PaBeader, Maybe I can explain how it is theft of services:
You could theoretically go to the nearest river and haul buckets of water to your house for "free". You would of course incur the cost of purifying it and preparing it for drinking but it would be "free". No one has a problem with that.
However, if you tapped into the water line running through your front yard, didn't put a meter on it and didn't pay the water company/department for service that would be considered stealing. It's the same product (water) but with the engineering and enhancements behind it, they charge a fee, and therefore it is wrong to take it without paying. It also doesn't matter that the water line runs through your yard "without permission" because the government has right of way from the road to do as they please, and they "please" to provide water service.
E* (or whoever) has gone to great expense leasing and launching satellites, paying a per subscriber/per channel fee for content and made the investment in developing the hardware needed to receive that content. They did this, not as a gesture of good-will but as a way to make money.
Sure, others may do it for free, and that is available to you if you want to invest in the FTA hardware required (much like purifying your own water). Using E*'s hardware to take what they have invested in and have enhanced (Through services like the Guide, DVR etc) is stealing because they made an investment they intended to be reimbursed by the consumer.
E* has permission to broadcast a signal over your trailer (from Iceberg, i think) because they got a license from the FCC to do so.
Truth does not have to be believed to remain true.