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From Napster to YouTube, Valley history proves: Theft is a business plan! And these three hot picks are headed to the top of the Theft Economy.

  • SpotBit hosts scans of popular magazines — a virtually cost-free business. Look ma, no clearances! Last week, media blog FishBowlNY was tracking SpotBit's survival with some incredulity. And sure, the old main page may now just show an error message, but that's just a minor setback, right?
  • Feedpass isn't exactly stealing, but it's sure borrowing on loose terms. And, says tech blogger Michael Arrington, the feed parsing site is pretty useless — it's basically a poor man's Feedburner.
  • The cream of today's crop must be Chinese event site Boubo.com, which supports its perfect simulacrum of Yahoo's Upcoming.org with Google ads (OMG scandal!). Check out the Boubo screenshot on (Yahoo's) Flickr, where one Yahoo employee has tagged the listings with translations like "NEW STARBUCKS, 50% OFF ALL FRAPPUCINO'S - Forbidden Palace, West Hall." Heehee.