1) He didn't trespass on a protected computer system or hack anything - he's using a web browser.
2) Users are not required to leave their browser's default settings intact when interacting with websites.
3) Where are the theft of services? He paid for a wifi internet connection for the duration of the flight with a price he was offered. He could have just as easily paid using his phone and then tethered his laptop to it.
A certain airline offers upgrades to first class seating, but only within a certain time period before the flight.
When using their website, I realized that I could pass in the time constraint as a parameter to their webapp. Boom, cheap first class upgrade, at any time!
Is that stealing? Yes. At the very least, theft of service. That first class ticket can sell for thousands of dollars, and instead, this trick would have allowed me to get it for hundreds. Just because their webapp allowed it doesn't make it OK. It's no different than tricking someone at the counter into giving you an item for free, or giving you extra change.
The distinction you're trying to draw between "theft" and "theft of service" is the reason we have fraud statutes. Fraud is a more general crime than theft.
I think that analogy is flawed because the airline can only sell that seat once. If you used that hack, then you would be removing the chance that the airline could sell that seat for the full price. That doesn't apply to the wifi situation.
How a vendor chooses to break it down is their prerogative. Our prerogative is only whether or not we'll accept the deal they offer at a price they'll accept.
1) He didn't trespass on a protected computer system or hack anything - he's using a web browser.
2) Users are not required to leave their browser's default settings intact when interacting with websites.
3) Where are the theft of services? He paid for a wifi internet connection for the duration of the flight with a price he was offered. He could have just as easily paid using his phone and then tethered his laptop to it.