[Random Hero]

I don't think you can really "steal" bandwidth. At least not in the literal sense. Yeah sure, when you leech off someone else's internet service that you aren't compenstating them for it makes it a theft, but really you are not actually physically taking anything away from them, or depriving them of anything. Unless you are using so much bandwidth it drops their speeds down, then I guess you would be taking something away from them.

I looked it up real fast and basically the definition of stealing is "The wrongful taking of someone else's property without that person's willful consent," but I don't really think that applies to bandwidth. The way I see it is that bandwidth is like clock cycles, if you don't use them they're gone forever. You can't save up bandwidth like you save up water, or money, or whatever. If it's not used it's gone and you can't get it back, so if you're not using your connection but someone else is, your are not out anything, and since most internet plans nowadays are for unlimited bandwidth (for the most part) it's not like you're getting charged for other people's usage.

This was the original notion with SETI & Folding@Home and unused clock cycles. Although, I guess it's not a fair comparison since Standford isn't exactly walking into your house and installing F@H on your machine without your consent.

So yeah, by definition of law it is a theft, but still it's something to think about.