Originally Posted by supremus

True, you do have a point about the exact definition of the term "theft", but my comment was really more aimed at highlighting how relatively unimportant an offense this is, both in the eyes of the law and the cable companies.

It's not an insult, it's a term of endearment, and the general point is entirely relevant, since people's personal values and beliefs are crucial to how they perceive and justify their own actions and misdeeds.
There's a considerable difference, actually. If you have a minimum subscription, the signal the cable company sends into your house contains every single channel. There's no more or less drain on that resource, whether you're watching BBC1 legally, or using a dodgy box to watch a channel you haven't subscribed to. Clearly that's a very different issue from electricity, where you're obviously draining a finite resource.