an open one. Be cognizant of the moral behavior and respect the generosity of the person offering the free internet. Ultimately in this world, what you give eventually comes back to you. Even if it is in "bytes".