Of course you could. You could also manually delete the logs that mention your abuse and/or spoof your MAC address. It's way better than nothing though. Letting others borrow your connection is a kind of charity, and those always rely on others to do the right thing.

Also, from what I've heard most highly illegal files (as in worse than warez) are traded on the sneakernet anyway. What's more convenient (and safe) - roaming around in the city looking for an open wifi, spoof your MAC and stay right there waiting for the transfers to complete or just send the files highly encrypted on a 16GB USB stick via snail mail?

This may or may not be a good idea, depending on where you live.

IANAL, but if you allowed people in on a guest network and made sure to log EVERYTHING that happened there, maybe those logs would be enough to prove you're innocent?

Frankly I have kinda been looking forward to this thread and all the clever iPhone trashing that is likely to ensue.

Amen to this. And naturally, I used my last mod point less than an hour ago...

I actually thought the question was the one in your comment until I read this comment.

Maybe I should have clarified that - no I don't believe humans will exist by then in a similar way as we do now, but it is possible that there will still be some direct descendants of us alive. And no, I see no problems with life extension (Okay, I see a lot of problems but I'm not against it).

Granted, but considering the staggering amount of time before that happens we will likely have mastered a whole lot of technology that can easily be transfered to space technology even if we don't invest in space tech per se. Enough to colonize other planets anyway.

Maybe because we can't live on Earth? Once we've depleted the resources on Earth or destroyed it in another manner we need to be able to spread to different planets and give them the same fate (no, I don't think we will have learned our lesson by then).

This is correct and applies to me as well, but I know for a fact that users can generally handle the jump from local to Citrix apps (or an even smaller jump for cross-platform) pretty well since the program itself remains the same, it's just the way you launch it that's different. The same thing would apply for Linux - the program stays the same but the icon system might look a little bit different. If you change the program, however... ouch. And indeed, one of the biggest problems with a switch to Linux would be the techies/semi-techies who are used to tweaking their systems.

I'll describe the average non-technical users' workflow for you:
1. Turn on computer
2. Start Internet (they don't call it Internet Explorer, just Internet)
3. Start Outlook (I admit, this might be a problem)
4. Start whatever program they're working in
5. Work

That's about it. If the program they're working in is compatible with Linux the only thing they will need to learn is a new email program. If they work in a Citrix/similar environment it should all just magically work, including Outlook. The only interaction they do with the OS is to click the icons on the desktop when they start the programs anyway. Given that this is an insurance company there should be mostly non-technical users there, so it could in theory work fine. In all honesty I don't think it will, there will either be some PHB who can't adapt or lobbying that causes them to go back to Windows.

...1984 will seem like a utopia to us.

This. Anyone who's ever been at a LAN party knows that a geek doesn't need some fancy pants perfume to smell like a geek.