[sweeps]

My movie analogy is valid. By bringing someone else into the movie theater, you're not harming anyone else's ability to watch the movie, but the cost per ticket includes all the fixed costs that went into creating and showing that movie -- including wages and salaries. If a friend sneaks in, he's ultimately hurting those people that made the movie available for paid customers.

The cost is of the internet service has been calculated on a per-household basis. By letting another household use your pipe, you're circumventing that cost structure.

Also don't confuse max bandwidth with average bandwidth. It's true, you may be able to get a maximum 6mbps on your cable modem. But over a 24-hour period, you may only use 100kbps on average. By adding additional households to that pipe, you're effectively taking more bandwidth on average than 1 household would normally use. The internet provider is not equipped to provide all customers with maximum bandwidth at all times.