Essentially, can I steal something from you if, after my action, you still have it?
If I receive value for something you created, then yes, I stole potential value from you.
Also nice tip on the google image search, I am extremely guilty of using googled photos.
Yes you did. No you didn't. That's the fine hair we need to split.
If you create something, and then go to sleep on it. It's akin to throwing one of your assets at curbside for garbage collection. Someone walks buy, picks it up, dusts it off, repaints it and sells it. The owner sees it at your next garage sale and says "Hey! I threw that out. It was my decision to get rid of it. I want some of the money for that now"
If you are not actively using something anymore, and it was a one-time use, why not let someone else create a value-add to it, make use of it again. This is where humanity wins, and the original creator who failed to innovate justly loses.
It is such a complex subject.
Wow, interesting example. As you said, it's a complex subject for sure. That's why I like to think of it terms of game theory and signaling to others in the community we're at least trying to act as cooperative as is reasonably possible.
But "potential value" isn't really "a thing", right? That's where this approach gets sticky and I'm not yet ready to call it outright "theft."