<font color=blue>...how this is any different than walking into a store and removing merchandise without paying for it.</font color=blue>
I meant this post as a joke, but since you asked...
Your analogy might be true for wage earners (although I have my doubts there as well), but not salaried people, at least in IT. Salaried people are paid to get a job done and not put hours in. In IT we are often asked to work nights, weekends and holidays and are on call 24 hours a day, all unpaid. It's part of the job. To quibble over the time someone spends surfing the Internet invites a 'tit for tat' war where people start tracking all their time, both at work, at home, on the road with a cell phone. In such a war, no one wins. If someone isn't getting their job done, missing due dates, etc., then I look for reasons, e.g., surfing the Internet, coming in late, leaving early, etc. Almost my entire personnel evaluation criterium is, "Is the person getting the job done", not how many hours they put in.