An interesting metaphor, but this isn't about patents at all. It's about copyright, and what are your implicit rights when you buy a CD, or an MP3 from iTunes or Amazon.

Copyrights, patents, and trademarks are very different things; we need to be very exact when discussing them in the context of discussions about our basic liberties, or we can be easily dismissed as not grasping the fundamentals of what we're talking about.

For any investigating agency, the answer is simple: bust down the door and confiscate everything. We can sort out the rest during trial.

So far, the courts have upheld the scorched-earth approach, and an tying an IP address to a physical location has serviced as sufficient probably cause.

Does that leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling about your open WiFi?

No, you're absolutely right. Absolutely anybody else who wanted to could compete by:
* Openly commiting a massive infringement (note that non-massive infringement would not be sufficient)
* Being sued by the Author's Guild
* Having that suit granted a class action status
* Having a large enough legal team you can fight the class action lawyers
* Convincing the class action lawyers that they should settle into a business deal instead of cashing out
* Ensuring that this deal is sweeter for the lawyers than Google's or they'll just keep monopoly rents through Google

Yep. There's no exclusive rights here at all.

> Democracy is 3 wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner.

Anything else is 3 wolves and a sheep having grass for dinner.

And that, children, is why you shouldn't keep your Slashdot password on a stickie by your keyboard.