But is it theft?

I've already blogged on the topic of the recent internet publication of embarrassing photographs.  An interesting element of this is that the photos were looted, somehow, from Apple's Cloud.

This brings to lgiht an itneresting aspect of taking the property of another.  In this cyber age, there's just a lot of people who feel that if its in the net or the cloud, taking it isn't theft. 

Well, is it?

Property is property, and you have a right to your property. That right is pretty broad, including keeping what is yours no matter where it may be.  Taking that without color or fight, even if you leave it on the street, or in the Cloud, may be theft, if you know it belongs to another.

This is another way, slightly, that the whole story may serve some ironic good.  People take all sorts of things on the net because they can.  Content, both literary and image, is routinely taken and re-posted, just because it's easy to do it.  That doesn't mean it isn't theft.  The current example is notable mostly because so much public attention has been paid to it, but perhaps closer attention should be paid.  If it isn't yours, it isn't yours.  Taking it because it can be taken, doesn't mean its right, even if in the end its only electrons.