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> These apps steal tens of thousands of dollars of ad revenue from my business monthly

Avoiding ads is not stealing. Neither is wrapping someone else's content in ads.

> Neither is wrapping someone else's content in ads.

What the hell are you talking about? If I take Office 2016, create custom launcher which will just pop ads here and there, offer it to companies, I can't possibly claim this as legal business anywhere where copyright law can be upheld

I'm not saying it's legal or anything of the sort. It's probably some kind of fraud or copyright infringement, but it's not theft.

Accessing a paid service by taking the API key out of another app without the consent of the service provider would be theft of services. In most US states theft of services falls under the same law as theft of personal property.

I see. Would that also apply to e.g. circumventing a paywall to read an article?

Why not? You can't just someone else app and use it as if it was yours.

Sure you can, that is what this post is about, it's just not legal to do so. But just because something is against the law doesn't make it theft anymore then it makes it murder.

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