Arguable, say someone tells you some amazing idea for an invention they plan to create and patent. You could “steal” an idea by getting a patent and manufacturing it before they get the chance to.
The issue there isn’t that you’ve ‘stolen’ an idea, it’s that you’ve lied about creating the idea.
The reason patents and copyright exist is to artificially create scarcity where there otherwise wouldn’t be any. That’s not neccesarily a bad thing (because there are time limits after which the ideas are freed), but I think it helps my point.
When you steal something from someone, the other person doesn’t have it any more. You can’t steal ideas.
But you can steal credit. And prestige. And valor.
These are metaphorical thefts where the real crime is falsehood.
Arguable, say someone tells you some amazing idea for an invention they plan to create and patent. You could “steal” an idea by getting a patent and manufacturing it before they get the chance to.
The issue there isn’t that you’ve ‘stolen’ an idea, it’s that you’ve lied about creating the idea.
The reason patents and copyright exist is to artificially create scarcity where there otherwise wouldn’t be any. That’s not neccesarily a bad thing (because there are time limits after which the ideas are freed), but I think it helps my point.