You're not paying attention to what he said. He is technically correct. The moment the blockchain comes into existence, IF the tokens were in his account once live and then they get relocated it would be just as much "theft" as anything else.

If any of it is theft then what makes the difference is sequence. In the very second of the blockchain's existence were the tokens attributed to an account name and then relocated or not? That is what matters.

However, the Hive founder Blocktrades clearly pointed out that he believes Justin and Steem witnesses were well within their legal rights to fork the coins out.

Here is proof:

https://hive.blog/cryptocurrency/@blocktrades/the-legal-basis-of-cryptocurrency-forks