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Originally Posted by Sregener
1. You absolutely stole the ebooks you purchased.
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How so? Doesn't "stealing" involve (1) taking something away from someone without their consent and (2) giving to someone who doesn't have the right to possess it? Neither of those applies here. The author got paid; the buyer has a book; there's the potential that a law was broken, but "theft" is not the crime in question.
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Stripping DRM is illegal, as defined by the courts and copyright law.
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No, distributing tools that remove DRM is illegal. Stripping the DRM is against some stores' ToS, but it's not against the law. (In the US. Other countries may have different laws.) A store might cut off a buyer's account for stripping the DRM, but there's no grounds for prosecution, neither civil nor criminal.
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Now I hate DRM, but my power as a consumer is to not purchase things I don't like,
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I don't buy DRM. I don't download free things with DRM. But that's because I've chosen not to support DRM-based models, not because I think there's anything illegal or unethical about removing it.
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You don't suddenly own something because you've stolen it.
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Stolen it from whom? Himself?
He buys a book. He changes his computer settings and does some file processing so that different programs can open the book. Where's the theft?