Re: "Stolen"?

"Stealing necessitates the intention to permanently deprive the owner of his property."

He was done under the computer misuse act which covers the offence of obtaining data without authorisation.

Perhaps some cases of lifting data could constitute theft, larceny, obtaining services by deception etc. For example. if I copied your customer database and put it up on the web then I've essentially deprived you of any value the original might have had.