If people steal bandwith from ISP providers the theft is costing the ISP customers and/or owners. The use of the service is not cost free.
“The case has surprised locals, including the owner of the barbershop that initially called police, as well as Donna May, owner of the coffee shop.
“He could have just come in the cafe, even if he didn’t have any money, I would let him get on it,” May said. The service is provided free to restaurant customers.”
The owner doesn’t seem to care, so why should anyone else?
I am amazed how few get this. Think of the coffee shop’s access to their ISP as going through a pipe of a certain diameter. The more connections, the more of the bandwidth is typically being used. Too much congestion causes delays due to dropped packets, retransmissions due to packet collisions, etc. It is definitely not free, and certainly can have an impact on legitimate users, especially if the person is downloading files, large emails, songs, etc.
The coffee shop pays for the service, and entices paying customers to use the service for free to attract business. The guy was stealing. It’s really that simple.