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"Robbery" is often used when force isn't involved. If the object is stolen while you're nearby, people will often refer to it as a robbery. Outfielders rob batters of home runs all the time.

The word "rob" is particularly useful because lets the victim be used as the direct object. If you want to emphasize RMS as a victim of personal theft, that's the verb to use.

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Some people may use it that way but that doesn't make it right.

The baseball example is a figure of speech, not a description of an actual crime. This was a real crime.

I'm pretty sure peoples' use of the word is the definition of how it is used.

I think that's fine in general. However, in this case, "robbery" is basically being used as a technical legal term describing a particular crime. It's a little bit like calling every laptop a macbook (except there's no trademarks involved).

The words have a specific technical meaning in this case, so it's important to use them correctly. A robbery and a simple theft are treated very differently under the law. Prescriptive grammar is the only way to go when you're dealing with a technical system built out of ordinary language, like law or programming.

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