you're basically saying "it's not theft, because now it's mine"

also,

> Someone's NYT bestselling novel? Those are mostly so cookie cutter it ain't hard to copy them without an AI.

lol then why weren't you a bestselling NYT novelist, had something better to do?

> you're basically saying "it's not theft, because now it's mine"

No, that's not at all what they're saying. Taking something is only theft if it's rightfully owned in the first place. He's saying it wasn't rightfully owned.

Yes, I find other stuff much more entertaining than writing cookie cutter novels for bored housewives and pseudo-intellectual pop-sci books for dinner conversations.

But also, none of the ideas in these books are novel. Is it intellectual theft to be trained on a book that is based on public research where author just distills the information into an easier to consume format?