I Hope they Lose
Except that most home users will never come anywhere near using their 20 MB of bandwidth during normal use. More like < 1 MB on average, unless you are downloading porn files 24 /7. Check the bandwidth meter on your router if you know where to find it.
The arguments about power consumption are equally ridiculous, spineless and stupid. This is not a washer/dryer, it is a home router, for f*ks sake. Can't wait to see what a ComCast engineer or legal expert does with that argument in court. Maybe they will offer 2 cents in damages.
Personally, I think the whole thing is silly and just shows what is wrong with US tort law, big time, and its obsession with sueballs.
I don't like COMCAST either, but sharing WiFi amongst fellow home users is a great idea.
Particularly, if you are moving about and need wifi in a strange city.
As I recall, on my own router, external public users are throttled to 15 % of available bandwidth. And yes, they do have to login with their subscriber user name and password.
Full disclosure, I live in an isolated country village, not an apartment block or city. Consequently, I do not have public wifi enabled on my home router. There is no one within range to use the hotspot and I don't particularly want to attract war drivers or walkers. If someone must have an internet connection for life or death reasons, they can knock on my door.
As long as that public wifi disabling option is available to the subscriber, I really don't see where the problem is. It is a nice feature for customers. If lived in a crowded area, I would probably enable it and encourage others to do the same.
But it's much easier to be a mean git and just sue a big company, isn't it? Never mind the facts. They will probably argue it is a menace to public security or some other bullshit, just to make it entertaining.
She's a paralegal. I suspect one of her fellow professional, ambulance-chasing parasites told her it would be a great idea to sue and that (s)he would take the case on contingency.
America, land of the free and the selfish......... I honestly hope they lose and get smacked with a countersuit or whatever it is lawyers do to each other in these circumstances. Then they can clog up the courts a little longer while others wait in jail for their day in court.