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The end result is the same. Someone is receiving services for which they did not pay. Theft is theft, no? Or are we absolving the satellite radio listener because he didn't seek it out--it just came to him??? hmm...

"Hey! Someone left a Ferrari on my lawn with the keys in it and the door open. Must be my lucky day!"

The courts would hardly grant that fortitous homeowner with a new 360 Modena even though he didn't seek it out, yet you are saying the satellite radio listener is in the clear because he, too, didn't seek it out. Can you say double-standard?



If someone puts something in your bag and you walk off with it, did you 'steal' it? Simply receiving something is not theft. Knowingly using something that you know isn't yours would be. If I find said item in my bag and can reasonably assume that my wife put it there for me to find, did I 'steal' it?

I wouldn't know if someone was broadcasting Sirius to me to me on a channel, AFAIK I'm listening to 88.1FM. If I continue to listen to it knowing that its sattelite radio that is the same as clicking that "Log On" button on your PC, and, yes, that would be 'stealing'.

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It most certainly cost a substantial amount of money to get those satellites into space. Sirius/XM's return on investment depends on paying users.



True. But is the broadcasting from FM modulators has virtually no impact on their sales at all. You have virtually none of the functionality (you can't listen to anything other than the car you're tuned in to) and it's highly impractical since the range of those things isn't really exceptional; you'd have to follow a car rather closely for an extended period of time to get any value out of it.

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Yes, like the employee who sold the company the idea that they can overcharge for services and no one would be the wiser.



Simply because a company 'overcharges' for a service doesn't make it acceptable to steal it.

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If I can listen to my friends XM feed for free why should I subscribe? Face it, these examples result in the SAME situation where people are receiving services that they didn't pay for. Only one gets publicity because it is the "moral dilemma du jor"



Listening to your buddy's XM feed is highly impractical and not a viable alternative to purchasing the service. Using your buddy's wireless yields 100% of the usability and none of the costs.

The reason one gets more publicity is because it's exponentially more widespread than the other. Satellite radio has about 2 million subscribers and Broadband/Wireless users number about 100 times that. Couple that with the inherent impracticality of sharing a satelitte radio signal compared to a wireless, and the massive prevalence of one form of 'stealing' over the other, and you see why it's a much bigger deal.

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