About the only thing I agree with in Kevin's article is that WLAN's are horribly insecure... but that's about where it ends.
I've been doing a huge amount of research in regards to stumbling and I will reiterate a statement that I made in an earlier post. It all boils down to a couple of things:
1) Connection to the WLAN
2) Intent
If you look at federal guidlines, it's safe to say that the act of "stumbling" really isn't illegal - IF you follow the law to the letter. However, it could easily be intrepreted as unethical/immoral.
But it all boils down to what you do with the information afterwards.
If you attempt to connect to the WLAN, that's probably illegal.
If you run ethereal, in an attempt to "discover" what is there, that's probably illegal.
If you run a network mapping utility, that's probably illegal
If you surf the net, while using their bandwidth, yeah, you guessed it, it's most probably illegal.
Where you really get into trouble is when you capture data with the intent of either extorting the individual/company you obtained it from OR you use that data for your own financial gain, by selling it to someone else... THAT'S definately illegal.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not on my soapbox... yet, but, it's probably best to just limit your activities to stumbling and nothing more. And if you're running XP, turn off the "auto connect" feature and DHCP acquisition otherwise, you're looking for trouble.
Because, with all the honeypots that are out there it sounds like someone is just itching to make an example of someone who is either tremendously stupid or simply careless...
bws