Very interesting. Let me clarify that I did not respond to you as I am not that back and forth type of guy that gets fully involved on this website.
Does not necessarily mean that I agree with your response like you alleged.
Now, definitely and 100% it is not stealing if you clear your browsing history and your caches on a regular basis.
These media make their money off their advertisers. Then by installing cookies of the advertisers that you are not aware of, the media get paid by the advertisers. That means that someone like The Toronto Star has said thank you to you for just entering on to their website and you are counted as an additional client, irrespective of whether you are a subscriber. This actually boosts their numbers and they then get more advertisers and income just to use their platforms. In this case bver_hunter has done them a favour by entering their website in the first place.
Now this free subscription is only to lure you to join. They may offer you a couple of free articles for the month. But if you want to religiously read the whole newspaper, then you have to clear just the history several times, and not the cookies as you falsely claim in order to read all their articles for that day. This makes it a nuisance and hence it is easier to subscribe. But just a couple of articles may not make it worth your cost to subscribe. I believe that the Toronto Star are not offering free articles any longer. If he posted a link then he must have read the full article based on his subscription.
Please just move on as it is not theft, even if intentional, and the reason should now be crystal clear, as to why. I am an IT guy and have worked with the online media. That is why you will have no ground to stand on, in any court of law if you own a media and then sue someone for reading what is supposed to be free online irrespective of how many free logins were conducted by an individual. No laws were broken, no hacking into the website like you also alleged and hence no theft. The Toronto Star made their income on these free articles.
Anyway, such discussions should be conducted in the Technology Forum. Lots of tech savvy guys around who would clarify such issues that you have.