It may be called infringement, but the process and outcome is really the same as theft. These companies have something they own, they have the right to control

It may be called infringement, but the process and outcome is really the same as theft. These companies have something they own, they have the right to control how it's distributed, they intend to distribute it to you under specific terms involving the exchange of currency, and instead of going along with that or choosing not to consume it, you're just stealing it. I'm clearly not a legal scholar but I am not sure infringement is really the term for this anyway - I tend to think that applies more when you copy something and then begin to pass it off as yours for redistribution or whatever. I think where people get hung up on this is that it's hard to say what a copy of an idea is worth. It's so trivial to copy a movie that it's easy to say it's worth nothing. But I don't think the value of something controls whether it can be stolen, only the severity of the theft.