[maccard]

If the only analogy you can think of removes the challenge of the problem your facing to be applicable, it's not an appropriate analogy.

The entire difference is that from my mobile phone I can send more traffic in an hour than most services will ever see legitimate traffic in their entire lifetime, and the cost to me is minimal.

The comparison is as invalid as comparing piracy to theft - piracy isn't theft, it's piracy, and understanding the difference between them is the key to dealing with the problem.