John over at themovieblog.com makes a strong argument for the rather shocking statement above. To be clear, John is referring to the ads that start once your movie showtime is scheduled to play, not the pre-show ads, which he believes are fair enough. As a regular theater-goer, John estimates that the movie theaters are, in effect, "stealing" 24 hours of his time each year. With that in mind, isn't the movie theater industry just as guilty of theft as the average illegal downloader sitting on his PC?
Agree or not, it's an interesting argument and worth a read through. Check it out!