What were Google intending to discover with this scanning? open / free wifi points perhaps?

I'd say the lesson here is to secure your network.

I have wifi in my house. My neighbors can't access it though because I'm not quite that stupid, although I'm working on it.

And I'm aware of all the arguments... "Just because you leave your door unlocked doesn't give a thief the right to break in and steal from you" And I agree. It's still theft whether I lock my doors or not.

I feel better if I lock them though.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong... I'm not real clear on exactly what it is they're accused of stealing. "Data" covers a pretty wide range of ground.

I have an unsecured network node near my house. I once tried to connect through it but for some reason was unable.

I once tried to connect through it but for some reason was unable.

Might be too far away Mark. Just because you can see it doesn't necessarily mean you can access it.

The public library in my city has an unsecured connection and I can sit out in the parking lot and access it from my laptop. Am I allowed to do this? Yes, I am. There is no wording in their TOU that prohibits this.

In 10 years I've done this maybe 5 or 6 times. Power failures in my neighborhood after bad storms mainly.

I would not have any faith in any UK police investigating incidents like this.

City of London Police looked at the Phorm / BT interception incident and brushed it aside.

The CPS have had the case file for 618 days and still there is no action being taken.

There's more judicial substance to Police investigations here in Australia. [webmasterworld.com...] - I'd expect other Governments to be queueing up shortly. It would be interesting to see how Google settle's something like this on a multi national basis - wait until the EU countries weigh in.

I feel better if I lock them though.

You'd feel better if you lived somewhere where yo don't have to lock them. I frequently leave both my house unlocked for short periods of time, and my car unlocked almost all the time. I really don't have to worry about it where I live.