A Philosophical Question Concerning Theft of Physical and Digital Assets

I have thought about a certain philosophical question I cannot resolve on my own. It is this: does negligence make theft OK?

Should a house thief be imprisoned if someone leaves their door unlocked? Should a trespasser for an unsecured property?

Or take another, less severe example. Suppose a man is selling apples on the road. He leaves his post and gets his apples stolen. He calls the police, and they find the apple thief with the apples. What should be of this apple thief? There are but two scenarios. To punish, or not to punish. It seems to me that if you punish, then you're implying that the apple salesman's negligence/irresponsibility was OK, thus creating a environment to be repeated that may be detrimental to the advancement of society. If you do not punish, then you're making theft OK, which is morally wrong. Would not punishing do better to change the apple salesman's behavior to be more diligent? Or would not punishing break the apple salesman's spirits to lose faith in the security of his economy?

The internet has taken it a step further. Illegal downloading, of let’s say an music album, doesn’t happen because the artist is negligent. It’s the nature of the product that makes it very easy to copy. Should someone feel the wrath of the law for stealing something that is just so easy? Does stealing digital assets discourage artists to continue to create them (less money in it if more people are stealing)?

I came across a shocking piece of evidence that adds a new element to the digital asset question. I think most of us know about Pirate Bay and other torrent sites. I came across a browser plugin called Ghostery that shows which companies put trackers on sites. To my surprise, I found Google has a tracker on Pirate Bay! The implications are, if Google knows and profits from the existence of Pirate Bay, they are telling the world it is legitimate. I know the government has tried to shut it down in the past, but it seems they are not very good at it (I must admit my knowledge of the inner workings of the Internet is limited).

In essence, it is extremely easy to steal digital assets because you need no technical knowledge to do it, and no one in power is competent to stop it. It seems like more effort should be put to this regard... does anyone else think music has gone downhill since the birth of the Internet. Album sales are way down, and that must discourage some artists from entering into the music industry. What concerns me is, are books next? It seems like there is a lot at stake to preserve the quality of the creation of new digital assets. Currently in 2017, authors still do very well. But as people born into childhood without Internet die off, will this change? Musical artists can put on concerts for compensation. Will authors do concert-like book-readings to make up for declining sales?

What do you guys think of all of this? Does negligence make theft OK, does it perhaps help society in the long run? What should we do about the theft of digital assets? Currently we are living in an environment where there is no incentive NOT to steal, but if you think about the long-term consequences, it may be incentive enough for some, but I doubt it for the majority.

Thanks for reading,

@jessethan