Meh, that argument is just a sideshow distraction. The real issue (as stated elsewhere) is that you are using something for which you are required to provide recompense. Avoid that recompense is depriving the distributor.

While the semantics of "is it theft" does have a slight relevance, the overhead of how this concept completely derails the legitimate debate is far worse. Theft or not, it's an issue that needs to be addressed, and the "it's not theft" folks always seem to want to avoid addressing it.

A bit like how those folks who always say "but information wants to be free / you can't stop it" never want to divulge their bank account details and passwords...